Tool #4 Google Reader and Google Docs

I set up my Google reader and I am following a few blogs:

Free Technology for Teachers

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day

http://fairyprincipal.blogspot.com

Mary's Art Spot

MWE Transition and Rebuilding

While I think this is a handy way to keep all of the blogs I want to read in the same place. I find it difficult to spend very much time reading blogs online. My eyes get tired and there is a constant flow of new materials coming in to read. It is a little overwhelming for me personally.

However, for the classroom, I could easily set up a Google reader for the students to follow that includes all of the blogs pertaining to our school or district music events. It might be possible for them to access a school Google Reader site from the Library. Then students could follow blogs like the music blog, construction for MWE blog, or the Purple Martins blog all in one place! There would have to be one adult in charge of the Reader so that there is accountability for blogs that students are exposed to.

Google docs is much more exciting to me. The possibilities are endless. I created a grocery list to share with my husband at work and he edited it and then I printed it out. For school purposes we could create shared calendars, a timeline for planning events, newsletters to be edited by each grade level team, letters home to parents, etc. This is very useful for documents that need to be translated into bilingual materials before they are sent home. It eliminates the need for 2 and 3 copies of everything.

In the music classroom, Google Docs could be used to help students create and notate new songs as a grade level. Each class could work on a song by writing words to a song in a Google Doc and sharing it with other classes. Also, students could create a power point for a song and share it with each class. They could create power points to go with their concerts as well.

Teachers can share lesson plans and assessment forms and get input from other teachers. I love it!