Mastering Google Tools: Top YouTube Picks for Educators

Hello, fellow educators!

Navigating the vast array of Google tools can sometimes feel overwhelming. Thankfully, the Minnesota Adult Education Professional Development (MN ABE PD) YouTube channel offers a treasure trove of instructional videos tailored just for us. Here’s a curated list to help you enhance your teaching toolkit:

1. • Getting Organized in Google Drive. Google Drive is a popular tool in many adult education programs, but it’s also one that causes many of us confusion and headaches. It can be hard to find the files you are looking for, keep your documents organized, and keep track of your own work separately from work done by collaborators. In this session, we discuss 9 tips to get a handle on your Google Drive, find your stuff, and keep it organized.
   • Google Forms for Teachers. With Google Forms, teachers can quickly create surveys, quizzes, sign-up forms and other online forms to share with students. In this session, we take a look at some features that make Forms so powerful, such as making branching paths through the form, embedding videos into questions, organizing results in a spreadsheet, and making auto-graded quizzes. NOTE: Be sure to check out this Forms publishing update from Google to learn about recent changes to the process.
   • Teaching Essential Gmail Skills. We all agree that it’s essential for adult learners to know the basics of how to send, read, and receive emails, but there are some other overlooked, yet essential email skills we should also be teaching. These include: how to manage the inbox, search archived emails, unsubscribe from unwanted emails, scan for spam/phishing signs, understand the difference between the Gmail site and app, deleting vs. archiving, and how to recognize and use the many tools built into Gmail. Watch this short but packed presentation to get some great ideas on how to teach these essential email skills in any class.
   • Using Google Slides in Adult Education. Google Slides isn’t just for presentations—it’s a versatile tool that lets you create interactive lessons, student projects, and collaborative activities. With a bit of creativity, it can transform your classroom into an engaging digital workspace! Hear from teacher Staci Landsem about how she makes interactive learning tools using Google Slides.

For a broader range of resources, don’t forget to further explore the MN ABE Professional Development YouTube Channel. Additionally, the ATLAS website offers a plethora of resources to support your teaching journey.

Happy teaching!