Level 2?
This is another new blog for me! hahah I really do think I like to blog. I enjoy writing down what I'm thinking and pretending that it's important enough to for others to read. I think it would be cool for the kids to discover this blog 50 years from now. Who knows. What I DO know is that I really stink at consistency and regularity. Each time I "find" the blog again, I read through the old posts and see that it's been months/ or years since my last.
This is 2020. March began normally for us in Akron but by the middle of the month life as we knew it had ended. Everything was closed down and we were asked to stay home to protect the health care system from being overwhelmed with cases of COVID19 that they did not know how to treat or protect themselves from. It was not known at that time how it was transmitted, how it could be treated, how it could be tested for and why so many people were dying from it. It was scary. Kids were no longer in school and we were trying to teach from home online using our Google For Education Suite of Programs and Apps.
God had prepared me for just a moment as this and placed me in a particularly sweet position. Literally just weeks prior, I had been invited to attend a tech conference in Columbus. While there, I was introduced to many Google Suite programs, apps and shortcuts! Everyone knows the shortcuts are the best part! I got my coffee in the morning, set up shop in the Google Classroom at the conference and spent all day on my chromebook learning, taking notes and doing!! I already had explored a bit. I had a Google Classroom, I knew about Google Slides and sheets etc. but I never really had anyone show me the cool stuff. I was so excited to learn more and to use it in my own classrooms at school. When I got home from the conference, I studied and took the Google Level One Educator certification test. I was allotted 3 hours to finish the exam, it took me just over 2. I was pretty confident that I did well on it but there were a few questions that I wasn't sure about and wondered how the test would be weighted etc. Would those questions be the ones that kept me from passing. After only 1 day (they had said 2 weeks) I received the results. I PASSED!!! I was so stinking proud of myself! I was Google Certified! I added the badge to my email and then sent random hello emails to everyone I could think of so they would notice my badge! hahaha.
This certification was not needed. It did not come with a pay raise or additional responsibilities. It did make me feel good, I was proud of myself and the things that I learned really did come in handy as we shut down the brick and mortar school buildings and began teaching online. I was able to help staff set up their classrooms, answer questions, talk with families to assist in learning etc. Then I took the level 2 test. The questions were much more in depth and broad. Things that you may not know by using the system. I took the exam originally to see the types of questions that would be in the exam so that I would be a better studier as it came to do that . Once I took the test and realized the spectrum it covers, I was overwhelmed and decided that I maybe didn't need to take it again at all. I have rested in this resolve until October.
Tomorrow is October 1st and I have had a change of heart. I have time in my schedule, because we are still teaching from home, that I could in fact study for Level 2. I could spend several hours a week improving myself and "getting another badge". I know that this is a much more difficult test so I will need to read, remember, practice and stick to it. I am ready. BUT THEN...
The first thing this morning, September 30 - the day before I set my mind to begin- I got a head start. I decided to begin early and be excited. I got to the training site and BLOGGER was the first task. Now if you see this you'll know that I have been doing this for many years. I know how to post a blog for crying out loud. This morning, it took me 30 minutes just to realize that I use a different email address to write this blog than I do for my Google Training and THAT is why there was no posting capability!! ARGHH
Of course! You can't just go to someones blog and create one! What was I thinking? So, this is me. I am finally signed into the Blogger app and posting a blog once again. Enjoying the writing and figuring out the tech part of it so that I can apply what I have learned to my Level 2 exam. Note to self - SIGN IN FIRST!
Pray for me!! I think I am going to need it!!
