I find that using technology is such a benefit in my sixth grade class. We have Chromebooks and have become a Google-ccentric school. I use Google Classroom in my classes and have found that I like the simplicity of it. There are a few things that I am hoping they will add as they continue to develop and change the way it works. One of the best benefits is using Google Forms to give assessments. Today, I gave my students a twenty-five question Social Studies test. I set up the form to collect their username to identify them. The form included text response, multiple choice, and matching. It was a relatively simple test but covered a long unit on Ancient Egypt. I teach about sixty students in my two Social Studies classes. Once all of the tests were submitted, I was able to use an add-on called Flubaroo to grade it. I took the test to make a Key and then put in the points values for each questions and chose my response as the key. The test was graded in about one minute!
As a side note . . . before the test, I created a Quizlet set as a study guide. I think more students studied for this test than any other test I have given in my eleven years of teaching.
Another benefit is being able to analyze the test for low scoring test questions. Seeing that a high number of students got a question wrong allows me to go back and look at the question and determine if I needed to teach it differently or if the question was worded in a difficult way. I'm truly starting to believe that the possibilities are endless for teachers and students when you include technology in the classroom.
