Google+ Communities in the Classroom
Google+ Communities were created to network and engage people (users) on a particular subject of interest. In exploring with the features of Google+ Communities - I found that you can share a specific blog, comment on other blogs, and even share it on social media. I also liked that based on what type of community you joined it made Google+ has recommendations of other communities I might be interested in. I joined the Science Teacher Resources Community to gain access to current events, articles, and videos that I can later use in my classroom. This community gave me a wide range of interesting science articles about health, weather, engineering, biology, animals, and more. For example, one intriguing article I found was from BBC titled "DNA clues why woolly Mammoths died out - scientists believe the reason Mammoths died out was from harmful genetic mutation. This community will help me in my science lesson planning the videos with help me engage my learners. The variety of articles this community has will help me keep my students informed about current issues as well as find information on there topic of interest.
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Another community I joined is called Top Quotes because absolutely love writing and reading quotes its my favorite hobby. One of the features I liked about this community is that it had categories for the types of quotes you wanted such a as - thoughts, inspirational, poems, and general discussion. Quotes tend to help me look at the bigger picture in life as well as look at my struggles in new perspective. I would like to have a quote of the day in my classroom and have my students write a short reflection in their journals about their thoughts on the quote. I really do believe that there is power in positivity and that it is very important for teachers to make time to challenge students in creative ways.
Google also has great resource for teacher who want a cool way to engage students in active collaborative learning. Google Hangout is a web-based tool for people to "hang out" in an online virtual room. Google Hangout is great for discussion, meetings, or to just converse with someone. Google hangout can be used for a variety of different ways in and outside the classroom. For example, this is a way for students to communicate with students all over the nation and even all over the world. A teacher could use this Google Hangout tool to progress students knowledge about other cultures and as well as expand their world view. The teacher could use this resource in a Social Studies and also English/writing units.
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