1. www.cue.org/gwe
Teacher Academy
For Educators

2. Google Workshop for Educators
Search, learn, share! Brought to you by Computer Using Educators
(CUE), the producers of the Google Teacher Academy, the Google
Workshop for Educators is a high-energy professional development
experience that introduces participants to innovative ways free
Google tools can be used in education. A full-day of fast-paced
presentations and hands-on activities includes experience with
advanced search techniques, collaborative web-based applications,
and inspirational instructional strategies. Google Certified Teachers
(GCTs) share the ways they've implemented tools such as Google
Search, Google Docs, Google Sites, and... even more. Participants
who complete the workshop are given access to the Google
Workshop for Educators Network, an online group focused on
supporting educators as they learn more about the power of Google
to support learning.
CUE is an official Google Professional Development partner.
Teacher Academy
For Educators

3. in the Classroom
Created by CUE and WestEd for Google
Get the tool: http://www.google.com/a/edu/
What is it?
With Google Apps: Education Edition your entire campus
community can share information and ideas more easily.
Google Apps can give students, faculty, and staff at
your school custom email addresses, shared calendars,
collaborative web sites, shared online documents, safe instant
messaging, and more. Everyone can even have an easy-to-use
customizable start page. All educational accounts are free
of charge and you can use your school’s already registered
domain. The administrator of your domain can turn on
and off the services depending on your school or district’s
acceptable use policy. Save time and money with Google
Apps; worries about losing assignments or about updating
computer platforms and software versions are a thing of the
past. Best of all, these tools are available to you and your
students anytime - anywhere there is an Internet accessible
computer. Everyone can work together seamlessly and
easily.
Why use it?
Students can use Google Apps to:
• Collaborate with classmates using Google Sites.
Expert Tip
• Make a presentation with Google Docs. You can provide specific
• Keep organized using Google Calendar.
resources to your students
Teachers can use Google Apps to: by placing a Google Gadget
• Have easy access to their colleagues using Google Talk. into the locked section of
• Sign up for computer lab or library time using a Google
Calendar.
the home page. This way,
• Collect assignments online using Gmail or Google Docs. students will always have
access to the information
you want them to have.

4. Instructional Ideas
Elementary. Teachers can create a home page for students to use, with the links and Google services they
want. Google Apps has a customizable home page, where the teacher can place “Gadgets” for students to
use, including dictionaries, encyclopedias, online sticky notes, and many more educational tools.
Middle School. Using Google Sites, the teacher can create a course web site with subordinate pages for
each unit. Students can also be assigned their own page to display their classwork. This site can serve as a
collaborative online textbook and as online student portfolios
High School. The teacher can enable Google Talk, but limit its use to communicating only with other
students, faculty, and staff in the domain. This gives students the experience of using instant messaging
for legitimate purposes, and does so in a safe environment
Google Apps: Education Edition in Action
Project: Your School Portal
Grade/Subject: 9th Grade Global Communications Class / Tech
Arts Pathway
URL: http://www.capuchinohighschool.org
The students in the Capuchino Global Communications program
sign in to use Google Apps: Education Edition through a single
portal. By logging in students gain access to their school Gmail
account and to Google Docs for their school. The students can
also customize their start page with additional gadgets, such
as access to Google Scholar, Google Reader, Wikipedia, and
other personalized news feeds, including their classmates’ posts
on Blogger. This allows students to take greater control of their
workflow - their custom “desktop” is available to them on any
computer 24 hours a day.
Additional Resources
Learn More about Google Apps: Education Edition
View an introductory video.
http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/cust_videos.html#whygoogleapps
Learn what other schools have done.
http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/cust_videos.html
See a product demo in a school environment.
http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/edu/demos.html
Register for a webinar.
http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/admins/seminars.html
Ask current customers questions in the online community.
http://groups.google.com/group/apps-edu-circle/topics
Learn about advanced configuration.
http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=88156
In order to comply with federal law and the Google Terms of Service, students need to be over 13 years of age to use any product which requires a Google Account.
Students may participate in product use if the account is owned by a parent or teacher and that parent or teacher is present when the product is being used.
http://www.google.com/educators

5. in the Classroom
Created by CUE and WestEd for Google
Get the tool: http://www.blogger.com
What is it?
Blogger is a tool that makes it easy to instantly publish
weblogs or “blogs.” Blogs are webpages consisting of
frequently updated posts. The newest post appears at
the top of the page, followed by recent posts in reverse
chronological order. Older posts appear in archives,
usually organized by month. Blogger makes it easy to
create rich multi-media posts that include text, links,
pictures, and videos. Visitors can comment on posts -
or subscribe to the blog using a feed reader.
Why use it?
Students can use Blogger to:
• Keep a reflective learning journal throughout the school
year.
• Post messages, photos, and videos from a family
vacation.
• Share schoolwork with their peers, parents, and others.
Teachers can use Blogger to:
• Post resources, lessons, and homework assignments.
• Keep parents up-to-date on class happenings.
• Reflect on their own teaching practices and share their
ideas with other educators.
Expert Tip
Add “labels” as keywords
or tags to organize
Instructional Ideas and categorize your
Elementary. Post a series of images and links to great
posts. Labels such as
reading activities that kids can do from home. See http://
tinyurl.com/3kmvgg for an example. announcements, homework,
Middle School. Students can post reviews of their favorite
social studies, or period 2
books and invite comments from other classes, their can help students find the
parents, or the general public. posts most relevant to them.
High School. For history class, students conduct original
interviews with local senior citizens, placing text, images,
and video clips on their blog as a digital archive of local
history.

