We produced The change to Chromebooks For Teachers

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While I ended up being expected to express all of the good reasons why Chromebooks make amazing Teacher laptops, I was super excited. Ever since my School gave each Student a Chromebook for school use, I have been impressed with them. Their affordability, ease of use, and ability to access the tools teachers need students to use made them a companion that is perfect my personal additional Teaching tools. But exactly how would it works as a teacher’s notebook?

I talked a number of instructors that have generated the change to a Chromebook because their main “teacher laptop.” They provided exactly how this switch that is simple made their jobs easier and why they’d never go back to teaching with any other device.

My students and I are finally speaking the language that is same

Paige Boyd

Teachers understand that the Technology can have a transformational effect in our classrooms. Our lessons become more engaging, our students to our interactions be much more significant, and all of our college students get the full story caused by it. We additionally understand that whenever technologies does not incorporate effortlessly, the opposite that is exact happen. One reason many of the teachers I spoke to love their teacher Chromebooks is how using the same operating system as their students helped reduce Tech-related Classroom disruptions and turned that technology into an incredibly powerful and consistent tool for Learning.

“When I was using my old laptop, I couldn’t help my students with a lot of their Chromebook-specific questions. I hated not having answers without having to look it up or contact our tech department. Now that we’re all using the same platform, I feel way more comfortable helping my students out.” —Mickey M., 4th grade teacher
“I find it much easier to show the students where to go since they are also 1:1 Chromebooks and I can help troubleshoot much faster because of the familiarity.” —Erika D., 8th grade teacher
“If a student forgets their device, I can lend them mine and they can easily access their materials.” —Beth J., 6th grade teacher

It’s been awesome for meeting my students’ individual needs.

Mackenzie Thompson

The list of job duties for most teachers only seems to be growing. On top of prepping and teaching, they’ve got to deal with progress monitoring, data collection, differentiating lessons and assessments, and communicating with students, parents, and others—the list goes on! The teachers I spoke with admitted to feeling overwhelmed by it all at times. But they also swear by their Chromebooks, which come with Google Workspace for Education apps like Classroom, Docs, Sheets, Slides and Chromebook apps like Screencast built right in, and also work with a slew of partner apps (Keep reading to learn more about all the apps!) helping make many of these tasks much more manageable.

“I can easily record my lessons with voice-overs and closed-captioning to help my students who need adaptations due to vision or hearing needs. This was much more time-consuming on my old laptop.” —Trevor E., 9th grade teacher
“Because my Chromebook is a flip screen, I can easily use my teacher Chromebook to show a student a specific example when they need individualized help. It’s perfect because my screen looks just like theirs so it makes sense to them.” —Angela S., 6th grade teacher
“With Google Classroom on all of our devices, I can push certain activities, like extra practice or support, out to just the students who need it without having to draw attention to the differentiation.” —Megan R., 11th grade teacher

There are so many great apps and add-ons!

Teacher selecting Google Chromebook apps by taping on her laptop screen Paige Boyd

Teachers are always on the lookout for tools to help them work more effectively. Many of the trained teachers i spoke with were rapid to say the Chromebook applications they positively like. Chromebooks have a number of these tools that are powerful in and ready to use from the start. Some, like Screencast, Canvas, Cursive, and Google Workplace for Education tools like Google Classroom are built-in to all Chromebooks. Others, like Nearpod, Quizlet, and Kahoot, partner with Google for Education to ensure their products work seamlessly together.

“I record a lot of my lessons for students to view once they leave class … I love having the quick access to record. There are also a lot of English learners in my classes, and having the ability to translate with Google Translate has been really helpful.” —Erika D., 8th grade teacher
“I started using Nearpod when my school was 100% remote. When we all came back to school, I wasn’t sure if I’d keep using it, but I’ve found I love it for providing interactive, engaging ways for my students to review the concepts we go over in class. It gives me great feedback on what parts of the lessons my students understood and where I need to go back and reteach.” —Trevor E., 9th grade teacher
“I use Google Keep to store comments I need to write on student work over and over. Such a time-saver!” —John D., 10th grade teacher

It streamlines all my everyday teacher tasks.

Photo of a Google Chromebook on a kidney shaped table in a classroom Paige Boyd

As teachers, we know procedures and systems keep our classrooms running! When our teacher laptops are consistently helpful in managing and streamlining those procedures, it’s a thing that is truly wonderful. Instructors who’ve made the change to a Chromebook with their primary instructor notebook had too much to state exactly how major it is come to be in assisting them preserve those daily activities that will be awkward without a system that is strong place.

“I love how my Chromebook helps me be more effective in the classroom. If I see one student who has written a really strong intro paragraph, I can use cast moderator to put their work on our front board for the whole class to see. In the past, I’d have to read it out loud and hope the rest of the class was listening. Now, they can see it immediately and I can show them how to improve their own writing using their peer’s example as a model.” —Rachel P., 6th grade teacher
“I use my Chromebook as my main computer. I use this device to develop weekly agendas for my students and upload assignments on Google Classroom. I develop assessments on Google Forms and monitor students’ activity from my Chromebook.” —Mackenzie T., 10th grade teacher
“My Chromebook is definitely my classroom co-pilot. I design all my lessons on it. Google Docs, Slides, Forms, and Sheets give me so much variety in how my lessons look and how my students can interact with information. And because we’re all using Chromebooks, it’s seamless.” —Jason M., 5th grade teacher

It’s built for busy teachers.

Image of a Google Chromebook on a teacher desk Mackenzie Thompson

Sometimes, it’s the things that are little matter the absolute most. Nearly every instructor we spoke with pointed out characteristics about their unique Chromebooks which may seem insignificant, but that for them, are experiencing a impact that is big. Some pointed out that their Chromebook’s battery life was significantly better than the device they had been using before. Others talked about its portability and how that allowed them greater flexibility during class. Finally, they mentioned how lightweight it is, and as someone who has lugged home a teacher that is heavy forward and backward between my personal class room and my personal residence, I am able to absolutely value exactly how limited thing like this can make a significant difference.

“My Chromebook has a detachable screen. At first, I didn’t know if I’d use that feature much, but I can’t tell you how often it comes in handy. I can put an example on my screen and then walk it around to show my students. I can take just the screen with me to meetings so I don’t have to take my entire laptop. It’s awesome.” —Maura C., eighth level teacher
“I love how lightweight and portable my Chromebook is. When taking it home to continue my work, I don’t feel it is a burden. It’s easy to transport between locations.” —Mackenzie T., tenth level teacher
“As a high school English teacher, grading essays always took me hours. Now, I use Screencast and leave verbal feedback. It’s so much faster to explain what I mean rather than trying to write it on the margin of the papers, and I think my students pay more attention to my feedback when they listen to it!” —Shannon B., 9th level teacher