Thomas Reynolds, M.Ed, M.S

STEM Chair,
Thunderbird Adventist Academy

Tom Reynolds is a second generation Adventist Educator. He holds Masters degrees in Broadfield Science Education and in Organizational Development. While working at the Johnson Space Center, he was introduced to learning management systems (LMS) and has spent the last 10 years working on incorporating the LMS into his teaching science on the secondary level. Tom has a passion for technology and has served as Director of IT for several schools and organizations where he led their technology plan for the future. Currently, he is the STEM Chair at Thunderbird Adventist Academy.

hile looking for some professional development involving technology, I discovered a notice for free Google Education training. I signed up, not realizing where it would take me. A few weeks later, I spent the day learning from others how GSuite helped them focus their energy where it was most useful in their classroom. It was a huge eye opener.

Within six months, I completed Certified Google Educator training and Trainer certification. The process introduced me to many Google tools like Docs that I had not been using to their fullest potential. Because Google is constantly tweaking many of their tools with new useful abilities, you might not even be aware of what they can do either.

This school year I’ve used GSuite for lesson plans, creating quizzes and exit tickets, designing a free site to share my notes, handouts, videos, schedules, labs and other materials that would normally be printed out. I’ve also used Slides with live Closed Captioning to allow my ESL students to see what I am saying. For some of my students, this makes it easier to take notes. Drive stores over 2 TB of educational resources and materials for free. If I am out sick, I just give my sub access to a folder for the day.

Because many of the tools are free and the certification exams are affordable, any interested teacher can become a Certified Google Educator and explore the question, How can I use technology in my classroom? For full article and for Google Tips, visit my google site.