Introductions!

[zacmonday]

A heart formed with the word "welcome" in many languages.

Welcome to the Google Educator Community, a space for educators around the world to connect, learn, and collaborate.

Please take a moment to introduce yourself.

Please share your name, role, district/country, an area of expertise that you have and one thing you hope to gain through this community.

[FranChu]

Hola a todos/as! 👋🏼

Estoy desconcertado porque llevo casi dos años visitando frecuentemente el hub de Google for Education y todavía acabo de descubrir ahora mismo este espacio llamado 'Google Educator Community' (hasta ahora mi actividad principal la desarrollo en 'Champions hub').  Por curiosidad: ¿este espacio es de reciente creación? ¿está abierto a cualquier educador de Google, o se necesita algún requisito para formar parte del mismo?

Me presento, que para eso es esta conversación:

🙋🏻‍  Soy FranChu Alonso
🇪🇸  Profesor en Educación Secundaria de Ciencias y Tecnología, en León (norte de España)
💡  Google Certified Trainer & Innovator (VIA22 EMEA)
🤗  Estoy encantado de formar parte de esta comunidad, para mi ser un educador certificado por Google es algo muy positivo tanto a nivel personal como profesional.
🚀  Espero poder conectar con otros educadores para debatir, reflexionar, compartir y aprender juntos.

[TanyaBalfour]

Thank you for introducing yourself to the community, @FranChu ! You are exactly right that this is a new community that's open to all educators. We just silently launched it a few days ago, and you discovered it before any of our announcements - congratulations! 🏆

 @zacmonday will be inviting members of the Champions Hub to join soon. Please invite any colleagues who may be interested to join the Google Educators Community and contribute to the conversations we'll be having in this space.

[zacmonday]

Welcome, FranChu!

It's great to have you join the GEC. Yes, this is an all-new community, launched just a few weeks ago. It is open to all Google educators of all levels with no requirements to join. 

I hope you, as a Champion, will encourage all Google educators with whom you work to join the space and introduce themselves! 

[FranChu]

Por supuesto que sí @zacmonday , por mi parte daré a conocer esta comunidad todo lo posible: creo que es el lugar idóneo para todos aquellos educadores de Google que, sin ser Champions, puedan encontrar aquí un punto de encuentro con otros colegas para aprender, compartir, ayudar y crecer profesionalmente 😃

[harpreeet14]

Hi everyone,

* I'm Harpreet Kaur Chaudhary.

* Primary School Teacher at the French International School of Delhi, New Delhi, India

* Google Certified Trainer & Innovator (VIA22 APAC)

* I’m truly honored to be part of this community. Becoming a Google Certified Educator has been a transformative journey, bringing immense personal growth and valuable professional opportunities.

* I’m excited to connect with fellow educators—not just to share ideas, but to spark meaningful discussions, reflect on our practices, exchange innovative strategies, and grow together as a learning community.

[zacmonday]

Hello, Harpreet! It's great to have you with us!

As you join the GEC, what's one thing you'r hoping to learn about or improve upon as an educator this year?

[PG]

Welcome Harpreet,

It's great to see you here.

[smould]

Hi! I am Sandra, I currently live in Central Mexico.  I´m a Middle School science teacher, and love educational technology

[zacmonday]

Hi, Sandra!

Great to have you as part of the community! I hope you're having a great start to the school year!

[smould]

Thanks! I get to meet some of my students tomorrow, then all the rest on Monday!

[zacmonday]

How were the first few weeks, @smould ?

[smould]

Crazyyy!! One week in and I was offered a much better job at a different school! So adapting to the new job, still in training, had an event to meet the parents last night. Everything's been super crazy ! But I'm excited 

[Nanang]

Hello, everyone.

I'm Nanang, leader of GEG Balikpapan, Indonesia.
I'm a Google Certified Trainer, Coach, and Innovator (#VIA22) in the APAC cohort.