6. Blogger in Action
Project: Community Issues Blogging
Grade/Subject: Grade 9-12 Social Science
School: Miramonte High School, Orinda, CA
In a Contemporary Issues class, students use Blogger to
share a little piece of themselves while they make the world
a better a place. Students create a grassroots campaign
through a blog, focusing on an issue of choice. They educate
their readers about the issue via research and writing and
solicit comments from different perspectives. They also
volunteer time at a local organization related to their issue,
taking pictures and posting commentary on their blog.
Additional Resources
More Examples
Project S.C.A.T. - Mrs. Abernethy’s Cyber Chickens, a 5th grade class in Greenville, PA, take on
hazardous waste contamination in their community.
http://cyberchickens26.blogspot.com/
AP Calculus Blog - Sophisticated math lessons are blogged and discussed.
http://apcalc07.blogspot.com/
Weblogg-Ed - Will Richardson’s blog about the read/write web in the classroom.
http://weblogg-ed.com
Two Cents Worth - David Warlick’s blog about literacy in the 21st century.
http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/
CoolCatTeacher - Vicki Davis’s blog about teaching with technology.
http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com
SupportBlogging.com - A site set up to provide an oppportunity for students, teachers, administrators,
parents, and others to understand the benefits of educational blogging.
http://supportblogging.com
Complementary Tools
• Feedburner
• Google Blog Search
• Google Docs: Embed Documents, Spreadsheets, Forms, or Presentations.
• Google Reader
• Google Video or YouTube
• Picasa
In order to comply with federal law and the Google Terms of Service, students need to be over 13 years of age to use any product which requires a Google Account.
Students may participate in product use if the account is owned by a parent or teacher and that parent or teacher is present when the product is being used.
http://www.google.com/educators

7. in the Classroom
Created by CUE and WestEd for Google
Get the tool: http://docs.google.com
What is it?
Google Docs is a free online word processor,
spreadsheet, and presentation editor that allows
you to create, store, share, and collaborate
on documents with others. If you know how
to use other word processors, spreadsheets,
and presentation programs, you can easily use
Google Docs. Instead of emailing files back and
forth between collaborators, Google Docs allows
people to work on a single version of a document
together online. The chat feature on presentations
makes it possible to create a “permeable classroom”
by bringing experts into a lesson to interact with
students online. You can also create web-based
surveys to collect information from students, teachers,
or parents.
Why use it? Expert Tip
Students can use Google Docs to:
Don’t like the latest changes
• Work on their files from any computer—all they need
is a internet connection.
in your document? Roll
• Get instant feedback on their work from multiple back to earlier versions of
collaborators and their teacher. any document by clicking on
• Publish their papers and presentations on the web “File” > “Revision History.”
for an authentic audience.
Then click on a previous
Teachers can use Google Docs to:
version, and click “Revert to
• Provide timely feedback to students at any point this one.”
during the writing process.
• Collaborate with colleagues on shared materials and
assessment data.
• Publish handouts and presentations online for
students and parents.

8. Instructional Ideas
Elementary. Students can complete a book report on school computers. Teachers can then upload completed
reports into Google Docs to share with colleagues or publish for parents.
Middle School. Partner with a class at another school, enter data from the same science experiment in a
spreadsheet, and compare the results online.
High School. In Economics, students can monitor and calculate their investment portfolio in spreadsheets
when playing the “Stock Market Game.” Students can track specific stocks at different times of the day and
share the data.
Google Docs in Action
Project: Writing Portfolios
Grade/Subject: 9-12th, Journalism
School: Palo Alto High School, CA
In one high school journalism class, every student keeps
their entire writing portfolio on Google Docs. The teacher
checks and verifies which assignments have been turned
on a daily basis, and easily monitors student progress over
time by having everything centrally located. More than just a
library of files, though, students use the online environment
to manage the entire writing process: share ideas, do peer
editing, create revisions, and publish their final work. Best
of all, the teacher can easily track the development of each
writing assignment as the students work through multiple
revisions. As students seamlessly work on their writing at
home, school, at the library, and with their friends, there
has been noticeable a improvement in the quality of their
writing.
Additional Resources
More Examples
Google Docs in Plain English Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRqUE6IHTEA
Using Google Docs in the Classroom: Simple as ABC: http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dcdn7mjg_72nh25vq
Google Docs page on the Google for Educators site: http://www.google.com/educators/p_docs.html
Weekly Reader Collaborative Writing Project http://www.google.com/educators/weeklyreader.html
Complementary Tools
• Blogger
• Google Sites
• iGoogle
• YouTube
In order to comply with federal law and the Google Terms of Service, students need to be over 13 years of age to use any product which requires a Google Account.
Students may participate in product use if the account is owned by a parent or teacher and that parent or teacher is present when the product is being used.
http://www.google.com/educators

9. in the Classroom
Created by CUE and WestEd for Google
Get the tool: http://earth.google.com
What is it?
Google Earth is a free, downloadable application that combines
satellite imagery, maps, 3D terrain and 3D buildings to create a
highly realistic virtual globe. Teachers and students can create
their own virtual tours and share them with others. They can
explore content developed by organizations such as NASA,
Discovery Education, Jane Goodall and others. In addition,
Google Earth now allows students and teachers to turn their
gaze upward to explore the night sky or go under water to
explore the depths of the ocean.
Why use it?
Students can use Google Earth to:
• Create tours of their school or community
• Study climate change and the effects of global warming
• Track earthquakes in real-time Expert Tip
• Explore the animal kingdom and endangered species
with National Geographic content For basic text formatting
Teachers can use Google Earth to: in your place marker pop-
• Set the scene for geography, history, literature, ups, format content in
astronomy and other lessons Google Docs. Choose Edit
• Adapt traditionally abstract lessons to the “real-world”
HTML from the Edit menu.
by having students interact with virtual real-time data
such as weather, earthquakes, bird migrations, etc. The coding is done! Just
• Engage students in pro-active engagement in a wide- copy and paste into Google
range of Google Outreach projects at: http://www.google. Earth’s place marker
com/earth/outreach/showcase.html
description box!

