GEG Communities

Issue No. 71 | Date: April 26, 2022

Local Success Stories from GEG

Please submit your articles here bit.ly/GEGarticle . We love to hear your stories.

Help us to help you promote your events and good work by tagging @GEGProgram on all tweets you make about events or feedback you get from members. We love to join in your celebrations and share your good work.

We hope you have had a break recently and taken some time to look after yourself, unwind and recharge the batteries. Keep Googling, keep smiling, keep safe.

The Anywhere School 2022

'From classrooms to chat rooms, desks to dining tables, education happens everywhere. Watch the virtual screening of #TheAnywhereSchool to learn how the #GoogleEdu ecosystem is helping students and teachers thrive.'

Watch the Anywhere school on YouTube

From just asking questions to becoming a GEG leader

David from GEG Tlaxcala sent in this account of how he became a GEG Leader. What a wonderful success story.

My family and I moved to Mexico some years ago and when I first read about the Google Educator Group I was very excited and decided to go online to see if I could join the chapter of the state where I was located. I was a bit sad to see that while other states had their own GEG chapters, the state of Tlaxcala did not have any chapter nor was it registered. This made me think that something should be done and that it was too good of an opportunity to let it pass. So I decided to get in contact with the mentors and educators near my location and ask them what was necessary for a chapter to be opened. When they told me that the leader of the chapter had to be someone very experienced within the Google for Education environment and Google Workspace.

I knew that I could be a good resource, but I was not a Google educator level 1 and 2 at that time, just a huge fanboy and highly experienced user. After having passed some meetings and interviews they decided to trust me and thank God, I was then officially recognised as the GEG Leader of the state and Tlaxcala was now registered as having its own chapter in Mexico. I reached out to some other GEG leaders so I could have a better understanding of what my role is going to be like. Sometime later, 4 other teachers decided to join me and together we have been collaborating and evolving this chapter by helping and transforming ed-tech in Tlaxcala. We are making it available and easy to understand for other teachers who might have a difficult time with this.

GEG Events

Bring your community together to collaborate

GEG Depok - Be Internet Awesome

This week we devised activities for students all about using the internet wisely. The program was for children in 4-6 grade but some of the teachers also attended it with their students. We used the Be Internet Awesome curriculum and played together in the Interland. First we discussed how to be kind. We introduced vocabulary such as digital footprints and bystander, then the students took a quiz. The second day followed the same format but this time the theme was Don't Fall for Fake. Children learned how to tell the difference between a secure website and a non secure one. They also learned about phising and we suggested that they asked a trusted adults when they feel doubt. The third day we discussed Sharing with Care. They learned when it was appropriate to share information and when not to share it. At the end we gave them access to a Twibbon microsite and asked them to share their experience on social media.

The children loved it and have already asked for more activities. We're currently planning the second round.

Find GEG Depok on their Google Site and Twitter @gegdepok

We learn together about Google in Croatia

Sandra Vuk from the project Webclassroom sent in this article. She tells us that she doesn't have a GEG in Croatia, but we can see that the work they are doing is fantastic. Watch this space as she has been put in touch with a GEG mentor and hopefully we will soon see the launch of GEG Croatia.

The Webclassroom is a project of acquiring digital knowledge and skills with a series of webinars formed in the form of a step-by-step approach. The ultimate goal is the development of digital skills among teachers and students. Longer thematic professional training sessions would also take place within the project.

We don't have GEG groups in Croatia, but we have Google Friday where every Friday we have webinars about Google tools and how we use them in teaching.

LINK:https://webucionica.weebly.com/google-petak.html

Every third teacher in Croatia uses the Google Sites website, and we try to make as many teachers as possible actively use all the possibilities of Google Workspace.

LINK: https://sites.google.com/view/1razredkerestinec/NASLOVNICA

We have a community of about 13,000 members with whom we share all the knowledge we have. The author and project leader is Sandra Vuk.

Our webinars are attended by users from countries in the region such as Slovenia, Germany, Hungary, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia.

We also have longer professional training sessions, which we call the CHALLENGE because we think that today's teacher is facing great challenges (pandemic, digital technologies, progress, different students).

LINK:https://webucionica.weebly.com/zimski-izazov22.html

In the end, we are a group of volunteers (15 teachers) who do everything and create in their free time.

GEG Leadership

Leading your GEGs

Spotlight on a GEG leader : GEG Cymru

This month’s spotlight is all about Victoria Price the leader of GEG Cymru Wales

How did you get involved with Google Educator Groups
There was a shout out from GEG UK on Twitter asking for anyone who would be interested in being a volunteer as part of a new Google group for Wales and I jumped at the chance.

