Faculty Swap Knowledge at Own Google Demo Slam
Last fall, 14 teachers from the Junior, Middle and Senior School divisions attended an inspiring and energizing Google Apps for Education (GAFE) Summit hosted at Greenwood College School. We left there ready to implement in our classes some of the many tools we’d encountered, and we were eager to share some of these pedagogy-enhancing, feedback-improving, and time-saving tools with our colleagues.
Many of us had already informally shared some of our favourite ideas with our desk-mates, but on Monday, March 7, we had the opportunity to take a page out of the EdTechTeam’s book and present our own version of the Demo Slam, a staple element of every GAFE Summit.
In a Demo Slam, educators are given a maximum of three minutes to share a tool or app in a high-energy, exciting presentation. At the GAFE Summits, the audience votes on the best presentation and tool. In our own version, however, we wanted to give our colleagues a chance to choose the tool that they were most interested in, and then have a chance to actually learn how to implement it for themselves.
Our after school PD time began with quick presentations from Sara Peters, Andrea Leacock, Alex O’Reilly, Laura Aldoroty and Jen Weening, and teachers then split up according to their interests. Each presenter had about 40 minutes to lead their group through the process of using the tool more thoroughly. Teachers learned about using Google Classroom to distribute and collect assignments, Google Keep as an incredible list-making and organizing tool, Pear Deck for creating interactive presentations to assess student progress, Read and Write for Chrome to help struggling learners organize information from a webpage, and Google Forms and Add-ons for tracking student assessment. For those who were totally new to Google Apps, Gisa Bevacqua-Tirone led an introductory session on using Google Docs and Sheets as a collaborative learning tool.
Although technology seemed to be the theme of the learning, the focus was always on how technology tools such as these can be used to improve our teaching and our students’ learning.
Submitted by Jen Weening, Head of Library: Middle/Senior Schools, Google Certified Educator Level 2
Submitted by Jen Weening, Head of Library: Middle/Senior Schools, Google Certified Educator Level 2
Land Acknowledgment
The Country Day School wishes to recognize and acknowledge the land on which the school operates. Our nearest Indigenous Nations are now the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and the Chippewas of Georgina Island. The Dish with One Spoon Wampum covenant is often cited as an example of the shared responsibility for caring for these lands among the Huron-Wendat, Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee peoples who would call these their traditional territories. CDS respects the relationship with these lands and recognizes that our connection to this land can be strengthened by our continued relationship with all First Nations, by acknowledging our shared responsibility to respect and care for the land and waters for future generations.
School Information
13415 Dufferin Street King, Ontario L7B 1K5
(905) 833-1220
communications@cds.on.ca
admissions@cds.on.ca
Founded in 1972, The Country Day School is a co-educational private school offering programs in JK-12 and located on 100 acres north of Toronto in King.
(905) 833-1220
communications@cds.on.ca
admissions@cds.on.ca
Founded in 1972, The Country Day School is a co-educational private school offering programs in JK-12 and located on 100 acres north of Toronto in King.
