story by Maureen Burns

STA held the Google Summit event for the second year in a row Oct. 28-30.

Google educators put on summits around the world to teach people about the different apps and programs that Google can help you do. These summits have multiple workshops that help teachers use technology more effectively in their curriculum, such as managing a flipped classroom and easier ways to grade. The Google Summits are used to help teachers to implement technology in their classrooms more effectively. Google educators put on workshops about the different programs that teachers can choose to go to. Around 250 people signed up to attend and teachers from all over were invited to attend.

“I really enjoyed attending with my friends and coworkers, as well as my mom who drove from St. Louis to attend with me,” STA math teacher Kelsey Romine said. “[My mom] teaches with Chromebooks and Google Classroom, so she was really interested in everything they were presenting.”

The event went on for three days, with pre-summit workshops Oct. 28. One workshop was an eight hour boot camp for Google certification. Another was a form of administrative I.T. work. Google Summit limited the amount of participants to 50 people on Friday because they were more intense. They had all of the other workshops and allowed up to 400 people to come Oct. 29-30. 15 to 20 sessions were going on at the same time; therefore, different classrooms in all four buildings were used.

“For me, I’m looking for things that help me work with teachers,”principal of academic affairs Barbara McCormick said. “So when I look at Google apps, or Google Drive, or the add-ons I’m looking for tools that make my job more easily manageable.”

McCormick went to a session two years ago and offered to host the next summit. Last February, STA hosted for the first time and almost 300 teachers were able to attend.

“My favorite part of the actual event last year was when ten different presenters had one minute to share a cool tool that can help teachers in their classrooms,” Romine said. “They were hilarious and really useful.”

Along with the workshops they put on, they also bring in keynote speakers. This year, the speakers were Adam Bellow, James Sander and Chrystal Hoe. Bellow was first a high school teacher, then he got a job as a technology training specialist. He is now the founder of many education websites. Sanders is the Chief Innovation Officer at Ed tech Team and is the founder of Breakout EDU. Hoe is the Integration Coordinator and Certified Google Apps for Education Trainer, Google Certified Innovator & Google Certified Educator.

“It is a great opportunity for us to be at service in the community because it’s not like we make any money off of this,” McCormick said. “If anything it might cost us just a bit, but the gain is that our people get to go to the workshops.”