What do you feel you have personally gained from your involvement?

Being a GEG Leader has really boosted my confidence, I've met some great people and I’m more Googly than I’ve ever been!!

What is your most memorable GEG moment?

Recently at BETT I met GEG Leaders from the other UK GEG countries, amazing Google people such as Kirri and Jess as well as finally meeting Pete, another GEGCymru leader, in person. That was awesome.

Tell me something that you learnt in the last month.

Canva - I had never used it before and I’m very impressed.

What event that you have coming up excites you?

We have the Pencoed Primary School / Google Reference School open day coming up. There is still time to apply to visit.

Why not register for the Google Reference schools visits here. https://rsvp.withgoogle.com/events/reference-school-events-wales

Before you go, do you have any advice for anyone thinking of becoming a GEG leader?

Don’t hesitate just go for it! You will meet so many awesome Googlers that you will learn so much from and who will be there if you need to ask questions. It will also allow you to share your own experiences with others and become a champion for teaching with Google in your locality. I had no idea I was going to meet so many fantastic people (virtually and in person) until we started on our GEGCymru journey. This has certainly improved my own pedagogy and ultimately my learners benefit from this. As Google say “Google Educators Groups (GEGs) bring local educators together, in person and online, to provide a forum to share, collaborate, and support each other in using technology in impactful ways with students.”

Why not follow @VictoriaPrice9 or take a look at the GEG Social media Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/gegcymru/ GEG Cymru (Wales)

GEG Learn

Individual professional development opportunities

#22DigitalDays

We have a fun bite-sized challenge for educators - #22DigitalDays - 22 days of tasks to engage teachers & students in digital dabbling, which can be adapted as necessary, each day has several examples such as the Chrome tools activity templates shown below. Please share these with your communities and GEG members to get more people involved using them.

Get started and share these cool tips, templates and resources to use in the classroom and beyond and take the challenge to share on social media with the hashtag #22digitaldays.

This digital resource (bit.ly/22DigiDays) was made by the community, for the community... and beyond! Please feel free to share with other educators who might find this helpful for themselves or their colleagues.

GEG On Air - 2022 Season is now open!

GEG Brazil is back with the 2022 season of GEG On Air, a bi-weekly webinar series that bring up to discussion topics asked by teachers related to the usage of technology in the classroom. For this year, our focus is on the hybrid learning.

GEG On Air 48: How to engage students in the back to school with Google for Education - part 1

The GEG Leaders Edu Sousa (GEG Conceição de Alagoas), Kleber Santos (GEG Mogi das Cruzes), Cris Oliveira and Aline Rejane (both from GEG Belo Horizonte) shared their experiences. Teacher Cris, for example, explained how she works with her students, inviting them to arrange their own learning content based on different digital tools (Google Keep, Sites, Sheets, Chat, Meet and Cardboard). In a specific activity, the whole class ended up having a special saturday lunch with 70 students’ families, all connected via Google Meet!

Watch it and learn more from these fantastic educators: bit.ly/geg48

Google Fact Check Explorer

With widespread information coming from you from so many sources nowadays is great, but are you making sure you know what is real and what is misinformation? You might also like to read this article Check the facts with these Google features to help you.

So how might you use Google Fact checker within your teaching to bring Digital Citizenship into the Classroom? If you have any examples or ideas share an activity on social media if you have, and use hashtags #GoogleFactChecker #ISTE @GEGProgram

Google Fact Check Explorer

GEG Utah / UEN Personalized, Competency-Based Learning + Technology Webinar Series

GEG Utah is partnering with Utah Education Network to provide teachers with webinar series on Personalised, Competency Based Learning + Technology. Utah’s State Board of Education has supported PCBL as a model for instruction and learning in classrooms and this series is geared to help educators who are new to PCBL and technology to support their journeys to learn and implement it in their classroom.

This eight part series walks educators through what is PCBL and seven different edtech tools including Google, Nearpod, Canvas, Adobe, Microsoft, Utah’s Online Library, and eMedia. Each webinar provides educators with a run down of features within the edtech tool that help teachers to personalise learning for their students and how to use data within these tools to create opportunities for students to show their competency within their learning. Each webinar is hosted by GEG Utah co-leader, Google Trainer/Coach, and UEN Trainer Matthew Winters with a revolving group of co-hosts to help explore these tools through the PCBL lens. Although each session is not Google centric, these sessions help teachers who are new to technology integration with a framework for using technology in their classrooms.