Showing posts with label maternity leave. Show all posts
Showing posts with label maternity leave. Show all posts

Tuesday, 12 February 2019

Kia Ora Tatau!

You might have noticed I've been a little quiet here on Spark Ako. In Dec 2016 I went on Maternity leave and returned 2017 for 6 months before returning to maternity leave for baby number two's arrival. Yes, that's right I had two boisterous boys in under two years. 


Though the two boys keep me busy I'm itching to get back into the teaching and learning world. So as a way to refresh myself (& due to a timely expiration date) I've just resit my level 1 Google Certificate and completed my Level 2 Educator Certificate! 














The Level 1 Google Certificate was a great refresher to take - also great to know that I haven't forgotten everything while being out of the classroom. And as for the Level 2, some of it was (thankfully) second nature to me, and I also managed to pick up a few new tricks. Like autoCrat, an awesome way to populate a slide deck with information merged from a google form. I can imagine this would be a great icebreaker for the school year, for learners to complete an 'about me' survey which populates a slide deck to embed on the class site or blog. 

Before sitting the exam I worked my way through the 9 Units in the Google Advanced Training. Even though I was already familiar with a lot of the content, I also had a lot to learn. Also some of the terminology used in the units and exams was different so it's definitely worth going through them before commencing the exam, which is a timed three hour event. The time frame was plenty for me to go over the material (and do a quick google search or rerun through the units to refresh my memory - yes it's open book). Majority of the exam was simply following the instructions and completing tasks. 

If you've been thinking about sitting your Level 2 Google Exam or just want to learn more about developing your efficiency using the Google Tools then I highly recommend sitting the exam. If you have any questions, or want some study tips - please get in touch. 

Steph