Friday, November 18, 2016

Blog post 18: Using Google Photos for teaching and learning

Blog post 18: Using Google Photos for teaching and learning



There are many ways Google Photos could be used in my sophomore English, Reading, Writing, and Study skills class. Students could look for pictures that match their definitions for vocabulary words. Students create vocabulary word documents that include what they think the word means, the definition from a dictionary, a synonym, an antonym, use it in a sentence, and draw a picture currently in my class. I think it would be a great benefit for my students to include photos from Google Photos for my students that do not have very strong art skills. Google photos could also be used for the students who do draw well to save their drawings from class.

Another great option for using Google photos is to create an album for writing prompts. They say a picture says a thousand words. Not everyone gets the same story from each picture. I think using pictures as prompts for free writings would give students a novel way to explore their writing skills. After students write their assignment they could peer review each other’s assignments and see what similarities and differences they had in their writings using a peer review form.

Google Photos is also a great tool in the classroom to show students pictures of items they read about that they have not seen in real life. When reading the novel Blue Bloods in my classroom we came across words that had no real meaning to students like, ascot. We looked up the words and then searched google to find photos of an Ascot. This process helped students understand the meaning of the word better. Another word we looked up is daguerreotype. Students were unsure of the meaning even after reading the definition. Once we were able to find pictures with Google We made an able in Google Photos to serve as a reference for future classes. Once students saw the images they were able to use their background knowledge to remember times that they had seen daguerreotypes in their lives or in movies.

Google Photos provides teachers with a great source of images to assist in building knowledge in the classroom. Different Albums can be created for whatever need may arise. Google Photos is also web based so there is no need to carry a certain device around with you. One can access photos from anywhere.

2 comments:

  1. Lois,
    You make a great point about bringing out students' creative sides through the use of Google Photos. This provides both students and teachers the opportunity to create a story of their own personal understanding of whatever topic is being covered. There are endless possibilities when we have both sources of images from our personal collection and from the program itself.

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  2. Lois,
    your ideas are great and so practical! The vocabulary one is good and so are the writing prompts. I have to agree that not everyone gets the same story from the same picture. I think that is what I would enjoy most, reading everyone's interpretations and thoughts.

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