on time savers.

I reached to the back seat behind me and took my baby’s apricot sized hand and massaged it so gently it didn’t even faze her.  Still screaming, she hurled the soggy handful of kale-spinach Happy Puffs towards my husband’s freshly shaped afro.  Plucking the puffs from his hair, he looked at me and I knew it was my cue to pump up the volume.  

Pop pop it’s showtime (showtime)

Showtime (showtime)

Guess who’s back again?

Momentarily zoning out and feeling the groove, I was yanked back to another reality- I have to grade the Friday exit tickets by 5.  Just as my husband glides into the super-sized Costco parking lot, powering off Bruno Mars, the car goes quiet.  Ahh silence.  We might have a window.  

Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling through my explosive mess of phone apps, (who needs three different photo apps?) I locate Google Classroom.  My husband folds my hand inside his and I type with my right.  

Done.  Fourteen minutes later, “papers” are graded and my baby girl jolts awake from a toddler throwing a tantrum outside my car window.  

Alright, let’s do this Costco run.  

 

Technology has more recently become my number one time saver. I know tech situations and student access vary from school to school, but as innovation grows and state tests move to online, tech integration is becoming more of a norm than a privilege.  Heck, we don’t even teach cursive anymore!

  

Google Classroom provides a quick and easy option to create a document, make an electronic copy for each student then allow students to login and complete the task.  Easy as 1, 2, 3.  

4 Ways Google Classroom Makes My Life Easier

1. I can grade papers and post assignments from my cell phone.  
2. Any staff member, including special education coordinators can pull up student work docs for IEP meetings and parent conferences.  
3. Less fights with the copy machine and less paper waste.  
4. My students have an online portfolio of their ongoing work.  Growth is all packaged up.  

The biggest thing for me is that less time shuffling papers means more time with my family. More time to focus on creating cool lessons.  For anyone, more time means more opportunity to spend time with people and do things that you love.   Being granted more time can be so freeing!

This summer, why not take a free google classroom tutorial and start small?  Getting Started with Google Classroom

If you do decide to get down with GC, I promise you’ll be saved.  Power to the teacher.