10. Instructional Ideas
Elementary. Explore our neighborhood! Have students create a tour of their neighborhood creating annotated
place markers indicating the location for their school and points of interest in their town such as the local
fire and police stations, the city library, local parks, and museums.
Middle School. Calculate the volume of the Great Pyramids. Estimate the land area lost to Amazon
deforestation. Check out Thomas Petra’s Real World Math site at: http://realworldmath.org/ for these and
several other Google Earth Math lessons plans.
High School. Have students explore the dining customs of a variety of countries by building an International
Cookbook where users virtually visit the various countries. And, while they’re ‘in-country” why not stop by and
visit a few points of cultural interest? See: http://web.mac.com/ghsinfo/CAFS/International_Cuisine.html
Google Earth in Action
Project: Google Lit Trips
Grade/Subject: All Grades / Reading and Literature
URL: http://www.GoogleLitTrips.com
Teachers and students can create Google Lit Trips using
Google Earth to track the journeys of characters from great
“road trip” literature, such as The Grapes of Wrath by John
Steinbeck. Students mark locations along the story’s route
and populate the pop-up windows with a wide variety of
content including discussion questions, images, videos, and
links to biographies of real persons or background information
for locations and historical events.
Additional Resources
Google Earth for Educators Resources Complimentary Tools
Geo Education Home: • Google SketchUp
http://www.google.com/educators/geo.html • Picassa Web Albums
Google Earth Outreach: • Google Videos or YouTube
http://earth.google.com/outreach/index.html
Sally Ride Science Content for Google Earth:
http://www.sallyridescience.com/google_earth_sky
http://www.google.com/educators

11. in the Classroom
Created by CUE and WestEd for Google
Get the tool: http://groups.google.com
What is it?
Google Groups is a free, online service that helps groups of
people easily share information and communicate effectively.
Groups are public or private places where members share files,
post ideas, and conduct discussions either on the web or via
email. All emails sent to the group are archived for future
reference and are easily searchable, either privately or
publicly.
Why use it?
Students can use Google Groups to:
• Extend class discussions online.
• Share ideas, store documents, and organize web
resources as they work on a team project.
• Create a private group for school clubs or sports teams
to share the latest news, announcements, and pictures.
Teachers can use Google Groups to:
• Make class handouts, reading materials, assignments,
and web links available to students and their parents. (A
Google Group could even be used to manage an online
class!)
• Send email announcements to parents.
• Centralize resources and communication for grade levels,
departments, or professional learning communities. Expert Tip
Instructional Ideas By default, new members
Elementary. Set up a parent-child book club using Google
do not automatically receive
Groups. Students and parents read the book together at emails sent to the group. As
home and then respond to the discussion questions you soon as you join a Google
post to the group. Group, manually edit your
Middle School. Create an online study group. Each day “membership preferences”
assign one student to post class notes as a new page in
the Group. Then ask students to respond to reflection
to make sure you receive
questions in the discussion area. Use the “Rate this Post” email messages from other
feature for participation grades or peer review. members.
High School. As part of a career-exploration project, have
students join a publicly available Group related to their
field of interest. After reading through the discussion
archives, have each student post appropriate career
questions to the group.

12. Google Groups in Action
Project: Digital Debate
Subject: English Language Arts
Use Google Groups to help students develop arguments
for persuasive essays and speeches. The
teacher creates a different discussion thread
for each topic being debated in class, such
as illegal immigration or the death penalty.
Students post their opinions on assigned topics
and include at least two links to web resources
(news articles, video clips, etc.) that support their
arguments. Each student is asked to respond
to three other student messages with their own
arguments (and links!) for or against the issue.
Once completed, students have a wide variety of
opinions and resources to draw from before writing a
persuasive essay or giving a formal presentation.
Additional Resources
More on Facilitating Online Group Discussion
Using online groups to enhance face-to-face classes
http://tinyurl.com/3qmrxu
Learn to moderate an online discussion
http://www.edutech.ch/vista/docs/HOWTOs/VIS058E_ForumGuidesProf.php
Build an online professional learning community
http://www.nsdc.org/standards/learningcommunities.cfm
Complementary Tools
• Gmail
• Google Sites
• iGoogle
In order to comply with federal law and the Google Terms of Service, students need to be over 13 years of age to use any product which requires a Google Account.
Students may participate in product use if the account is owned by a parent or teacher and that parent or teacher is present when the product is being used.
http://www.google.com/educators

13. in the Classroom
Created by CUE and WestEd for Google
Get the tool: http://www.google.com/ig
What is it?
iGoogle is a personalized home page that gives students
and teachers at-a-glance access to key information from
Google and across the web. Personalized gadgets can
be added to this self-designed page, including Google
News, local weather, a personal calendar, and many
other time-saving tools. There are educational gadgets
such as the SAT/ACT Word of the Day and powerful
gadgets like Google Reader, which brings together
information from many sources. Collected gadgets and
tabs that are specific to a unit of study or personal
interest can be shared via iGoogle, sparking class
discussion and communication. Gadgets can even be
added and removed as the class progresses through
different subjects during the year.
Why use it?
Students can use iGoogle to: Expert Tip
• Stay informed with breaking news and current events. Unleash students creativity
• Add gadgets such as class calendars, to-do lists,
encyclopedias, and dictionaries that will help them
by having them make their
organize and complete their schoolwork. own iGoogle gadgets. Click
• Create customized tabs for assignments, activities, or on “Add stuff.” Then under
personal interests “Create your own gadget”
Teachers can use iGoogle to: click on “Try now.”
• Keep up-to-date with blogs for their own professional
development.
• Add gadgets for planning and organizing the
instructional day.
• Develop a custom tab for access to their online
professional learning network.

