Google Certified (Level 1)

I've been using Google features from G Suite for a few years now.  My school's tech director graciously gave us some professional development over Google Drive, Google Forms, Docs, and Google Classroom.  That changed my life as a teacher.  Since I use these products so much, I decided to see if I knew enough to become a level 1 Google Certified educator.

Why I love Google

I am not an organized person.  I never have been.  As a kid, the clean desk fairy never visited my desk.  My locker in middle school and high school was always a disaster.  As a teacher, it's a struggle for my desk to not look like a tornado hit it.  In my first few years as a teacher, I moved classrooms and grade levels every year.  I didn't know which lessons or resources to keep because I almost knew that I'd be moving my classroom in May and would probably never use the resources again.  I would save some things in a good old file cabinet just because I really didn't know if I would need the resources again or not.  When I was introduced to G-Suite, it was an educational miracle.  No longer did I have to rely on paper resources.  I could save all of my resources to Google Drive.  If I moved at the end of the year, no harm, no foul.  

When I started using Google Classroom, that made things even better.  I didn't have to spend hours at school planning and grading papers.  I could do all of that from my chromebook at home.  Google Forms was also a game changer for me because I can set the forms up as quizzes and Google grades it for me!  That saves me hours and hours of time, which means more time for my family at the end of the day.  Now, I do grade essay type questions on Google forms myself, but the fact that it grades most of it is huge.  

Why I decided to pursue the Google Cert

I didn't know a Google Certification was even a thing for teachers until I learned about it on a podcast I listened to over the summer.  After I heard about it, I wondered if that's something I could do.  I decided to look into it more and found that Google had its own training center and it's completely free! Refer to the link here: Google Training Center. There are different levels of the certification, and I chose to just see if I could pass the Level 1 Certification.  To take the Level 1 Certification was only $10, so if I failed the exam, I lost $10, which is not a big deal.  

Training

The training modules were very organized and user friendly.  If you sign in with your Google account information, it will check off the modules as you complete them.  It made me feel oh so accomplished when I saw the check marks.

Check out the checkmarks!  Pay no attention to my endless number of tabs.

For each module, there was usually a section of texts to read through, a you tube video, and audio recordings.  At the end of each module, there were questions to answer which were usually multiple choice and check box type questions.  After answering the questions, I immediately could check my answers.  This was very helpful because if I got any wrong, I could go back and review what I apparently didn't understand.  I was able to go back and review any of the modules at anytime.  

Registering for the Exam

I had some issues with registering.  When I was going through the training modules, I used my school account information.  When I first attempted to register, I also used my school account information.  It turned out, I couldn't create a test account with my school information.  I had no idea what was going on, so I tried to call the test company.  They had no idea what was going on either.  They gave me a Google site to access and told me to reach out to Google.  As it turns out, Google doesn't want to be called.  I tried to find some contact information, but couldn't access a phone number because I don't have administrative rights at my school.  I called the testing site back, and they told me that Google has their certifications on hold, which was not accurate at all.  I finally reached out to a Google Educator Group which I learned about through the training program.  This was the best and most helpful thing for me to do.  Someone from the group told me to try my personal Google email to register.  I tried that and it worked.  I later told my husband about this experience.  He is an IT guy, so he thought that maybe Google wants people to register with their personal gmail account so the certification can stay with them even if they transfer schools.  This made sense to me, but I am not sure if that is the case or not.  

The Exam

Once I registered successfully for the exam I received an email saying that it could take anywhere from 24-48 hours for me to receive my log in information to take the test.  It only took about 15 minutes, however, and I was ready to take it.  I had 7 days before the information expired, so I wanted to go ahead and take it that day.  I took my boys to my mother in law's house and drove to my favorite coffee shop, so I could be kid and distraction free.  Once I logged in, the testing site accessed my web cam and gave me a 2 and half hour time limit.  I didn't think I'd need near that much time, but I was wrong.  The test is divided into two parts.  The first part was multiple choice, check boxes, and matching. It wasn't too bad, and I really liked that on the check box questions, the test specified how many to choose.  Some I felt were really common sense type questions and were fairly easy for anyone who has used any of Google's features, and apps.  I had about 2 hours left when I was finished with the first part, and was feeling pretty good about myself.  Once I accessed the second part of the test, I realized that I really had to know what I was doing.  The second part was all application.  The test gave me different tasks to complete using a Google account linked to my testing account.  When I finished, I had about 20 minutes to spare.  Once I submitted the exam, I waited about 5 minutes, and then I was sent information on my personal Gmail account on how to access my results.  

I passed!  

That's right, I passed!  I loved the fireworks from the image I accessed.  The message said to wait about 24-48 hours to receive my badge and certificate, but they were sent to my email in about an hour.  Now I have about 14 hours of professional development to add to next school year.  The training didn't seem like 12 hours, but that's how long it says that it took.  It probably didn't seem long because I was able to go through the training at my own pace instead of 12 solid hours.  

Advice

Before taking the exam, go through the Google Training Center modules and take the quizzes they provide.  Also, apply what you learned as you learn it.  For instance, when you learn about some of the features you can use in Gmail, go and try them out.  This will help big time when preparing for the application part of the exam.  When you are ready to take the exam, make sure you are able to devote about 2 and half hours of uninterrupted time.  If you are like me with kids at home, do not take the test with your children around.  You definitely want to have about 3 hours of childcare available.  When going through the training modules, my kids were with me and interrupting me, but I was not on a time limit.  With the test, you don't have unlimited time.  Also, you want to take the test in a place where you won't be distracted.  I chose to go to a coffee shop because I didn't want to be distracted by all the things I needed to do at home.  This worked out well for the most part, but I did see someone I knew and I felt like I was rude when I told her that I was taking an exam.   She was very gracious and understood completely, but I'm not sure if this would be the case with everyone.  

To me it was totally worth going through the training and taking the exam.  I learned so much from the training itself that I will be applying to next school year.  So, even for those who don't pass the test, or don't want to to take the exam, the training is definitely worth your time especially if you have access to the G-Suite at your school.