Gmail in the Classroom

Since Google no longer uses Chat and has replaced it with Hangouts, I would use Hangouts in several ways for my classroom. Since hangouts is much like texting:  a person can send messages, images, and emojis, I would use the hangouts much like I would text students.  Since I don’t have student phone numbers and private messaging is discouraged between teacher to student at our school, I could use Hangouts to notify students of upcoming assignments, send deadline reminders, and even form group chats.  When completing group work, students could also use the Hangouts to communicate.  Finally, I have a student who is physically impaired, so he could use the microphone to transcribe his notes.  

 I would also use Gmail’s calendar for students.  We could share one calendar for updates on assignments and due dates for essays or projects.  I would also encourage students to create their own personal Google calendar in order to keep them organized.  As for contacts, students could create a group for their one class and then communicate via e-mail more easily with that group.  

Google Plus can be used much like Padlet in which student can post responses.  I often start each day with a thought-provoking question.  Students could you Google Plus to share those responses.  We also complete lots of sentence revising when we focus on syntax. I could use Google Plus as an open forum for each student to post his/her way that he/she varied some sentence structure.  Using Google Plus would also keep students honest as their answers are on display during real time.

Communicating with parents is also key.  I would create labels for each group of parents for each class, and then I could send out lesson plans and reminders of upcoming essays, projects, or other forms of assessments.