14. Instructional Ideas
Elementary. Post a series of images and links to great reading activities that kids can do from home.
Middle School. Use a blog to post homework assignments and reflection questions, then ask students to
respond in the comments.
High School. Students can use blogs across the curriculum to keep journals, lab notes, and other
assignments online. When students post a response to an assignment, ask them to comment on their peers’
writing.
iGoogle in Action
Project: Election Central
Grade/Subject: Middle or High School Social Science
Analyzing media coverage during an election is an important
part of media literacy. By dedicating an iGoogle tab to a local
or national election, students can add gadgets that bring in
election news including election maps, polls, news, quotes
and surveys. Students can share the collected gadgets with
a class “Election Central” tab that serves as a basis for class
discussion of media coverage on election issues. Consider
adding the following gadgets: TechPresident, Candidate
+ Issue Matrix, Election Results - Google, U.S. Primary
Results, Election News, Election Map from Google, Survey
Google Gadget, & Poll Tracker CQ Politics.
Additional Resources
More Examples Complementary Tools
Start a school media channel as an iGoogle tab. Students can add • Blogger
photos and videos of school events and share them as the year proceeds. • Google Groups
They can add the daily bulletin or information from the school web site • Google News
from within an iFrame gadget. http://tinyurl.com/477mhr • Google Reader
Teachers can tune in to national or local education trends by creating an • Picasa
education watch tab for their iGoogle and adding gadgets that complile
Education news such as NEA focus: http://tinyurl.com/534jjq or the or
the U.S. Department of Education: http://tinyurl.com/6xfpdh.
Keep up with Google tools and trends on your iGoogle by adding the
“Google Tip of the Day Gadget” http://tinyurl.com/4kb8lc, or the “KML
Gallery: Explore the Earth on Google” http://tinyurl.com/3kvk5t.
In order to comply with federal law and the Google Terms of Service, students need to be over 13 years of age to use any product which requires a Google Account.
Students may participate in product use if the account is owned by a parent or teacher and that parent or teacher is present when the product is being used.
http://www.google.com/educators

15. in the Classroom
Created by CUE and WestEd for Google
Get the tool: http://knol.google.com
What is it?
Knol is a service that makes it easy for anyone to write
and share knowledge with the world. Each knol is a unit of
knowledge, an authoritative article about a specific topic.
Authors can easily collaborate on the content of the knols they
create, while still maintaining control over who else can make
changes. Every knol is attributed to the author or authors, so
readers always know the authority of the source.
Why use it?
Students can use Knol to:
• Conduct research in which they can verify the
authority of information they find.
• Publish a finished paper or project about a topic
they’ve researched.
• Collaborate with other students as fellow authors to improve
the accuracy and richness of their knols.
Teachers can use Knol to:
• Teach information literacy and how to evaluate the
reliability of a source.
• Publish lesson plans for colleagues around the world.
• Provide a one stop, easy to use document covering school
rules and expectations. Expert Tip
If the teacher starts the
Instructional Ideas
Knol, and then invites
Elementary. Students can research a local historical person or
geographic feature. The teacher can write a class knol based individual student authors to
on their work and then encourage local community members collaborate, the teacher can
to visit the Knol and provide feedback to the students. control when and how the
Middle School. Eighth graders can write a Knol explaining the Knol is published.
rules of a sport, game, or other “how to” process. They can
publish their knols to the web, and then suggest changes to
their classmates’ published work.
High School. Students can collaboratively write a research
paper and publish it as a Knol. This provides an authentic
audience, and students can receive meaningful feedback from
readers, allowing them to improve their knol over time.

16. Knol in Action
Project: Famous Photographers
Grade/Subject: 10-12th grade Visual Arts
URL: http://tiny.cc/mtxbu
Students work in pairs to learn
about specific photographers
who contribute to graphic design.
Students then write about the
author and publish their work to
Knol. Students must develop an
authoritative voice and give special
attention to the citing of sources.
Then students act as reviewers
for each other, providing meaningful peer
feedback.
Additional Resources
More example Knols Complementary Tools
• The First Day Of High School • Search the Creative Commons for
http://tinyurl.com/5rkycw images to add impact to a Knol!
• Curricular Knols (Pre-K through High School) http://search.creativecommons.org
http://tinyurl.com/64t7sn • Use Gliffy to create diagrams to
illustrate the content in a Knol.
http://www.gliffy.com/
• Search Google Scholar for
references to support a Knol.
http://scholar.google.com
In order to comply with federal law and the Google Terms of Service, students need to be over 13 years of age to use any product which requires a Google Account.
Students may participate in product use if the account is owned by a parent or teacher and that parent or teacher is present when the product is being used.
http://www.google.com/educators

17. in the Classroom
Created by CUE and WestEd for Google
Get the tool: http://maps.google.com/
What is it?
Google Maps is a powerful, user-friendly mapping tool
available on the internet and viewed in your
web browser. In addition to driving directions
and local business information, Google Maps
also provides terrain maps, satellite imagery,
and (in places) a 360 degree photographic
“street view” of the real world. Using the “My
Maps” feature students and teachers can also
collaborate to create their own custom maps
by adding new placemarkers that include text,
images, and video. Custom Google Maps can be
shared by copying a simple web link or embedding
the map in a class website.
Why use it? Expert Tip
Students can use Google Maps to:
• Keep track of class pen pals When working in MY
• Take virtual tours of countries where a language MAPS, be sure to click the
they are studying is spoken. (Include planning for “Browse the Directory”
local transportation, site-seeing, dining and hotel
reservations!)
link! You’ll find dozens of
• Learn about animal and plant life by embedding useful tools to add to Google
information in maps of different habitats. Maps including a Distance
Teachers can use Google Maps to: Measurement Tool, current
• Plan a field trip with students. weather reports, current
• Create a map of the school or school events for parents. Day/Night indicators, Virtual
• Teach history by embedding primary documents into Tourism Videos, local hike
interactive maps for students to explore.
search tool, earthquake
data search, and a whole lot
more!

