Naomi Meredith [00:00:00]:

The first time I ever used Google tools was when I left my second-grade teaching position across town and started teaching third-grade in a new district. I was so confused by these tools, and I absolutely hated them. I'm actually a pretty techie person, but I didn't understand them at all. But I did give them a chance, and I am so glad that I did that. I fell in love with all things Google and how they help me streamline my workflow and help me be more productive. In fact, I am still using Google tools to help my teaching instruction and also for a whole lot of parts for producing this podcast. While the audio from this episode has never been heard, been heard, been heard, been heard, been heard, been heard, been heard, been heard, been heard, for on this podcast. This is a presentation I did in the past online summit. One sad trend that I have seen since teaching during COVID is that a lot of online tools are being ignored.

Naomi Meredith [00:01:00]:

In a lot of ways, I've seen tools being used less than they were before COVID even happened. I get that using technology can be overwhelming to introduce to the students. I hundred percent get it. I did it all day with a hundred and 50 kids a day, k through 5, whether or not their classroom teacher was integrating tools. It can be really, really frustrating. However, we owe it to our students to help them be problem solvers and creators with technology. I know that the tools are going to change over time, and I even tell my students this. But the more practice they have with resources in meaningful ways, the less stressful it is to try new technology in the future.

Naomi Meredith [00:01:46]:

In this session, I'll be sharing with you 4 examples of Google tools and how they can enhance your stem or steam teaching to help you rethink these resources as a teacher. Hey there, and welcome to this session, the essential Google tools to improve your STEAM instruction and make it easier on YouTube. I am your presenter, Naomi Meredith, and this session is geared towards elementary teachers of all levels k through 5 STEM and STEM teachers, library teachers, and homeschool parents. If you would like to use more Google tools in your classroom, and you don't necessarily have to have a Google account for all of these that I'm gonna talk about, then this session is perfect for you.

Naomi Meredith [00:02:59]:

As I said, I am Naomi Meredith. I am a former classroom teacher turned current k through 5 STEM teacher and coach, and I have over a decade of experience teaching in the classroom along with a master's degree in STEM leadership. My goal inside of the classroom and out side of it is to help teachers like you navigate STEM and technology in the K35 classroom. I am also the host of the new podcast, The Elementary STEM Coach podcast. So make sure to go and check that out on your favorite podcasting platform, and also run my website, neomy marinates dot com. You can see in the picture my cute little family and that little guy with the big ears, not my fiance, that little brown guy is Frederick, and he is a 10 pound little doggy full of tons of love. So if you follow me on Instagram, you probably will see him all the time. He is my 10 pound shadow.

Naomi Meredith [00:03:50]:

You're going to see this link in the corner of every slide in this presentation, but I've put together a free resource free guide for you to use. And there is also a worksheet included in this summit that you can follow along. It's I also put the same worksheet within this PDF for you. There are some tips and tricks in there to help you keep track of all of your learning and ideas that you wanna apply after this session. So you can grab the add naomimeredith.com/steamgoogletools. We're gonna talk about 4 different Google tools today. Some of you may have heard of them but haven't thought of how to use them in your STEAM or STEM space, and some might be completely new to you.

Naomi Meredith [00:04:30]:

So for each tool, we're gonna talk about what the tool is, just a brief introduction, why you should use that tool, and how you could use it in your steam space. So some example lessons that you could try out. The first one is Google Jamboard. Now this is a newer Google tool, and this is so amazing. And I wish that they created this a long time ago. Google Jamboard is awesome. It has all of these slides, and it's very similar to a tablet. If you've used a tablet in the past, it's almost like having a giant whiteboard that you can add sticky notes on top of it.

Naomi Meredith [00:05:05]:

What's really great about Google Jamboard is that you can add different elements on top. It uses a lot of the same Google tools, and it is a very interactive experience for you. To get Jamboard, it's within all of your Google tools. So once you log into the Google app as a teacher, you can create a new Jamboard just as if you were creating a Google Doc or Google Slides. It looks like this. It's a giant whiteboard and has all of the limited tools on the side. And, again, it is really easy to share with students. So if you change the share settings just like you do with the other Google tools so anyone with the link can edit, you could make a QR code and share the link with students that way so they don't have to log in to their Google account to respond.

