Using Google Forms for Assessment

The Google for Education team rolled out several new updates and features this summer that could be beneficial in your classroom. Several of the updates were for Google Classroom, but one of my favorites is in the often overlooked Google Forms.

The new and improved Forms allows users to not only easily add pictures and graphics into their forms, but also allows you to create auto-graded quizzes for multiple choice, checkbox, or dropdown questions. You can include all other types of questions, but users still can't assign a score to short answer questions on the form unless using an add on like Flubaroo. Hopefully, this option will be coming soon.

Even if you are giving a formative assessment with 3 questions that could be multiple choice and the 4th a short answer, the auto-grading feature is still a hefty time-saver, leaving you with only 1 question to manually grade. This can then allow you to spend more time using the data to decide where to go next in your instruction. Not to mention, since the answers can feed directly into a Google Sheet, it is now easy to sort students into groups for reteaching or extension based on their answers.

One of the biggest benefits of using Forms for assessments is the ability to gather all of the student answer data on one spreadsheet. You still have the ability to view individual student data and group analytics on the response tab, but the spreadsheet summary is the most gradebook-friendly.

Another benefit of using Forms is the integration with other Google for Education products like Classroom and Drive. If you are a Classroom user, Forms can be added as assignments with 1 click. If you are not a Classroom user, you can still use the traditional link or email method to send out the live form. Either way, all the results come right back to your Drive.

I have put together a couple of screencasts to show the new features as well as walk you through using forms to set up a quiz. The first one is general, while the second one also shows how to integrate with Google Classroom as an assignment.

New Resource: Hidden Worlds of the National Parks

This is blog post is going to be short and sweet, but it's just cool, so I wanted to share!

The US National Park Service turned 100 on August 24. In celebration of this milestone, the Park Service has released a new site, The Hidden Worlds of the National Parks, which takes students on virtual reality trips to 5 of the national parks.

As you click on each of the locations on the site, you are taken to 360 degree interactive videos with a local park ranger providing audio as your guide. You can then click through to several different views at the park as well as some additional video and informative interactions.

This experience will be engaging for pretty much any age level, but for younger elementary students, the teacher might want to navigate through the site as a class since it is easy to click on a link and then lose track of where you started.

Even if you decide not to share with a class, this is just a fun site for students (or even yourself)!

Learning never stops at NFV

The teachers at North Fayette Valley have summers full of professional learning opportunities.  We kicked off the summer with sessions immediately after this school year concluded.  Here is a list of only some of the professional learning sessions we have had ALREADY this summer break.  

June 1 - Mandatory Reporter Training

June 2 - Standards Based Reporting (SBR) PD & Work Sessions

June 6 - Make up day for SBR

June 10 - DLT / Admin Retreat

June 20 - Teacher Leaders Meeting

June 21, 22 Keystone Premier Education  Conference

June 21, 22, 23 Professional Learning Communities at Work

The great part about professional learning during the summer break is that we, as educators, get the rare opportunity to focus on ourselves and our own improvement.  All school year long, we are spending every moment planning, preparing, and instructing for our students’ improvement.  Summer allows us to really absorb OUR own learning and reflect upon the concluding, as well as, upcoming school years.  

Your teacher leaders are busy this summer with many of these opportunities as well as other sessions coming throughout July and August.  Instructional coaches have an additional 10 days added to their contract and Model/Mentor teachers have three.   Extended days include a variety of sessions such as; Standards Based Reporting, The Well Managed Classroom, Model Teacher Training, High Impact Instructional Strategies, Google Summit, and Keystone’s Premier Education Conference.  

These opportunities are valuable and we are thankful to have such dedicated teacher leaders at NFV to embrace them.  As I conclude this post, I would encourage all NFV teachers to:  enjoy your summer, value your learning, reflect on your concluding year, and ignite for the 2016-2017 school year!