It's Wednesday

But I thought it was Tuesday. Good surprise or bad surprise? I'm not quite sure yet. I spent the majority of my day sitting in a computer lab exploring all the wonders that Google has to offer. My best find? Naw, I can't name just one! My top three would have to be iGoogle, Google Sites, and Google Docs. Okay, I lied, my top four--Google Calendar.

iGoogle let's you create a page (mine is now my home page) that houses your top sites. For example, my iGoogle has my gmail, twitter gadget, facebook gadget, the weather, date and time, etc. All on one page.

Google Sites (this is not finished, but it's what I accomplished in about 3 hours!) has replaced my domain website. This is for several reasons but mainly the ease of use. I don't need to navigate through DreamWeaver or some other program...everything is right there. I now have a class website with all the links I'll need that my parents and students can get to easily. I can edit this from any computer too!

On my Google Site I also have a link to my Google Calendar. The Calendar lets me post important dates and meetings for the families to see. This, too, I can edit from anywhere.

Google Docs houses documents, forms, and presentations...in Office speak, that's a Word Document, an Excel Spreadsheet, and a Powerpoint Presentation. Like I said before, all of these I can edit from wherever and I can give access to other people, to lots of people, to no one, I think you get the point.
I'm going to see what I can do to get my school/district on board with the Google Calendar. How nice would it be to have all your meetings/appts/etc in one place, but you didn't have to input them all?

If you have never used these tools I suggest you try them out. I began a presentation in class yesterday and then used it as a base for a group in-class project today. Mine is the first one, "A Taste of Google". It highlights some of the cool areas of Google. It's by no means a final product, but it's a start.