When I'm not geeking out over education or technology, you can find me with my nose pressed against a camera, photographing airplanes! ✈️

[zacmonday]

It's great to have you as part of the community, @Nanang! You should post some of your top pics. 

[Nanang]

[MarkatRCG]

Hello! 

My name is Mark and i work in a non-profit Educational/Mental Heath facility for youth and families. I ahve worked on our IT for years, though I am trained as a child and family therapist. We are currently working on locking down ChromeBooks and have done a fair amount with GCPW on Windows machines. 

I would like to gain more info on GCPW and how others use Workspace to increase safety, security, and usability. 

[Pete_W]

Hi Markat, we are looking to roll out Chromebooks this year as a trial to a few classes, with the view of switching from macbooks within the next couple of years. I would be interested to get your insight and any advice in the process of firstly choosing a chromebook model for general use, as well as how to effectively lock them down for improved student and teacher experience!

[Pete_W]

Hi Mark, we are looking to roll out Chromebooks here in the next couple of years to replace macbooks. i would be interested to get some insight and tips on implementing these, as well as how to lock them down effectively for an improved experience for teachers and students!

[DoctorHarves]

Name: Dr. Michael Harvey
Role: Director of e-Learning
District/Country: Marlborough Boys’ College, Blenheim, New Zealand
Area of Expertise: Blending AI literacy, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and science education to create inclusive, future-focused learning experiences.
Hope to Gain: I’m excited to connect with educators globally, share ideas about innovative teaching practices, and learn how others are using digital tools and AI to enhance equity, wellbeing, and student voice in their classrooms.

[Wkriesel]

Welcome, Dr. Harvey—it’s inspiring to see how you’re weaving AI literacy, UDL, and science together to center equity and student voice. That future-focused, inclusive approach resonates with a lot of the work happening in our networks too. I’m glad you’re here and look forward to learning alongside you.

What’s one practice you’ve found most powerful in helping students feel their voices truly shape the learning experience?

[zacmonday]

Hello, Michael! It's great to have you as part of the community.

UDL is a passion and area of interest for me as well. I'm curious how you've been thinking about the blending you mentioned in your post. Is there somewhere you've been writing about your work?

[Wkriesel]

Hello all! My name is Wes. I support 28 school districts (about 630 schools and 450k students in a few hundred square miles, so mainly an urban/suburban region) in Orange County, CA with AI integration. My title is AI Education Lead. Looking forward to connecting and learning more. Three words that guide my work are storytelling, inclusion and innovation. Students guide our work in AI, particularly through our student AI network. 

[zacmonday]

It's great to have you in the GEC, Wes! 

Supporting that number of schools in that large of a geographic area, how are you approaching the task and operationalizing storytelling, inclusion, and innovation? Where can we follow your work and journey?

[DoctorHarves]

Name: Dr. Michael Harvey
Role: Director of e-Learning
District/Country: Marlborough Boys’ College, Blenheim, New Zealand
Area of Expertise: Blending AI literacy, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and science education to create inclusive, future-focused learning experiences.
Hope to Gain: I’m excited to connect with educators globally, share ideas about innovative teaching practices, and learn how others are using digital tools and AI to enhance equity, wellbeing, and student voice in their classrooms.

[marianareisprof]

Que alegria ver tantas pessoas incríveis colaborando por aqui! Sejam bem-vindos a esse espaço de colaboração e aprendizado!!

[Zaituni]

Hello everyone,

My name is Zaituni, and I'm very excited to be a part of this community. I can't wait to learn from and share my experiences with all of you.

I hope we can exchange ideas and help this community grow together.

Warm regards,
Zaituni

[zacmonday]

It's great to have you here, @Zaituni! Where are you located? What's one goal you have for your year?

[Kim_Nilsson]

Hiya,

I've spent most of my time in the admin community, which was the first community to arrive on this new platform.

