by Michael J. Graham
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Michael Graham’s Google Apps Meets Common Core (Corwin 2013) is exactly what I hoped it would be. As a teacher, there couldn’t be two bigger topics than ‘Google Apps for Education’ and ‘Common Core’. Juxtaposing the two instantly caught my attention. My only question was whether Graham would be up to the task.
He is.
Graham does a great job of going through all the parts of Google Apps, showing steps with lots of pictures, so I can almost walk through them in the book without trundling over to my computer. He starts with a pithy summary of Common Core and then goes through each tool–Docs, Spreadsheet, Presentations, and more.. He also provides quick, educational uses of each piece–sometimes a full lesson plan. Then there are the nuggets that make it worth reading even if nothing else catches your attention. Like learning how to embed Google Docs into a website, blog, wiki (page 34). I used that the first day I got the book.
Graham has a good writing voice. It’s clear, able to simplify what could be technical geekie points that I want and need to know as a teacher. By the time I finished the book, I felt a lot better about aligning to Common Core and using Google Apps.The only part I was a bit disappointed in was the ‘companion website’–not at all up to what the book delivered. Hopefully, he’ll work on that over the coming months.
More Google Apps:
21 Google Apps for Education Resources
Google Apps Support Bloom’s Taxonomy–Take a Look
Tech Tips #114: Embed Google Docs
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Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-8 technology for 15 years. She is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. She is webmaster for six blogs, CSG Master Teacher, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, a columnist for Examiner.com, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to TeachHUB. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer.
