Going Global With Google Hangouts: First Graders Connect from Across the Country

A couple of weeks ago I received this tweet from none other than Karly Moura. She is always encouraging me to try something new with technology in my classroom. This is probably because she knows I'm willing to try just about anything, and that I love using new tech tools to engage and motivate my students!

The idea was to connect with one of Kory Grahm's 1st grade classes and participate in #Korytellers. This meant that one of Kory's 1st grade classes would read to my students, then some of my students would read to her class. I was intrigued and excited by this idea! Reading stories to another class of first graders clear across the country would be fun, exciting and a great way to build excitement around reading I knew some of my students needed. Not to mention I knew they would love!

So we set to work. Remembering to keep in mind the time differences between Minnesota and California, I signed up for a time with Kory that worked for both of our classes. There wasn't much to it since Kory has been doing this quite a bit; she had a Google doc all set up and all I needed to do was  pick a time and day that worked for my class. After that we sent a few emails back and forth to get the correct email to use for Google Hangout (GHO); a precise time frame and figure out what our students would be doing during our GHO.

When I first told my class what we would be doing last Wednesday they were so excited! They were amazed that we would be able to read a story to another class across the country! When the time came to receive the video call from Kory we were ready, we had picked our readers, what book we would read and practiced reading to the class. Of course with the use of technology comes technical difficulties, but you roll with the punches and try again. Once we got our sound and microphones working on both ends Kory read to my students first.

Even though my students knew we were doing a GHO with another first grade class in another state they were still a little confused at first and thought we were meeting with another 1st grade teacher at our school! This served as a perfect stepping stone for us to look up Kory's school on Google maps  and see how far it was from our school after our video call.

After Kory read One by Kathryn Otoshi to my class a few of my students read Eric Carle's Does Kangaroo have a Mother too? to her class.

(To the right is a video of my students reading from Kory's class's perspective! Below is a video of my class reading to Kory's class from our perspective! So neat!)


After we heard both stories our classes took turns introducing themselves and asking question about each other. Each student that asked or answered a question stepped up to the computer said their name then asked/ answered their question. Here are some examples of questions students asked each other: What are your school colors? Where are you from? How cold is it there? What do you do in school? etc.

Both classes had a blast, so did their teachers! This was such an amazing experience for my students and I think this is something that will stick with them for some time. I have already had students ask me, "When will it be my turn to be a reader?" and  "When are we doing another GHO?" This was so simple and something I would absolutely love to do again with my class. Thank you so much for the opportunity to connect with you and your first graders Kory!

This experience also has me brain storming other ways I could use Google Hangout with my first graders. One idea that really has my brain going is using it as an author's chair where students can share their writing by reading their stories to other first graders in different parts of the state, country, and/or world! Another idea I've thought about is reading several books by an author and then doing a GHO with the author where students could ask question, share their favorite parts of the author's work etc. Obviously this last idea would take considerable more effort on my part, but it would be so worth it! (If anyone knows of good children's author already doing this please let me know!)  GHO really opens a world of possibilities and experience for our students that would not have been possible without this technology. If anyone is interested in doing a GHO with my class in the future please contact me I'd love to do another one with my students!

5 Tips for Using Google Classroom in First Grade

I love using Google Classroom with my first graders! Google Classroom has made my life so much easier, and has allowed me to transform our precious two hours a week in the school computer lab from just educational games (we still do those too) to extended learning and creating. Last year I didn't start using classroom until the very end of the school year; when I had already started thinking of my students as basically second graders. After learning so much more about Google classroom by reading 50 Things You Can Do With Google Classroom by Alice Keeler (@alicekeeler);  learning more about hyperdocs created by Lisa Highfill (@lhighfill), Kelly Hilton (@kellyihilton) and Sarah Landis (@sarahlandis) (more on how I use hyperdocs in a future post); reading Ditch That Textbook by Matt Miller (@jmattmiller) over the summer, and seeing what my students could create using classroom last year; I decided to start using Google Classroom a lot earlier! Now as a lot of you know there is a huge shift from the beginning of first grade to the end of first grade in students' abilities and independence, and boy did I see that difference when I logged my kiddos onto Google Classroom for the first time in late October! So I've decided to share a few of the tips and tricks I have learned along the way. 

1. Know that it takes time. It will take your students awhile to login to Google Classroom the first time, ok maybe the first handful of times. Learning how to capitalize letters on a keyboard and make that "funny" at sign for their email address is hard; not to mention they are still learning where all the keys are on the keyboard. If you go in with an open mind and understand that learning to login is a useful skill in and of itself then you won't be disappointed when you don't get much done besides logging in and having your students join your classroom the very first time.

2. So we know it takes time for our first graders to learn how to login to Google Classroom; in the mean time enist the help of some older kids who can help your students login. At my school we have Mouse Squad (an after school computer club) for the 4th and 5th graders. These are our go to kids to come help younger students, and teachers out with technology both in the classroom and in the computer lab. If you don't have this at your school I'm sure there are some teachers willing to spare a few experienced students for 10-15 minutes to help you get your students logged in. It doesn't hurt to ask, right?

3. Start with something simple. The first few times you login you want to have a simple assignment for students to work on. This could be something as simple as going to a website they're familiar with to play educational games or practice typing skills. I chose to have my student work on a Pumpkin Investigation Hyperdoc, I created, the first time we logged in. I had my students start working on a simple hyperdoc because I wanted them to get in the habit of working on something that might take multiple lab sessions to complete. Just remember keep it simple.

Logged into Google Classroom for the first time!

Working on our first Hyperdoc!

4. Practice practice practice! We always login to classroom every time we go to the computer lab, ever since the first time we logged in. Practice makes perfect, and it shows! We have cut down our login time from 30 minutes (the first time without help) to about 5-10 minutest depending on the day. This login time includes typing in the url to get to Google Classroom, since we don't have a shortcut for classroom on the desktops of our lab computers. I'm so proud of them!

5. Let your quicker students be the expert and help their friends who are still logging in! My students love this! They are constantly asking if they can help a friend once they have logged in. This gives them an extra incentive to learn how to login efficiently because they want to go and help too. I limit the number of helpers to 5 students, it helps keep it manageable. 

I hope these tips and tricks will help you when you start using Google Classroom with your students! Remember set high but realistic expectations first graders CAN do it! If you have any other tips and suggestions for using Google Classroom with first graders or other primary grades post them in the comments; I would love to hear them!

A Blogging Journey: Using Technology in First Grade

Well this is it; my very first blog post! I'm a little excited and a lot nervous. Before this first post I have been sharing my ideas and experiences using technology in my first grade classroom in the limited 140 characters that twitter offers (follow me @ajyoung53). Don't get me wrong I absolutely love twitter, twitter chats, my PLN, and all the personal PD (thank you Karly for the addiction, follow her @KarlyMoura). I'm branching out of my 140 characters due to the encouragement of Karly and few others to start a blog about how I use technology with my 26 first graders.

Now I'm not claiming to be a technology expert, but I do consider myself pretty tech savvy and am almost always willing to try something new and learn along the way. Some days I teach my students about a new technology or app, and other days they are teaching me a thing or two about an app I thought I already knew how to use! This blog is going to be our journey together, teacher and students, as we learn how to incorporate technology into our classroom in order to enhance our learning, expand our creativity and develop our 21st century skills!

I will do my best to share the tips, tricks, and management techniques I learn along the way as I incorporate technology into my classroom. I'm excited for you to join my class and me on this journey.