18. Instructional Ideas
Elementary. Teach mapping skills and community service. Have students create a school tour to post on
the school website for families new to the neighborhood. Indicate everything from where the main office
is located to where the library, the cafeteria, and the bathrooms are. Include pictures of the principal, the
front of the school and the playground equipmen.
Middle School. Document that geology field trip! Students can then post the annotated map with photos
to a class blog to share the experience with the rest of the world. See: http://class222.googlepages.com/
geologyunit.
High School. Create an emergency disaster map for your town’s website. Include locations for police
services, hospitals, evacuation centers and routes.
Google Maps in Action
Project: Post Cards From the Past
Grade/Subject: Elementary/Local History
Add geographic perspective and visual literacy to history
lessons by combining, comparing and contrasting primary
source images with their own photography, students
contribute to the historical record and understand the
impact of change over time. Students research historic
photos taken of an event or place they are investigating.
Capturing changes through the lens of today, students
re-shoot the location with a digital camera and record
interviews at the site. Students then “Placemark” the
historic and current photos on a collaborative Google Map,
adding a geographic point of view. The recordings and
photos can also be combined in a slide show or Podcast.
Additional Resources
More Examples Complementary Tools
• GMaps Pedometer:
Quick Start with Google Maps Videos:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/
http://www.google.com/help/maps/tour/
• Google Planimeter:
A cool game for learning the states! http://www.acme.com/planimeter/
http://tinyurl.com/yrrmry • School Pen Pals & Key Pals:
http://www.theteacherscorner.net/penpals/index.php
• Google Maps Help Channel:
http://youtube.com/user/GoogleMapsHelp
• Google Earth
• Google Sites
• Picasa
http://www.google.com/educators

19. in the Classroom
Created by CUE and WestEd for Google
Get the tool: http://news.google.com
What is it?
Google News brings together news from thousands of
different sources from around the world and makes them
available in a single place. With Google News you can
quickly browse the top stories or easily search for a specific
topic. “Personalize” your news page to see only the stories
that interest you most, or have customized “new alerts”
sent directly to your email!
Why use it?
Students can use Google News to:
• Compare and contrast current events from a
variety of sources.
• Find primary documents related to historical
events over the past 200 years.
• Access the news from their mobile phones – no computer
lab required.
Teachers can use Google News to:
• Personalize their news page to stay informed on topics
they teach. Expert Tip
• Search the news for stories relevant to a particular day’s
lesson. Create your own
• Model for students how to examine bias and reliability in personalized newspaper!
the news. Click “Personalize this
page,” then “Add a custom
Instructional Ideas section” with your own
Elementary. Find a top news story from a different country keywords. Once set up, your
each day of the week and save a photo related to the new section has its own RSS
article. Write brief captions for each photo and assemble
them in a poster called “The World This Week.” feed that can be seen in any
Middle School. Have students compare and contrast
RSS reader—including your
articles on a single event from different sources, such as iGoogle home page.
the The New York Times, The Guardian Unlimited in the
UK, and The People’s Daily Online in China.
High School. In foreign language classes, start each day
reading aloud or translating a top news story from an
appropriate foreign news source.

20. Google News in Action
Project: Current Events Exchange
Grade/Subject: High School / History & Government
School: Galileo Academy of Science and Tech,
CA
Students exchange their ideas about recent
current events for their high school social
studies classes. Students explore a wide variety
of Internet news stories from different sources
and post summaries and opinions online for other
students to view. (Consider using Blogger or Google
Sites for students to post links to - and reflections
on - news stories.) In the process, students practice
research, evaluation of sources, synthesis, formulating
opinions, and publishing for an authentic audience.
Additional Resources
More News Sites for Students
NY Times Learning Network
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/
Scholastic News Online
http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/
CNN Student News
http://www.cnn.com/studentnews/
Information Literacy
The Big Six
http://www.big6.com
Association of Colleges and Research Libraries
http://tinyurl.com/myardx
November Learning
http://tinyurl.com/33lwgs
http://www.google.com/educators

21. in the Classroom
Created by CUE and WestEd for Google
Get the tool: http://picasa.google.com
What is it?
Picasa is a free application that helps you instantly organize,
edit, and share all the pictures on your PC or Mac. It
automatically locates all your pictures and sorts them into
visual albums. Picasa also makes powerful photo editing
simple. Picasa Web Albums allow photos from Picasa (or
iPhoto on a Mac) to be uploaded to the web quickly and
easily. Students and parents can then access an online
slideshow (complete with captions) and download the
pictures they like. Intuitive privacy controls in Picasa
Web Albums allow you to share your photo albums
with the world, as well as create “unlisted” or sign-in-
required photo albums.
Why use it?
Students can use Picasa to:
• Organize and manage photos for projects and reports.
• Quickly edit photos and other images.
• Share photos of school events with friends and family.
Teachers can use Picasa to:
• Create an album for each student.
• Quickly create a slideshow for open house.
• Share field trip photos online for parents. Expert Tip
You can send your pictures
Instructional Ideas to a local drugstore and
Elementary. Take pictures of student work, presentations, or have professional quality
field trips throughout the year and quickly turn them into a
slideshow that you can play at open house or during parent
prints within hours. Just
conferences. click “Order Prints,” select
Middle School. Students can create a historical photo album a store near you, and Picasa
by taking pictures of themselves in historical costumes and will upload your photos
settings. Then apply sepia tones or black & white effects to directly to the store.
make them look like old photos and print them out - or share
them as a web album.
High School. Journalism students can keep all photos for
each edition of their newspaper or magazine in one location
on their classroom PC, adding descriptions and captions that
make them easy to find, re-use, and share.

22. Picasa in Action
Project: Taxonomy Skills
Grade/Subject: 7th grade Life Science
In Classroom Instruction That Works, Marzano,
Pickering, and Pollock suggest that “representing
similarities and diferences in graphic or symbolic
form enhances students’ understanding of and ability
to use knowledge.” Science students can compare
and contrast images of various animals and plants in
Picasa by adding captions. Then they can organize
the images into albums that represent either existing
taxonomies - or classifications that students create
themselves. In this way, students exercise their
powers of observation and learn science by doing
what scientists do. In addition, the visual medium
is a vocabulary development aid for many students,
especially English learners. Extend the assignment
by sharing students’ albums via Picasa Web and
asking students to evaluate each other’s work.
Additional Resources
More about Picasa Complementary Tools
• Picasa in Education • Picasa Web Albums
http://picasained.wikispaces.com Uploader (for iPhoto)
• Adobe Digital Kids Club http://picasa.google.com/
http://www.adobe.com/education/digkids/lessons/index.html web/mac_tools.html
• Blogger
• Example Web Album: Googlers visit the school of GCT Cheryl • Google Earth
Davis.... during a file drill. • Google Maps
http://tinyurl.com/5sy98h • Google Sites
• iGoogle
In order to comply with federal law and the Google Terms of Service, students need to be over 13 years of age to use any product which requires a Google Account.
Students may participate in product use if the account is owned by a parent or teacher and that parent or teacher is present when the product is being used.
http://www.google.com/educators

