Three Google Tools to Save You From a Creative Slowdown
Έγινε ενημέρωση: 16 Μαΐ 2021
Looking for new authentic material to create task-based lessons but are starting to run out of resources? Are you feeling uninspired and drained after months of online teaching? Google comes to the rescue! Just make sure to put your creativity hat on!
Google Arts & Culture
Google Arts and Culture can be an amazing start for your task-based lessons.
You can explore museums, places, and artworks from around the world through pictures and
videos with accompanying text.
You can play Google Arts & Culture games with your students, like Cultural Crosswords, Puzzle Party, What Came First?, and my personal favourite, Visual Crosswords.
Students can use the Arts & Culture Activity Book at home or in class and become familiarised with great works of art.
Experiments with Google
Experiments with Google combines science, art and AI technology to do what its name suggests: experiment! Here are some recommendations so that you don’t get swamped in the sea of options:
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be able to hear colour? “Hear” paintings by playing a Kandinsky and explore the artist’s theories on colour and sound, and the relationship between shapes.
From a picture to a thousand stories: Flick through this Google Book and choose a picture you like to get book recommendations. Read some interesting facts as you are browsing through, too.
Art Emotions Map: Google Arts and Culture is working with scientists from the University of California, Berkeley, to explore the emotions evoked by artworks through time, and across cultures. Fantastic for teachers who want to teach emotional awareness and vocabulary.
Chrome Music Lab: Have your students share a piano and create unique tunes, let them explore the song maker, play with harmonics, and more. Look up the hashtag #ChromeMusicLab on Twitter for more teaching ideas.
Play Semantris, a word association game to boost your students' vocabulary. Cool music, a timer, and earning points for correct associations make it a great activity for game-based lessons.
Google Maps
Get your students to organise trips using Google Maps. Not only are they going to use language to communicate, but they will also simulate a real-life situation, making this a life skills lesson, too! What you need to do:
Divide the students into small groups.
Give them a specific place to visit (e.g. Uluru, Australia).
Give them a budget.
Let them look at the picture and read the information provided under the search box.
Ask them to use the Nearby button to explore hotels, restaurants, and other places of interest in the area. Have them work together to make a detailed itinerary for a 3-day trip. Make it as simple or as complicated as you want!
Introduce the Street View button. Being able to look around can facilitate the decision-making process, plus it will add to their cultural awareness a tiny bit.
Have them present their planned trip to the rest of the class.
𝓔𝓷𝓳𝓸𝔂 𝓽𝓮𝓪𝓬𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓰! 🌺