Fighting Excuses with Google Classroom

Fighting Excuses with Google Classroom
by Richard Denny, Eighth Grade Math Teacher, Bret Harte Preparatory Middle School

Editor’s Note: This article includes links to all the resources used by Mr. Denny for this project

As an eighth grade math teacher in South Los Angeles, one of my most important challenges is encouraging students to take ownership of their education. I see students with a desire to learn, but often time is wasted while they wait for my help during class or group work. Despite my efforts to scaffold the material, I found that I needed better ways to help students develop the mathematical practice of “[making] sense of problems and [persevering] in solving them." I am now using Google Classroom, iPads, and TeacherTube in pursuit of that goal.

I began using Google Classroom this spring with a cumulative assignment about linear functions. This assignment came at the end of a unit, but rather than being a true summative assessment, which only some of my students were ready for, my goal was that it would also serve as a learning opportunity for the students who needed that. To begin, I created questions on a Google document which were arranged into four sections based on Webb's Depth of Knowledge. Next, I used the Explain Everything App on my iPad to create video hints and example problems and posted these to TeacherTube. As students worked on the project I was able to comment on their projects from my laptop, and they would see the comments in real time. I still had students who needed some individual help, but my rule was that they were permitted to come to me for assistance only after they had consulted with their partner and watched the instructional video hint for that problem.

This approach definitely eliminated the use of so much paper, but I would not have continued to create videos and use Google Classroom if the only advantage was saving paper. As Dr. Ruben Puentedura’s SAMR Model describes, technology integration is most beneficial to education when it actually affects the type of work that is being done. There were three main advantages to using the technology I used for this project that I believe actually enhanced learning. The first advantage was the video links that gave students the ability to take their own initiative to look up the help they needed. The second advantage was that I was able to imbed a link to an online graphing calculator. Students would graph a line on graph paper, and then would graph the same line on the graphing calculator and imbed a screenshot of this graph. This gave students the ability to check and adjust their own work. Finally, the means of giving feedback allowed for a more fluid cycle of learning. With a paper and pencil assignment I would have to allow for students to turn in their work, spend several days grading and returning all of the work, return the work with comments written all over it, and then repeat the cycle. Instead, I was able to comment directly on their documents as they did their work, letting them know what was done correctly and what needed adjustments, and students were able to make adjustments in time with the comments. This is arguably just an augmentation of efficiency, but since the cycle of feedback and adjustments is so crucially important to the learning process, I would argue that this was a significant advantage.

I expected and hoped that the integration of technology would be an equalizer, as the students who needed more help would have more resources at their fingertips. I actually observed the opposite taking effect. Students who typically do their work, come ready to learn, and are organized seemed to really excel. They were released to learn at their own pace and had the resources to learn without having to slow for the distractions that invariably arise. The students who previously had been struggling in my class were often those who had added difficulties where the technology became a hindrance due to increased distractions, lost passwords or missing iPads. There was a small but noteworthy handful of students who showed dramatic improvement in production and engagement. I believe that this group will grow as I learn to better implement these projects so as to iron out some of the technological difficulties that did hinder some students from learning.

To view some of Mr. Denny’s videos, please visit his Teacher Tube Channel.