As part of a Technology Initiative, the Becton Regional High School administration, members of the Becton Google Team and Media Specialist Ms. Vaccaro designed and coordinated a Google Training workshop for all faculty on October 10 and 11.

On the first day of the professional development, Google Trainer, Educator and Technology Coach Adam Schoenbart provided an informative all-day training on the ‘how and why’ of Google Drive, Google Classroom and additional apps to help Becton educators with their professional practice.

He began by quoting Tom Goodwin, a senior VP of strategy and innovation at Havas Media, with “Something interesting is happening”.

Furthermore, in a Goodwin article entitled “The Battle is for the Customer Interface,” which was published on TechCrunch, he can also be recorded saying, “The Internet is the most powerful mechanism…” and that was the major driving force behind the Becton professional development.

“The goal of the Google Bootcamp was to provide our staff members with an exciting hands-on and meaningful training on G-Suite, which includes Google Classroom, Drive and Forms,” said Principal Dr. Sforza. “Many staff members have been asking about going out for training on G-Suite, so I am proud that we were able to coordinate a Google Bootcamp training for all staff members in-house,” he added.

Moving on, Schoenbart began the professional development by explaining Google Drive, a cloud-based storage, creation and collaboration of files. He then spent a large amount of time carefully dissecting Google Classroom, a document workflow system and paperless classroom.

“We have accountability and transparency,” he announced. 

English Teacher Mrs. Settembrino stated, “I thought the Google PD was extremely informative. The presenters were very knowledgeable partially because they are educators and use G-Suite on a daily basis with a classroom setting. I am really impressed with the grading and rubric features that Goobric and Flubaroo offer.”

Goobric, a rubric-based classroom assessment tool, can be found under the category of Chrome extensions and Flubaroo is an assessment tool that was designed to compute average assignment scores and allow for analysis on individual student performance.

On the following afternoon, Instructional Technology Coach Lyn Hilt provided a “Getting to Know Chrome” workshop. During the half-day informational session, Becton educators became more familiarized with Chrome, the only Internet browser that will allow a user to perform Google-related activity.

The instructor, who was also an elementary school principal for five years, elaborated more on Chrome, which was developed by Google in 2008, by providing a YouTube video clip on “Cool Things the Omnibox in Chrome Can Do”. She also supplemented her presentation with an article by Eric Curts, an authorized Google Education Trainer and a Google Certified Innovator, who wrote “Twenty Instant Google Searches That Your Students Need To Know”.

Hilt then went on to explain Chrome apps and extensions that would aid in productivity in the classroom in further depth. The audience of high school instructors was then given time to research valuable apps and extensions under the categories of recording audio, drawing, digital storytelling, editing videos and more.

Media Center Specialist Ms. Vaccaro noted that she really likes Google Keep. “I have it on my phone and post ideas and things I need to do,” she said. She then added that she accesses the app in her Google account when she is at work. “It helps me remember and keep track of things that I need to do. I also like the Screencastify extension, which is a screen video recorder that was introduced at Tuesday’s workshop, and I’m really interested in learning it better,” she said.

“I can’t wait to have earth science students use Google Tour Builder for their trip project,” stated Science Teacher Ms. Braunstein.

“Due to the professional development, the Becton faculty is now prepared to become Level 1 Google Certified Educators,” stated Dr. Sforza. “Staff members will be provided with additional opportunities on G-Suite throughout the school year in anticipation of our 1-1 Chromebook rollout for our students,” he said.

During the first day of the professional development, Ms. Marut’s Culinary III class provided refreshments such as pumpkin bread and banana bread. On the next day, a complimentary lunch made up of various sandwiches was provided by Jersey Mike’s Subs located at 50 Route 17 North in East Rutherford.