Naomi Meredith [00:05:48]:

You could also share the link with students in a platform like Google Classroom, so you saw whatever LMS you actually use. And that way, it is easy to get access to. One little quick tip. This is not a Google tool, but you're gonna thank me for it later. It is called classroom screen, also a free tool, not Google related, as I said, but you can actually create a QR code on there and use other widgets on your screen. Super helpful tool. So as you can see, it's a really easy to use platform, and students can interact in a variety of ways and have simple response tools. This is a great chance to give students a voice to respond and reflect on a variety of different questions and prompts that you may have for them.

Naomi Meredith [00:06:31]:

You can also save the responses and refer back to them later. So this is helpful if you have a slide deck for each grade level, for each project, and you can compare and contrast responses. At the very top, you can even add more slides. So this is really great. You can go back to the responses later. When you want to use Jamboard in STEAM, here are some ways that you could integrate this into your lesson. First, you can use Jamboard as a connection piece. Maybe you set up questions beforehand, and have them listed on the Jamboard.

Naomi Meredith [00:07:02]:

You can even change the background. So if you don't want students to delete things, you can create an image separate from Jamboard. Save it as the background so it's not movable. But you could have a stem warm-up for the day. It could be a question of the day related to the content they're gonna learn about. STEM topics that are happening around the world, like current events, or even just random questions that you want to get to know students. This would be great for all classes, especially if you teach multiple classes in a day. It's really hard to get to know kids.

Naomi Meredith [00:07:32]:

And see all those unique things about them. So this could be a really cool way as students come in. They answer the question, you talk about the responses, and then move on with the lesson. You can also use Jamboard as a Wonderwall. This goes back to the similar concept with real paper and real sticky notes by your digitizing this, this could be a way where you can assess students about prior knowledge about a topic. So maybe you have the topic as what you're gonna learn about for your STEM project. Maybe you're going to learn about ways to help the environment, and then students can write questions, wondering about things that they know. And they could add all those little digital sticky notes.

Naomi Meredith [00:08:11]:

And this is a great way to assess what they know, what they don't know, and the direction you might wanna take the lesson. If they need more support or not. So this would be a cool way to keep progress in starting off the lesson. You can also use Jamboard as a way for students to share at the end or during a project. Students could take pictures of their final work, so you saw that there's an add image button. They could add images that are already saved in their Google Drive. They could take fresh pictures, and this would be really cool to have a final collage that you could share with the class. If you wanted to, you could even present the collage of students' work at a back-to-school night or an open house opportunity, a STEM night. And these are all pictures from the student's perspective.

Naomi Meredith [00:08:55]:

You can also have students share a strategy that worked well with them during the project and also help others keep going throughout the week. So maybe before students clean up for the day, they add a quick little group sticky note or response on there. What work went well for you? What do you need to keep going? What questions do you have? And then, you could discuss this at the end of class or the beginning of the next day, so this will give strategies for students to keep going on their projects. Again, you can use this even more as a reflection tool, so I like to use the same questions for every STEM challenge throughout the year. So students are used to the questions, but their responses are going to change because the projects are so different. The questions I like to use are I am proud of If I were to try this challenge again, I would change, and then something that was challenging for them. No matter what, there's always gonna something challenging, so it's good to reflect on those things. So having those same questions every time, students could put that on a jam board.

Naomi Meredith [00:09:55]:

Maybe even each group has a slide on the GM board, and they reflect that way or each student. So it's just a cool way to keep things organized and have the experience be interactive where every student gets a voice, it's easy to share, and the tools are easy to use as well. The second tool that you definitely want to use in your STEM or STEAM place is Internet Awesome. Now I might also go call this Google Interland. It's the same thing. The technical term by Google is Internet Awesome. And this is a free digital citizenship curriculum developed by Google. Available for upper elementary and even a little bit of middle school.

