Google20 Days

“Google20” days are loosely modeled after Google’s philosophy of allowing their programmers and engineers to use one day per week to work on a “pet project” not related to their job. It is a hugely successful program that has resulted in many products at Google (like Gmail!).

While brainstorming how this might look in our class, we have come up with our own philosophy of how our “Google20” days should work:

  • You must have a mark of at least 70%.
  • You must work on something “productive”, i.e. no games, social media (chat, Twitter, Facebook) , etc.:
    • You may work on classwork for another class (math homework, anyone?!!).
    • You may work on personal projects such as hobbies, drawing, artwork, photography, independent research, programming, etc.
    • You may even continue working on projects related to this class!

Ultimately, the goal of our Google20 days is for you to be productive at something that moves your life forward in a positive way, doing something that you want to do.

At the beginning of each of these days we will ask you to fill in this form so you know what your plan is and eventually for me to measure how successful this program is.

[teacher link]

Learning Skills and Work Habits

Responsibility

The student:

  • fulfils responsibilities and commitments within the learning environment;
  • completes and submits class work, homework, and assignments according to agreed-upon timelines;
  • takes responsibility for and manages own behaviour.

Organization

The student:

  • devises and follows a plan and process for completing work and tasks;
  • establishes priorities and manages time to complete tasks and achieve goals;
  • identifies, gathers, evaluates, and uses information, technology, and resources to complete tasks.

Independent Work

The student:

  • independently monitors, assesses, and revises plans to complete tasks and meet goals;
  • uses class time appropriately to complete tasks;
  • follows instructions with minimal supervision.

Collaboration

The student:

  • accepts various roles and an equitable share of work in a group;
  • responds positively to the ideas, opinions, values, and traditions of others;
  • builds healthy peer-to-peer relationships through personal and media-assisted interactions;
  • works with others to resolve conflicts and build consensus to achieve group goals;
  • shares information, resources, and expertise and promotes critical thinking to solve problems and make decisions.

Initiative

The student:

  • looks for and acts on new ideas and opportunities for learning;
  • demonstrates the capacity for innovation and a willingness to take risks
    demonstrates curiosity and interest in learning;
  • approaches new tasks with a positive attitude;
  • recognizes and advocates appropriately for the rights of self and others.

Self-regulation

The student:

  • sets own individual goals and monitors progress towards achieving them;
  • seeks clarification or assistance when needed;
  • assesses and reflects critically on own strengths, needs, and interests;
  • identifies learning opportunities, choices, and strategies to meet personal needs and achieve goals;
  • perseveres and makes an effort when responding to challenges.

Student Self Assessment

A self-assessment Google Doc can be found at http://goo.gl/EbMHz.
A self-assessment form can be found at http://goo.gl/jyuJi. [teacher link]
Ask your instructor which to use.

 

Website Review Template

This is the template I use in Google Docs for student website reviews.


Find a good educational web page related to <Topic Name>.

Which keyword(s) did you use at the search engine? (record below)

  • URL:
  • Title:
  • Keyword(s) Used:

Write a 100-150 word review of the web page.  Concepts that could be considered when reviewing your website are:

  • suitability to the class,
  • aesthetics of the site,
  • the educational value of the site, and
  • the overall organization of the site.

Write your review below. After it is complete, share it with two of your peers for checking of grammar and spelling. Fix any mistakes found. Record the names of your peers as comments here and here.


The Title of the Web Page — http://www.nameofsite.com

<intro goes here>

<body of review goes here (100-250 words)>

<summary of review goes here>

Keytag Instructions (SketchUp)

This page is for the SketchUp instructions. Click here for the Tinkercad instructions.


We are going to make personalized keytags using SketchUp, which can be downloaded free of charge from http://www.sketchup.com/download.

Download the template from here and remember where you saved it!

Double-click on the downloaded file to open it.

Choose the top top template (“Simple Template – Feet and Inches”) when SketchUp starts.

