About six years ago I started using Google Classroom. At the time I was neck-deep in teaching APAH (Advanced Placement Art History), and had such a range of abilities and I was desperate for a way to diversify instruction and provide much-needed remediation for the kids who needed it without actually calling it remediation.
I took a class through Learners Edge on flipping instruction as well as a course on using Google Classroom through Google. I could see incredible potential for my APAH class and instituted the new tech that fall. I posted videos and links to pages on Khan Academy and thought that I was doing pretty darn good! I then started assigning creative writing prompts for student collaboration and felt like I was really getting the hang of this whole technology thing...
Once my APAH class started being more work to fill than to teach (we have a plethora of AP offerings on a campus where enrollment is decreasing due to the rapid influx of charter schools... I won't comment further on that...), I stopped trying to fill it. After all, the class itself requires so much additional prep and grading time that my time at home was spent doing all of that and not in raising my son. As a single mom, he is my priority, and when his ASD was becoming more and more obvious, well... it was an easy decision to make to let APAH go. So I had a cart of Chromebooks for my Art 1 and Crafts classes to use, and I refused to let them be used in anything less than a meaningful way.
My studio classes are all on Google Classroom. This fall marks my second full year of utilizing this platform in my studio classes and I love it! I will not go back to the old ways in which I provided instruction. This fall marks my 18th year in the field of Art Education, and I am constantly looking for ways to improve and meet the changing ways my students learn as technology becomes more and more important in their lives. I know that I am not alone in how I utilize this new tech, but I want to share a few things I have learned that might provide ideas for other art teachers out there.
My classes are all online, and I post assignments in Google Classroom for them to be able to look over as I introduce new materials, but also for their use after an assignment is completed but perhaps before the rest of the class is done. It is also a fantastic way to provide differentiation for my SPED students as I am able to break down the steps of an assignment and students can access this outside of class. This has been such a gift for my students who miss classes more regularly for anxiety, athletics, and more. In this way I am able to meet the unique needs of my learners without adding more work to my already very full plate!
Last year I started having my students photograph their work at the close of an assignment and post them to Google Classroom. This permitted me to assess work during times when taking a huge pile of paintings or boxes of 3D work just won't work (think of those less than pertinent faculty meetings about math scores and you get a feel for what I am saying!). It is also great during the rainy season since I can't take work home in a downpour (or, I shouldn't) and grading only in my classroom has never worked for me, and works even less as a single mom!
At the end of the first semester I thought I would use Google Classroom to have students create a Google Slides final exam. I had them take the photos of their work over the course of the semester and create a slides document. Each slide would feature a work and include a personal reflection/critique of the work and the process as well as commentary on how their attitude and/or work ethic affected their submission, what they would do differently given the opportunity, and how this understanding might impact their educational experiences in more than Art.
The final exams were a great success! I had students and parents talking to me about how the assignment had really made them think about personal accountability and how their approach in my class could impact their performance in other areas of their education. This was a breakthrough for me.
This year I rethought how I used Google Classroom and Google Docs yet again. I created a handout that walked the students through the process of getting into Google Classroom and in setting up folders in their Google Docs so that their drive is organized from day one. This came to me as I was looking for past work and realized that my drive was a mess! SO I had students create folders for their first weeks' assignments (our classes don't become concrete until the 17th day of school, so we do a lot of small assignments that scaffold instruction as well as some nuts and bolts record-keeping the first three weeks), an Assignments folder and a Portfolio folder. The idea was that the Assignments folder would contain folders for every assignment and in these folders students would put in-process photos as well as research images, digital worksheets, and more). The Portfolio would contain the final images of all assignments for quick access when we do critiques and final exam reflections. My colleague in the Art Department and I developed the Google Classroom intro together and now she is also utilizing the tech in a very similar fashion, which is great as we share students over their four years at OGHS, so once they learn the process they can rely on the fact that, at least in the Art Department, it will come in handy again!
This past summer I also looked to this site and found more ways to use Google Classroom for my classes. I have started using online rubrics that send out student rubrics to the specified kid, and that I can type my comments into! I don't know about you, but my handwriting gets really illegible with 165 students! And paper rubrics rarely seem to make it home, let alone out of my room. This way I can inform parents that I email rubrics and they can discuss this with their kiddos.
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