Naomi Meredith [00:10:35]:

Why would you want to use this? It is so much fun, and the kids beg for Google and Interland all the time. So we're gonna talk about when you could use this. So it definitely engages the older students in tough digital citizenship conversations. It can also integrate well with the common sense media curriculum. I do use a combination of both because I feel like both have very important messages for students and ways to talk about those things. And it also gives that sense of gamification. As you can see on the screen, there is a game for every major lesson that students can apply their learning. And so it really makes a hard topic more fun and interactive.

Naomi Meredith [00:11:18]:

There are also digital resources for lessons. This is a fairly new feature of the Internet Awesome. It integrates Pear Deck. So Pear Deck is a Google extension with Google slides where students can interact with the slides. So this curriculum actually has the slides already created for you. You can edit them for your needs, so make a copy and edit them in Google Slides. And then, if you add in that extension with Pear Deck, Pear Deck is a freemium. So there are free tools and then premium tools.

Naomi Meredith [00:11:49]:

So once students add in that code, they can interact with the slides and respond that way. So I'm not gonna go too much into Paratek in this presentation. Pear Deck is a cool Google tool. Definitely write that down if you haven't heard of it. It's a great interactive piece as well. I actually used this Be Internet Awesome curriculum when we rent remote in the fall of 2020. Spring 20 20 was so different. But in the fall of 2020, I used this. And I didn't feel like I lost it in learning because I knew I was gonna use this in my STEM classroom anyway, and we had access to the resources as soon as we were able to respond and be reflective.

Naomi Meredith [00:12:25]:

There is a lot to this curriculum, so I would suggest picking 1 topic. For that grade level and then carry it into the next year. You don't have to do it all at once. Now if you're a classroom teacher, you could use this as your whole curriculum for the whole year. Digital citizenship isn't just a one-month, one-day thing. It's part of our real world, part of being a good citizen online. It is needed starting in kindergarten for sure. So definitely use this as a tool to help with those conversations.

Naomi Meredith [00:12:57]:

Here's how you can use it to enhance your steam instruction. Again, you are promoting digital citizenship, which is needed all year, and it's those home resources are really helpful, too, especially with how to communicate with parents. As teachers, especially, we see why digital citizenship is important for our students within the classroom outside of the classroom and how technology is used for academic and fun purposes. There is a purpose for both, but we just need to have that good digital citizenship all year. Sometimes parents don't always know how to have those conversations with students or what may or may not be a problem. So this is a great stepping stone into those resources to share. You can also use Google Interland as an academic behavior incentive. Maybe you have a technology-free day that your class is trying to earn.

Naomi Meredith [00:13:46]:

So this is a cool option to add in there for kids. This is way better than the cool math games, and we all know cool math games are not really math, and kids will sneakily play that. So If they're gonna play a game, how about they work on their digital citizenship? This is also a good way if you need last-minute sub plans. I am not a huge proponent of having kids just sitting on the computer and doing nothing. However, if you need something last minute, it is something productive for them to work on. And kids really love playing it. And then, of course, we could have this as an early finisher. You could add this to a digital choice board. This is something that I will do for the second of the year.

Naomi Meredith [00:14:25]:

Some of the teachers actually use my digital choice board as just an extension of their homework if that's something they wanna work on at home. You could even have Interland be a station rotation if you don't have a lot of devices in your classroom. Maybe you have a few set up in a station, and students can choose to go to that 1. So there's a lot of possibilities of using it once you've used those core lessons and taught through that just to help them keep learning and applying the lessons. You can use this throughout the year. The third tool out of the 4 is Google Drawings. I feel like Google Drawings doesn't get enough attention that it deserves. In fact, this is way better to start kids off instead of starting with Google Slides, which we will talk about Google Slides. But it's really great because it has all of the same tools that Google Slides does, but it is way less overwhelming.

Naomi Meredith [00:15:19]:

The way that I like to think about Google Drawings, it's like having a sheet of paper. So you have 1 slide, 1 sheet of paper to worry about. You can change the size of the Google drawings. So if you know you're not going to print it out, you can even make it a square so that students have more room on the side to create with. You can even change the size 2 a sheet of paper that will get printed out. If you know, that's going to be an option as well. Again, it still practices the same tools as Google Slides, but students are going to get lost resolving the pages. If your students don't have a lot of experience using Google tools, I recommend starting with Google Slides or Google Docs first.

