Google for education, educator level 1

Google for education, educator level 1 training

So today I started the google education training today. I decided to start with the level 1 training course so I could find out what the course is about and have a go at completing it. The course is interesting so far I have done 4 of the 13 units of the fundamentals course.

I have learnt quite a few things although I think this course is aimed at teachers using google apps for education for the first time I have learnt quite a bit about features that I have never used. The course is in units, each unit is split into lessons. Thankfully they have given time allowances for each unit so you can plan how long you want to spend on the course. Each lesson is concise and gives links to websites and places to find information. At the end of each lesson there are multiple choice questions which you can mark as you do them. At the end of the unit their is a test to find out how much you have learnt. I have to say that some of the questions are quite strangely worded and I don't always agree with the answers especially when relating to teaching pedagogy (units 1 and 2). Some of the questions are also weirdly phrased which mean I have given the wrong answer to a question and I don't fully understand why.
Example of one of the questions

"If you wanted to create a space to share weekly information with all of the one hundred seventy different community mentors of your students, what would be the URL (not including https://) to use to get you to the google product best suited for this?"

I thought an answer to this question would be sites.google.com, as this is a forum I use to communicate with parents however the answer was groups.google.com. I know this is a useful tool however it's not something I use with my classes to communicate with parents or students. This is definitely a weakness on my part as from what I have seen it could be really useful to send out bulk emails and connect parents not just students. I think I have only scratched the surface with this as I mainly use google groups as a forum to ask questions and discuss ideas. Google groups in on the staff learning site but I have purposely removed the email notifications from the web forum as otherwise staff were bombarded with email every time anyone posted. Google groups is a great collaborative tool and hopefully I can use it to its full potential.

I'm doing ok with this so far but I am worried about the test ($10 to take if you were wondering), there are practice questions but although I understand the tools and I can do everything in the tasks I am so far quite rubbish at understanding the multiple choice questions.

Actually this fear of the test is really good for me, I'm dyslexic and always did quite poorly in written exams as a student (I have never completed a written test within the time allocation), especially as I didn't get diagnosed until I was 21. I am being reminded how many of my students feel on a daily basis and how they feel having to sit an assessment. Having a learning disability has never really held me back in fact I usually see it as a strength rather than a weakness but written test are definitely my kryptonite.