Goo-Goo for Google

This week I had the pleasure of participating in the Google Teacher Academy in NYC. I walked away with a Google Certified Teacher pin, but the real prize was the mind blowing learning. These two days were a whirlwind of information and collaboration... I was truly humbled by the braintrust that surrounded me. Below are a few tips and tricks that I learned from my colleagues there:

• Rosetta Stone, who? Forget about language learning programs! These Google Chatbots will make you fluent in over 20 different tongues. Simply add the chatbot to your chat list and create a chat between yourself, the chatbot and your foreign-language-speaking friends. The chatbot will translate everything you say as soon as you say it! 
• Connect with your world! Harnu is a global discussion board / bulletin board on which you can post messages anywhere in the world. Discuss world events, sports, music, and pop culture - and have your discussions translated for ease of use. A great way to expand your students' horizons and collaborations.
• Make free art online! deviantART is an impressive site that allows you to draw, doodle, sketch, shade and more... all on an online canvas, and all for free. The tools are surprisingly varied and advanced - and so are the possibilites for student use.
• YouTube's Movie Editor Did you know that YouTube had its own movie editor? Reminiscent of some features from Apple's iMovie, the YouTube movie editor provides some free tools for kids to become movie makers and post their work online.
• Manage projects - both for your students AND you! Trello is a great virtual task manager for your students' projects as well as your own. Organize project members and even integrate Google Docs! Super cool!
• Google Art Project Field Trips If you haven't had the pleasure of checking this out, please do. The Google Art Project not only compiles great works of art from various museums and collections around the world, but also integrates Google Maps so you can get a "Street View" of the inside of the Colosseum or Chicago Art Institute. Yes, you can get a walking tour of these famed sites. From your computer. Take your kids for a tour!

This are just a few of the many ideas I walked away with... still need to digest and process. I'll continue to share as my mind has time to catch up with the learning!

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