Naomi Meredith [00:16:00]:

Google Docs isn't as much creation. It's more of that text editing. But if you want students to be creating more, definitely start them in Google Google Drawings first because they get familiar with how the tools work and how to use them. What's really great too, and this will help with some of the examples and projects, is that you can create PNG. So that's an image file type that can be downloaded with a transparent background. You can actually do that in slides also, but this is a quick way if you need to create something that doesn't have a background. You wanna layer it and, on top of something, create it in Google Drives. Now thinking about how to use this in your stem classroom, There is that vocabulary development. You can use the drawing tool, and I don't think it'll play from the beginning on this slide, But you can actually use the drawing tool.

Naomi Meredith [00:16:51]:

At the top, there's, like, the different pens, and there's 1 that's like a polyglot polygon, like a tracing type of pen. Students can actually trace images that they insert into the slides and help them understand where different parts of things are. I went to a session, and there was a session about Google and all of the updates. At a conference recently. And this lady, when she was a teacher, actually would trace maps and end up having students trace maps. And was able to create little PNG images that could be used for different things. So then eventually, she had students trace the maps digitally. They were talking about the place and understanding what it looks like, and this actually helped with their geography skills. I'm even thinking about how you could use this for labeling different parts of students might have an image of the life cycle of a butterfly, and maybe they have to trace part, and this can help them with that vocabulary development and also create a digital image and help them be successful with digital drawing, which some students actually might really enjoy.

Naomi Meredith [00:17:54]:

Can also have students create an infographic, and so this could help them synthesize information about a topic that they're researching, which later they can use that information to help them with their project. Maybe they make an infographic about the topic. You print it and then work with a makey makey, which is a little tool that looks little, but it does a lot. A little tool that has clips that you can connect to things. And then, when you touch a clip or when it's touching something connective, it will then perform the task that's coded on the computer. So there is some coding. So you could have them make an infographic that's interactive. So when it's clipped to different parts, when you touch a clip, then it's going to say something of the computer about that piece.

Naomi Meredith [00:18:38]:

You can also have students create video graphics that they could layer within their videos. So maybe they're creating backgrounds for a green screen. So if they're designing something for your school-wide news, maybe they are doing a little project. Maybe one group is in charge of creating the backgrounds within Google Drawings. You can download that and then insert that into the video. Maybe they want to create characters for a stop motion video, and they create the characters within Google Drawings, download them as a PNG so everything excludes together without a background, and then they can create a Google Slides stop motion animation. I've also used Google Drawings in a way for how I can use I have 2 cricket machines. Crickets are those, and I might be saying it wrong. But crickets are those machines that cut out things with l razors, so it reads the image off the computer, and then it cuts it onto paper or sticker paper.

Naomi Meredith [00:19:32]:

I have 2 of those in my classroom since I think it's a cheaper way to go for that type of 2 d cutting. So I've had student students create images for their design using Google Drawings, then I was able to download them as a PNG and insert it into the cricket platform. And then cut it from there. This is a lot easier to do because cricket isn't really known for being made for the classroom setting. So that way, I didn't have to create an account for every single student. We already have Google accounts for the kids. They could easily share their image with me within Google Forms. And then choose the color they wanted.

Naomi Meredith [00:20:11]:

So we did this for digital citizenship. So on the left, you can see some of the final designs that were cut on sticker paper. And our goal was to create an actual one, and we used Google Interland for part of this lesson to build the background. So they had to create a sticker that could be 1 to keep and 1 to give away, so cut out 2 for them that talked about the digital citizenship lessons throughout the week. So we really talked about how to layer designs, how to use thick and chunky fonts, and how to create something that would make sense that could be cut out. So there was a lot of layering involved, and so their digital stickers look exactly like they would when it's cut out, which was really important to think about the future and how their project would actually work. And the last tried and true favorite, which you probably already used, but here's how you can use it in your theme space, is Google Slides. So this, I feel like, is more advanced for students once they have more experience using some of the Google tools.

