Earlier this week I had the pleasure of participating in the Texas GEG (Google Educator Group) Lesson Plan Jam at the Google offices in Austin, Texas. It was an amazing experience with some rock star educators, so I had to share!
What is a Google Educator Group (GEG)?
"Google Educator Groups (GEGs) are communities of educators who learn, share, and inspire each other to meet the needs of their students through technology solutions, both in the classroom and beyond."
Why Should You Join a GEG?
"Learn. Share. Inspire. Empower. These four words represent the essence of GEGs. Educators will build relationships with other educators and gain the necessary skills to use open technology to deliver the best possible education to their students."
How to Start:
"Search the GEG directory to find the GEG nearest you, follow the group on Google+ to get their latest news, and feel free to show up to the group’s next event. Don’t see a group near you? Check back soon, as we're expanding GEG."
I am the co-leader of the Google Educator Group for North Texas (GEG-NORTX) with the fabulous Ann Witherspoon. We teamed up with Google for Education, our Central Texas friends (GEG-CENTX) Monica Martinez, Christy Fennewald, Brandie Cain-Heard, and Stephanie Cerda , and organized the Lesson Plan Jam. Check out our website for details on the day and bios for the organizers and lead learners: http://goo.gl/U0rZd3.
What is a Lesson Plan Jam?
The Lesson Plan Jam provides an opportunity for educators to create completed unit plans leveraging Google tools to enhance transformative practices. The Lesson Plan Jam consists of a full day session with demo slams, discussion on teacher challenges and tools, and dedicated time for "Googleizing" lesson plans. The Lesson Plan Jam uses a template for participants to customize and outline their unit plans, the Google tools used to enhance the plans, and any details on lesson activities and outcomes. Once all unit plans are completed they are submitted to one central site for the community to benefit from.
The Results
I think our first Lesson Plan Jam was a great success! We had an amazing group of teachers and lead learners. This was collaboration at it's best! Teachers were grouped with by their experience and specialties, and given this unit template to develop their own collaborative units. We had around fifteen unit plans developed and "Googleized," during our very productive day. (Look for these to be shared very soon!)
The event was held at the Google offices in Austin, and Kevin Hodges was our very gracious host. Kevin gave us a tour of the offices where we could gaze at the amazing creative spaces, funky furniture, micro-kitchens and catch a glimpse of the internal workings of Google. Throw in a Demo Slam, door prizes, Chrome cookies, and some Texas-sized networking and you have one fantastic GEG event!
Special thanks to Jordan Pedraza and Jennifer Magiera for guiding us through this event, and a very big thank you to the other GEG leaders who made this happen!
I look forward to future collaboration with these #edurockstars in the future! Follow them all on Google+! Below is a circle I have shared publicly.
Stay tuned, North Texas, there will be another event coming your way soon! And I have to give a special shout out to my NORTX crew for representing our area so well!
Kasey Bell will be presenting at the following upcoming events:
- Teaching and Learning with the iPad, Nov. 20-22 (Raleigh, NC)
- FETC, Jan. 20-23 (Orlando, FL)
- TCEA, Feb. 2-6 (Austin, TX)