23. Google Reader in the Classroom
Created by CUE and WestEd for Google
Get the tool: http://reader.google.com
What is it?
Google Reader makes it easy to keep current with best
practices and the latest in any content area. Students and
teachers can choose to receive updates from particular blogs,
news sites, or other web pages. Google Reader constantly
checks these sites for new content and then brings updates
to a single location to be read, sorted, and shared - complete
with annotations. This is like having a personalized inbox for
a custom flow of information.
Why use it?
Students can use Google Reader to:
• Keep updated on current events and news that they care
about.
• Collect, annotate, and share research for collaborative
projects.
Expert Tip
• Read items that are shared by their teacher to help with
current assignments. Use the Discover feature
Teachers can use Google Reader to:
(next to Add Subscription) to
explore blogs and websites
• Keep track of student blogs all in one place.
• Follow best practices in education by reading other relevant to the ones you’ve
educator’s blogs. already subscribed to.
• Share relevant news articles with students or colleagues Recommendations for new
through the ‘Shared Items’ feature. (Shared items can
feeds are generated by
even be annotated with notes!)
comparing your interests
with the feeds of users
similar to you.

24. Instructional Ideas
Elementary. Teachers can subscribe to other elementary school blogs to follow what students around the
world are creating on the web - and then share the best posts with their own students, complete with
annotations that relate the international posts to content being learned in class.
Middle School. Share news and current events on specific areas of interests or units of study. A class website
can link to the teacher’s shared items, providing links for research projects, journal prompts, or webquests.
High School. Students can each have their own Google Reader account for conducting research. Students
can follow each other on Reader to share items between students doing a group project or with the whole
class. Teachers can highlight in class the best resources found by students during their independent
research.
Google Reader in Action
Project: Google Reader Staff Development led by 9th graders
Grade/Subject: Ninth Grade
School: Eleanor Roosevelt High School in New York City
Students learned to use Google Reader for independent
research projects. Then the students led a staff development
workshop in which each student coached a teacher on using
Google Reader to aggregate RSS feeds.
View the resources aggregated by the students:
http://tinyurl.com/3opflc
View pictures of the workshop: http://tinyurl.com/4jelph
Additional Resources
More Ways to Read and Share Complementary Tools
• Add your Reader feeds to your Blog, website or iGoogle homepage. • Blogger
• Check out your Reader Trends and hone in on what sites and topics are • Google Sites
catching your interest. • iGoogle
• Add “Note in Reader” to your browser tool bar to grab a snippet of
any website (even one you’re not subscribed to) and save in Reader.
You can highlight sections of a website and share it with students or
colleagues.
• Use a service like RSSMix.com to create a class feed that consolidates
all of the students’ individual shared item feeds.
• Read your feeds on the go. With Google Reader on your phone you can
access your favorite feeds from your mobile device.
In order to comply with federal law and the Google Terms of Service, students need to be over 13 years of age to use any product which requires a Google Account.
Students may participate in product use if the account is owned by a parent or teacher and that parent or teacher is present when the product is being used.
http://www.google.com/educators

25. Created by CUE and WestEd for Google
Get the tool: http://www.google.com
What is it?
Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information
and make it universally accessible and useful. Google
Search is now widely recognized as the world’s largest
search engine, an easy-to-use free service that usually
returns relevant results in a fraction of a second. Using
Google, students and teachers are able to access a variety
of information in many different languages: stock quotes,
maps, news headlines, videos, images, books, and much
much more. Students’ curiosity is no longer bound by the
limits of the school and local libraries - they can search
billions of sources from around the globe.
Why use it?
Students can use Google Search to:
• Research class topics
• Find pages similar to ones that are relevant to their
school work. Simply click “similar pages” below a
successful search result.
Expert Tip
• Search for images to use in multimedia projects.
http://images.google.com
Create a custom search
• Search the web right from their mobile phones. engine to focus students’
http://sms.google.com search efforts on safe and
Teachers can use Google Search to: relevant sites. http://www.
• Translate web pages for English Language Learners. google.com/coop/
http://www.google.com/language_tools
• Search for instructional materials in specific file formats
including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF.
http://www.google.com/advanced_search
• Use Google’s “Safe Search” settings to restrict the
search results on student computers. On the Google
homepage, just click the small “Preferences” link next to
the search bar.

26. Instructional Ideas
Elementary. Teachers can use the Q & A function to model inquiry driven learning during class discussions. When
students ask a question, instead of giving them the answer, say, “Let’s find out together!”
Middle School. Students can use the “define:” function to complete vocabulary assignments in every
subject or look up challenging words as they read. The multiple definitions given in the results can quickly
demonstrate words in different contexts.
High School. Students can make calculations right from the search box. It even performs square roots, logarithms,
and trigonometric functions such as sin and cos. Google also performs unit conversions, including currencies.
Google Search in Action
Project: Senior Project
Grade/Subject: High School English
Seniors spend time during their final year of school
researching a possible career. Topics can vary from
journalism or architecture to yoga instruction or night
club management. In the first phase of the project,
the students conduct research and compose an
essay. Google Scholar, Google Books, Google News,
and Google Blog Search offer a killer combination of
resources, ranging from the most authoritative to the
most current. In the second phase, students interview
a professional, who can be located using Google Local,
Google Maps, or by searching the phone book from the
Google home page. Next comes the third phase, in which
students get hands-on experience in the field, where
they can still have access to Google SMS and Goog-411
through their mobile phone. Finally, in the forth phase
students present their research and experience to a panel
of teachers and community members.
Additional Resources
Specialized Search Google Labs
• Google Scholar - Search scholarly sources • Google Labs - A showcase of new tools!
http://scholar.google.com http://labs.google.com
• Google Books - Search full text books • Google Trends - See global search trends!
http://books.google.com http://www.google.com/trends/
• Google Sets - Create lists from a few
• Google News - Search worldwide news sources examples!
http://news.google.com http://labs.google.com/sets
• Google Blog Search - Search the latest scoop • Experimental Search - Check out Google’s
http://blogsearch.google.com latest!
http://www.google.com/experimental/
• Even More - Explore other specialized searches
www.google.com/options/
http://www.google.com/educators