Naomi Meredith [00:21:13]:

They could definitely get live within slides, but it is so powerful and definitely needed in a STEM space. So why would you wanna use this? Well, it's definitely great for long-term projects. You can have students work on specific slides for the day. So let's say you send out a whole engineering design process notebook that they will be using throughout the week. You might have specific slides that they're going to work on instead of printing everything out. Now when you're thinking about creating your slides, add those movable pieces to make it more interactive. How can you make this even better than paper? You see, here I have QR codes that students can watch videos. They are connected to YouTube.

Naomi Meredith [00:21:52]:

Sadly, in my district, YouTube is blocked for elementary, so I can actually watch it as a teacher. So I'll play the video, and then they'll respond. But think about how you can make it more interactive. Can you add audio? Yes. You can add audio to Google Slides. I'm gonna link in that resource for you actually how I create audio and add that to a Google Slide. You can also embed videos.

Naomi Meredith [00:22:18]:

Maybe it is YouTube if your school doesn't have it blocked. Maybe you create a video using Screencastify and embed that video as well. So make it more interactive how can your slides do more than a piece of paper? Likewise, students can make their slides more interactive too. They can insert their photos throughout a project, so maybe when they have the planning section, when they go to the planning side, you have them draw on a piece of paper. Then take a picture of their design and put it on there so they always have their plan. Maybe you have them take a video and insert that on their slide where they talk about what their work looks like. Maybe they add a photo.

Naomi Meredith [00:22:56]:

This is really great too when students are working in groups who really wanna encourage collaboration, but they have a chance to keep their project by way of photos. Some kids actually don't even like keeping their projects, especially if they're made out of cardboard. They're not huge fans. So that way, they can document their work, and then they can't get rid of it or take it apart or have someone else in the group take it. And again, when you think of Google Slides since there are more advanced features compared to other Google tools, students are continuously working on those digital skills and ways that they can showcase their work. So when thinking about using this in your room, again, this is a great way to have a digital notebook that can do even more than a piece of paper. I teach over 500 kids in the course of a month, So this is definitely my go-to. Once I have my slides set up for the week, they have that digital notebook.

Naomi Meredith [00:23:45]:

I might send them other resources along the way that I forgot to include. But this is really helpful for them. We also talked about Paratek. So Paratek is an extension that you can add on. Oh, sorry. It's not an extension. It's an add-on that you can add within Google Slides. So that can make those slides more interactive, definitely check out Pear Deck. They have templates already set up for you, and they have a ton of different stem ones as well.

Naomi Meredith [00:24:10]:

So that's a great resource to have in your toolbox. You can also have students create stop-motion animations using Google Slides. There are a ton of free resources and things on YouTube out there to help you get started. And then you could also have Google Slides in the stem space via digital portfolio. So after I have a blank digital portfolio document. So or your slides or maybe something that's a template that you share with them at the beginning of the year, and they could keep adding on. So maybe after each project, students can take pictures, and add to their experience. Maybe they even have 1 slide per project, and this would be really cool for students to share at the end of the year with their families.

Naomi Meredith [00:24:49]:

Or even at parent-teacher conferences to help that parent communication. A lot of kids really thrive doing these STEM projects. This would be a cool way to document throughout the year. So again, if you haven't already grabbed it and you haven't noticed the link at the bottom, you can grab this resource, where you it'll keep track of things for you and have some fun goodies in for you. Thank you so much again for coming today. Please reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns. I have my email contact Naomi Meredith at Gmail dot com. Check me out on my website, Naomi Meredith dot com, Instagram at Naomi Meredith underscore. It's also the same for Twitter and 10 talked.

Naomi Meredith [00:25:26]:

I use Instagram a bit more. And then my TPT shop, Naomi Meredith. And then I didn't put it up here, but like I said, go and check out my podcast. It's pretty new, so super exciting, The Elementary STEM Coach podcast. Thank you so much again, and I hope to hear from you soon. Good luck with all your Google tools. This presentation had a ton of visuals, and I bet you are dying to see all of the examples and handouts. You can grab the video recording of this episode, the video slides I reference throughout, student examples, and bonuses for only 5 dollars.

Naomi Meredith [00:26:02]:

That's less than a fancy coffee drink. This will all be linked in the show notes, and you can check it all out here at naomimeredith.com/PDreplay.