Insert your name, with a height of 16 mm and an extrusion height of 2 mm. When inserting, try to insert it close to one of the corners of the blank rectangle (not directly into the keytag itself).

  • Tools > 3D Text
  • Height: 16mm
  • Extrusion: 2mm

Size your text (using the Scale tool “S”) your name to the approximate size of the rectangle.

Make a copy (Ctrl-C) of your name and paste it (Ctrl-V) near the keytag. The Orbit tool “O” will be your best friend when doing this! (hint: Shift-O lets you pan the screen)

Move “M” the text down to the rectangle in the keytag.

Once you are are confident your model is correct, delete the original rectangle so you are only left with the keytag.

Save your keytag in your M drive with a filename similar to:

  • Full Name – Name of School – Keytag Text.skp (where Keytag Text is the actual text on the Keytag if it is different than your name).

Example:

  • Britney Smith – Senator Gibson – Leafs.skp

Once you have saved your  SKP file with the proper filename, export it as an STL file using the File ► Export STL… menu. If you do not have this menu, follow these instructions to install it.

To submit your STL file for printing, look for the assignment in Google Classroom.

Reminder Service

Remind.com is a service that I will use to send email and text notifications to students and parents.

To subscribe, please follow the directions in the relevant document:

Administrivia

Day 1

  • Locker assignment (period 1 only)  
  • Log in!
  • Land Acknowledgement
  • Tech permission form [GC]
  • Bring your headphones to school! (you’ll need them to listen to tutorials) [GC]
  • I’m not your teacher — I’m your facilitator and a co-learner… (discussion)
  • Class Rules: Respect, respect, respect! (that’s it!)
  • Log into Chrome | Sync Bookmarks & Extensions
    • Multiple IDs (personal and DSBN)
  • Google Classroom (you must log in with your DSBN account)
  • Introductions | Grade 12’s, also see me for other instructions.
  • Network Overview
    • Create class folder in M Drive and subfolders for each unit
  • Bookmark for Success!
    • GC View All
    • GC Stream
    • DSBN Gmail
  • Filename Convention (for Google Docs/Classroom and assignments where you do not have a dedicated handin folder for yourself) [GC]
    • Initials_DocumentTitle
    • Assignment in Classroom: Submit a text file containing your favourite quote. Be sure it uses the filename convention described above.
  • Reminder Service + [GC]
  • Pre-course Questionnaire + [GC]
    • Note: some students may be asked to brainstorm as a group before submitting content for the “Is there anything specific you hope to do or learn in this course?” section. You will be advised if this affects you.
  • Course Overviews (independent reading) 

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

  • Email Lists + (may no longer be necessary now that we are using Google Classroom) 
 
Old Material:
Short URL for this page: http://goo.gl/BlgoU2

Introducing Yourself

Students, look for the assignment on Google Classroom.

Teachers, see my blog post about this assignment here.

Contact Me

This page is no longer being maintained as I am no longer at BDSS. The material below is for archival purposes only.

If you wish to contact me, please visit my new site here.


Where Can You Find Me?

Beamsville District Secondary School, 3rd wing (back of the school), 2nd floor. The address is:

4317 Central Avenue
Beamsville, ON
L0R 1B0

Semester 1

Pd 1 – BTT1O/1K ICT In Business
Pd 2 – prep period
Pd 3 – TEJ3E/3M/4M Computer Engineering Technology
Pd 4 – TGJ2O/2K/3M/4M Communications Technology

All classes are in room 3-209.

Semester 2

Pd ? – ICS3C/3U/4C/4U Computer Science
Pd ? – prep period
Pd ? – TEJ2O Computer Technology
Pd ? – SHSM Admin

All classes are in room 3-209.

Contacting Me

  1. You can email me directly at pbeens@gmail.com or peter.beens@dsbn.org, or
  2. Fill in this form and I’ll get back to you!