27. in the Classroom
Created by CUE and WestEd for Google
Get the tool: http://sites.google.com
What is it?
Google Sites is a tool that allows students
and teachers to create custom web pages,
adding content, attachments, and embedded
media from many other services, including
Picasa Web Albums, YouTube video, and
Google Docs. A site can be created for a class,
a school, or any other group that needs to
quickly share information and ideas—even a
team or a club. The easy-to-use editor makes
it possible to build a site in minutes using
templates for specific types of pages, such as
announcements, dashboards, file cabinets, or
lists. Google Sites also offers control over who
has access to the page; share with everyone, or
only specific individuals.
Why use it? Expert Tip
Students can use Google Sites to:
• Manage a to do list for their assignments and activies. Conduct an online class
• Create a personal portfolio of their work. poll (or quiz) on your site. A
• Collaborate and share ideas with other students for group form can be created using
work and peer tutoring. a Google Docs spreadsheet
Teachers can use Google Sites to: and then be embedded
• Create a class web page, including handouts and tutorial in your Google Site. Then
videos.
• Collaborate with other teachers on department or school-
students answer questions
wide projects. right on your site, and their
• Manage a international project that connects teachers responses appear in your
and students around the world. Ask students to create spreadsheet in Google Docs!
pages about subjects they are interested in.

28. Instructional Ideas
Elementary and Middle School. Create a public website for posting announcements, a calendar of events,
reading and spelling lists, weekly themes, fun stuff and more. Create a private site to share information
with parents, like curriculum resources. Students must be 13 or older to have a Google Account to add
content to Google Sites or to view private sites, but anyone can view public sites, like this example site:
http://sites.google.com/a/googleclassrooms.org/mrs-richau/Home.
High School. Have students create a site for their own government, including pages for a constitution,
separation of powers, government officials and laws. Each student can take the role of a government
official and provide a position statement, party affiliation and campaign material, including images and
video.
Google Sites in Action
Project: Global Communications Program
Grade/Subject: 9th Grade Global Communications
course
URL: http://sites.google.com/site/global-com
The Global Communications program at
Capuchino High School is a smaller learning
community, where students share three
teachers in common, allowing them to engage in
interdisciplinary projects throughout the school
year. The classes work on several large projects
during the school year, completing some of the
work in each of the three courses they are enrolled
in. Using Google Sites, they can collect all of the
material in one location making it easier for each
teacher to monitor progress toward the completion of
the project.
Additional Resources
More Examples Sites for Teachers http://www.google.com/support/
Google Sites Video sites/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=153055
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_KnC2EIS5w
Google Sites Tutorial Complementary Tools
http://tinyurl.com/5tby55 • Google Calendar
Google Sites Interactive Tutorial • Google Docs
http://services.google.com/apps/resources/overviews/ • Google Reader
welcome/topicSites/index.html • Picasa Web Albums
• YouTube
Google Sites Help http://www.google.com/support/
sites/?hl=en
In order to comply with federal law and the Google Terms of Service, students need to be over 13 years of age to use any product which requires a Google Account.
Students may participate in product use if the account is owned by a parent or teacher and that parent or teacher is present when the product is being used.
http://www.google.com/educators

29. in the Classroom
Get the tool: http://sketchup.google.com
SketchUp
What is it?
Google SketchUp is a free software application that empowers
students to become designers who can create 3D models of
anything they like. Most people get rolling with SketchUp in
just a few minutes. Dozens of video tutorials, an extensive
Help Center and a worldwide user community mean
that anyone who wants to make 3D models
with SketchUp, can.
Model anything you can imagine.
Redecorate your living room. Design a new piece
of furniture. Model your city for Google Earth.
Create a skatepark for your hometown, then
export an animation and share it on YouTube.
There’s no limit to what you can create with
SketchUp.
Get models online for free.
You can build models from scratch, or you can
download what you need. People all over the world
share what they’ve made on the Google 3D Warehouse. It’s a
huge, searchable repository of models, and it’s free.
Why use it? Expert Tip
Students can use SketchUp to:
• Visualize geometry and other mathematical concepts. Everything you need to
• Model buildings and learn about architectural design and get started with Google
engineering. SketchUp can be accessed
• Design interiors, landscapes, and buildings in 3D.
• Easily share their designs with others via the web.
from within the application.
The first thing you should
Teachers can use SketchUp to:
do is watch the Quick Start
• Engage students who are more adept visual learners.
• Introduce the world of 3-dimensional design.
videos by clicking on “View
• Illustrate geometry and other mathematical concepts. Tutorials” in the Help
• Help students learn to model existing real world buildings, menu.
such as local historical or school buildings, and geo-locate
them in Google Earth.

30. Instructional Ideas
Elementary. Draw basic 2D shapes such as circles and polygons. Extrude these shapes into 3D. Apply
colors/textures to each one from the materials library.
Middle School. Search for existing castle images online, then recreate one by modeling it in SketchUp.
Use the materials library for applying textures like stone or brick. Upload your model to the Google 3D
Warehouse with meta data about it.
High School. Model your high school. Start by importing the footprint snapshot image location from Google
Earth. Trace the perimeter of the building outline and extrude up to correct height from data collected by
physically measuring the height of the building. Apply photo textures from digital photos taken of each
facade. Export your geographically located model back into Google Earth, and upload to the Google 3D
Warehouse. Wait for it to be judged and possibly see it in the permanent layer of Google Earth for the world
to view!
SketchUp in Action
Project: Build a “Solar Passive Cabin”
Grade/Subject: 11th and 12th Grade, Computer Design
School: Lake Ginninderra College, Australia
For this project, students were asked to design a “green
cabin” for a real rock star. He wanted ideas for an
environmentally friendly house that would sit on Lake
Ginninderra. There were strict criteria: it could be no larger
than 150 sq meters maximum with one bedroom and a
recording studio. The students used SketchUp to design
the whole house, including furniture and features right
down to the pictures on the wall. One student, inspired by
designs in the Caribbean, even built an imaginary extension
that could hang over the lake. One of the keys to the project
was having a real “client” to design for.
Additional Resources
More on SketchUp Google SketchUp Help Center:
Google SketchUp free download link: http://sketchup.google.com/support/
http://sketchup.google.com/product/gsu.html
Google SketchUp Video Tutorials: Complementary Tools
https://sites.google.com/site/sketchupvideo/
Google Earth
OR www.youtube.com
http://earth.google.com
search “sketchup new user”
Google 3D Warehouse
Google SketchUp Self-paced Tutorials:
http://sketchup.google.
http://sketchup.google.com/training/videos.html
com/3dwarehouse
select self-paced tutorials from the left menu
Google SketchUp Community Resources:
http://www.google.com/sketchup/community/
Google SketchUp K-12 Gallery:
http://picasaweb.google.com/gallery.sketchup/EducationK12#
http://www.google.com/educators

