Start A Google Classroom To Share With Your Teachers This Year!

Last year, I wrote about being at the Future Ready Institute in Ohio and getting this awesome idea for curating and sharing resources with our teachers.

As we discussed the different wedges of the Future Ready Librarian Framework and roles we have, I gathered ideas on a piece of paper that really stuck out to me and ones I wanted to put into place in our library.

I spoke about how awesome Collections by Destiny are to curate resources and share with teachers and students. We also brainstormed and shared ideas on the best ways to get the word out about all of the things we do as we gather, curate and share them too.

This is when one of my new teacher librarian friend from Ohio gave me the BEST idea!  As I was sharing how we created Google Classrooms for each elementary class this week, she said,

I created a Google Classroom for my teachers too.  This is how I share resources and news with them.  

Brilliant!  I love this idea!  In fact, during our next break at the Institute, I created the new Library Media and Technology News, Resources & Fun Google Classroom.

Over the last year, this has become the place for us to share news from the library and technology departments around the school such as author Skype's, new books, special projects, events, and more.  We also share lots of resources such as book talks and trailers, Collections by Destiny, blog post links, AEA Resources, and much, much more!  The possibilities are endless!

Every time we post in our Library & Technology Google Classroom, the teachers get an alert in their email.  If they use the Google Classroom app on their device, they will get these updates pushed out to them too. This will not only mainstream the things we are sharing, it will also be nice to go back and look year and year at what was shared.

By giving each post a Topic, this will be a super easy way to put all of the things you post to Google Classroom in curated lists. You will find the list of Topics on the left hand side of Google Classroom.

I find this one of the most helpful pieces of Google Classroom as I refer teachers to the various Topics all of the time as they are looking for resources and other information.  And this year the Topics are really handy as I can go back and reshare the things we shared throughout the first year of our Google Classroom.

For me, Google Classroom has been one tool that truly changes the way I do things as a teacher librarian everyday.  

How do you use it within your library and school?