I began by surveying the teachers about what they needed/wanted in a PD. I created a simple Google Form for teachers to fill out that would show me what sessions I needed to include. I asked the principals at all three sites to send out the Form for me, so that (hopefully) more teachers would fill it out. I gave teachers about 1.5 weeks to complete the form, sending out a reminder email (or two).

Part of the Form included a questions about presenting a session. This was my call for volunteers, or at least my way of seeing if anyone was interested in presenting/leading a session. There were about 8 teachers that volunteered to present a session or two. That was great! I contacted those teachers to confirm the sessions that they would be comfortable leading. I even reached out to a few district level coordinators to ask them to present too!

​Once I had my results from the Form and had confirmed with my presenters, I began planning the session schedule. This part was a little tricky, since I wanted to keep presenters doing multiple sessions in the same classroom. I moved the sessions and presenters around like a puzzle until the pieces fit. I also created descriptions of the sessions, so that the attendees could choose the session that was right for them.

I shared (emailed) the Schedule and Description with the teachers who would be attending about 5 days before the event. I wanted them to start planning out their afternoon, so that they could make the most of their time. 

A few days before the event, I confirmed the room numbers and double-checked the technology available in those rooms (projector, connections, desktop, etc.). I also worked with the administrator at the hosting site to purchase snacks (water bottles, trail mix, granola bars) and chocolate for the day of the PD. Once everything was planned and set up, I sent a final email out to teachers (the morning of the PD) with all of the attachments they would need - schedule, descriptions, kick off slides, self-paced learning slides. I spent the morning of the PD organizing the snacks, printing out signs and maps, getting Chromebooks ready for teacher checkout, and organizing last minute details. Then, all that was left was to wait for the teachers and the PD to begin!

Today was an incredible day of learning and collaborating with teachers and classified staff from OUSD. About 150 Oceanside staff members attended our "Going Google" Boot Camp, volunteering their own time (during summer break) to practice using the the tools in the G-Suite. I had such a great time teaching four sessions and helping those who are just starting out with the Google Apps. Presenting on the G-Suite is my favorite! I love when teachers start to realize ways that the Google Apps can simplify their work flow and increase productivity. I also like hearing about the various classroom applications that teachers think of. So much creativity! Check out #GOside on Twitter to see the excitement and learning that happened at our Boot Camp today!
Here are the presentations that I gave today. Feel free to use them as a resource and share them with colleagues.

Google Classroom is such an amazing tool, and as most of you know, I love teaching teachers how to use it. I was so excited to have the opportunity to present an "Introduction to Google Classroom" for beginners at this year's National CUE conference in Palm Springs, CA. My colleague and friend, Melissa Monroe, and I presented to a room full of educators who were excited to learn more about this powerful Google App. The entire hour long presentation was full of excellent questions and feedback from our audience. If you were part of that crowd, "Thank You" for attending and making our work so meaningful.
I am posting the presentation slide deck below. Please feel free to pass this along to any colleagues that could benefit from it.

Basic information about the Google Drive can be seen in this short video!

Think of the Google Drive as a digital file cabinet! Except ... it's way cooler than a file cabinet. In the Google Drive, you can upload ​Docs and PDFs that you already have saved on your computer. It is a "cloud" storage for you. In addition to uploading things, you can also create Documents (Google Docs), Presentations (Google Slides), Spreadsheets (Google Sheets), and Google Forms (check out my example below) directly in the Drive. 

In my teaching experience, one of the greatest features of Google Drive, is that you can share documents with your colleagues with the click of a mouse. No more making a photocopies for your grade level team! You can just share the document in the Drive and they have access to it. Or better yet, you can share a grade level folder, and your colleagues can browse your "file cabinet" at their leisure.

Google Classroom and Google Drive go hand in hand (as well as docs, slides, and sheets). If this is something you would like more information about, please complete this Google Form!