31. Wave in the Classroom
Created by CUE and WestEd for Google
Get the tool: http://wave.google.com
What is it?
Google Wave is a free online collaboration tool. With real-time
functionality, members of a Wave can see character by character
what another member is typing. Collaborating with students and
colleagues is easy, because everything a participating member
adds to the Wave can be edited by any other member of
the Wave and the “playback” feature lets you
view an archive of edits and additions in the
chronological order in which they were made.
You can upload files or create links to Google
Docs within a Wave, and through the use of
gadgets you can also incorporate Google Maps,
Surveys, Whiteboards, and much more. Google
Waves can even be embedded into other web
pages.
Why use it?
Students can use Google Wave to:
• Collaboratively author and edit group projects with other
students.
• Share documents, videos, maps, and more with fellow
students - and with their teachers.
• Receive immediate feedback on their work in real-time.
Expert Tip
Teachers can use Google Wave to:
Use the “Add Gadget By
• Collaborate with colleagues on shared materials, lesson
plans, and assessment data. URL” icon (a green puzzle
• Engage in real-time ongoing communication around school piece) to add an external
projects and events. gadget. Simply perform a
• Communicate with parents and share documents and files
Google search for “Google
related to classroom assignments.
Wave Gadgets” to discover a
variety of innovative Gadgets
Instructional Ideas that will add functionality
Elementary. Teachers can use Google Wave to collect grade- to a wave - such as an
level appropriate web-based resources and media to share interactive white board!
with students so that classroom learning experiences can be
extended beyond the school walls. For example, real world
problems (and solutions) can be collected to share with
students during a “Number Talk” lesson, in which students

32. explain their own thinking about how to solve a math problem.
Middle School. Social Studies students can use a Google Wave to research and discuss a specific time period
or series of historic events. A Wave can also be used to extend classroom lessons by exploring concepts such as
timelines, historical figures, or cause and effect. Teachers can publish finished student projects on the web by
embedding student Waves into a classroom Blog or Wiki.
High School. In Language Arts classes, student study groups can use Google Wave to extend their discussions of
a particular work of Literature. A map inspired by Google Lit Trips (www.googlelittrips.com) can be embedded to
further enhance their studies. As members of the Wave, teachers can also provide thought provoking questions
and feedback to help guide students in the learning process.
Google Wave in Action
Project: WASC (Western Association of Schools and
Colleges) Accreditation Study Team
Grade/Subject: Staff Committee Team
School: Santa Clara Unified School District
Google Wave is currently being explored by a small
staff study group working on the evaluation process for
their school’s WASC (Western Association of Schools
and Colleges) accreditation. These staff members no
longer need to spend long hours after school onsite to
collaborate on their group’s task. Staff members share
files, templates, and media files in their Wave at any
time. They no longer need to wait for their scheduled
meetings to share their thoughts or findings with the
rest of their team. Whenever a thought, idea, or suggestion
comes to mind, they post it directly to their Wave. They can
collaborate asynchronously whenever it’s convenient for them
- or synchronously as they edit a Wave together in real time.
When the WASC evaluating committee visits the site, the
team’s Waves can be easily shared with the evaluators.
Additional Resources
More Examples Complementary Tools
Google Wave “GCTs - How will you teach • Google Lit Trips
Wave in the Classroom” • Google Maps
http://tinyurl.com/howwillyouteachwave • Google Earth
About Google Wave - “The Long Video” and • iGoogle
other tutorial resources • Google Sites
http://wave.google.com/help/wave/about.html • Google Docs
• You Tube
Dr. Wave - Introduction video • Google Video
http://wave.google.com/help/wave/drwave.html • Google Images
Official Google Blog - “Went Walkabout” • Blogspot
http://tinyurl.com/wentwalkabout
In order to comply with federal law and the Google Terms of Service, students need to be over 13 years of age to use any product which requires a Google Account.
Students may participate in product use if the account is owned by a parent or teacher and that parent or teacher is present when the product is being used.
http://www.google.com/educators

33. Google Workshop for Educators
Search, learn, share! Brought to you by Computer Using Educators
(CUE), the producers of the Google Teacher Academy, the Google
Workshop for Educators is a high-energy professional development
experience that introduces participants to innovative ways free
Google tools can be used in education. A full-day of fast-paced
presentations and hands-on activities includes experience with
advanced search techniques, collaborative web-based applications,
and inspirational instructional strategies. Google Certified Teachers
(GCTs) share the ways they've implemented tools such as Google
Search, Google Docs, Google Sites, and... even more. Participants
who complete the workshop are given access to the Google
Workshop for Educators Network, an online group focused on
supporting educators as they learn more about the power of Google
to support learning.
Host a Google Workshop for Educators at your site!
An experience like the Google Teacher Academy
is now available to any educational institution.
Learn More: http://www.cue.org/google
Contact: Dr. Mark Wagner at 949-639-9743 or
mwagner@cue.org
NEW: The Google Workshop for Administrators is now available!
Teacher Academy
For Educators