123-The Landing Pad...Facilitate a Highly Collaborative Classroom
b'I wanted to produce an episode before school started and I wasn\\u2019t sure if it was going to materialize. Starting next week, I\\u2019ll be teaching all new classes, at a new school, and at the college level. It\\u2019s been a busy summer, but I\\u2019m excited to embark on my next teaching journey.\\xa0
This episode is short and simple, but it has tremendous potential to positively impact the way your class operates and student learning. 10 years ago, my room was cluttered. My wife has a label for people like I was...He\\u2019s a piler. That label was true. I did have a lot of piles of paper stacked in chaotic places around my room. I wasn\\u2019t proud of this, but when all of my students filed into my class each morning and the day just erupted into frenzied activity, my energies turned towards engaging them and not organizing the flurry of papers that I distributed and then collected.
This unsatisfactory situation changed when my school started using Google Drive. The piles of paper disappeared, my drive was organized and easily accessed, and my uncluttered room took on a Feng Shui-like character. I was transformed into such a paperless fan that I decided to create a Landing Pad for many assignments. This virtual collaboration igniter is what I\\u2019ll highlight in this episode. It\\u2019s not revolutionary, but it\\u2019s powerful. I thought it would be useful to share a great and simple idea on the last week of summer vacation.'