I work as a Workspace administrator in a small municipality in the south of Sweden, where I serve 4000 students and about 1500 staff in preschool, primary school and adult education, managing devices, accounts and all kinds of fun things Workspace related. My title is really IKT-pedagog, which means I am here to help the teaching staff with anything tech, related to their teaching. I'm also deeply involved with system integrations for all staff in the municipality, another thousand people.

I'm the Share Captain of the Swedish Google Educator group, GEG Sweden, which has been around for over 10 years. I am a Google Develop Expert (GDE, previously Cloud Champion) and a Google for Education Certified Innovator (from the first round of online Innovators during Covid back in 2020, VIA20).

I like to learn things and help other people do the things I've learnt, so don't be surprised if you've seen me before, as I'm usually a member everywhere. 😎

[zacmonday]

Oh my goodness, @Kim_Nilsson, it's great to have your expertise in the GEC!

For folks who are just starting on this journey what are some key resources you'd recommend they learn about or things they should read?

[Kim_Nilsson]

Everyone should take a good look at all the product guides.

https://edu.google.com/intl/ALL_se/for-educators/product-guides/

Then I must recommend everyone at least certifies themselves as an L1 certified educator.

https://edu.google.com/intl/ALL_en/for-educators/certification-programs/product-expertise

Anyone in any central or coaching role should step up to L2, and from there it's not a long way to become a certified Trainer, Coach or Innovator! 😎

[wzubiaur]

Buen día, mi nombre es Walter Zubiaur Alejos, vivo en Lima - Perú, soy docente de cómputo de los niveles inicial, primaria y secundaría, hace poco obtuve la certificación de Google Trainer y mi meta a corto plazo es capacitar a los estudiantes de todos los niveles en el uso de la Google Suite , así como a mi colegas de distintos cursos, para que aprovechen al máximo las herramientas y faciliten el dictado de clases.

Muchas gracias por la oportunidad de unirme a la comunidad y de mi parte estoy daré lo mejor de mi.

Saludos cordiales.

[zacmonday]

Hello, @wzubiaur , it's great to have you here!

How is your work progressing with the students and your colleagues? How are you starting the conversations with the adults to get them interested in how these tools can support learning?

[wzubiaur]

Buenas noches @zacmonday 

Estoy realizando un trabajo de relevamiento de información con los alumnos y docentes para saber el nivel que tienen en las herramientas de google, después de ellos voy a programar sesiones de clases diferenciadas por grados para que puedan recibir la capacitación correspondiente en un primer nivel de las herramientas de google de igual manera capacitaciones online a mis colegas para que puedan aplicar dichos conocimientos en su día a día, conociendo cuales son sus fortalezas y debilidades.

Estoy incentivando al uso de las herramientas de google, mostrándoles proyectos terminados, como registros de notas, creación de sílabos, sesiones de aprendizaje, entre otros.

[JBlanco]

Hola!
Mi nombre es Jesús estoy interesado en el uso de Manim para crear animaciones y visualizaciones matemáticas. Gestiono el canal de YouTube aulademates23, donde comparto contenido educativo de matemáticas para estudiantes de bachillerato y aficionados a la animación matemática.

[mel_fungooli]

Greetings Everyone!

I'm Mel Aveling, and Aussie educator based in Lilongwe, Malawi. Been teaching MYP/DP Maths for awhile. I'm Google Certified Educator Level 1+2 (nope - not a trainer/innovator/coach, sorry!), but I'm also the leader for GEG Malawi!

We are having our official launch via Google meet this Wednesday which is super exciting! Don't know of any other certified educators in our region, so I'm excited to meet people from the local community!

One thing I hope to gain through this community - is more connections with people across the world and also in this region. It's cool to have a space that isn't limited to people who are certified in xyz in Google! I love being able to collaborate and learn from others 😄 

If you'd like to attend the GEG Malawi launch, no worries, here is the registration link: GEG Malawi Launch Registration 

[Nanang]

Count me in, please.🫡☺️

[zacmonday]

@mel_fungooli, it's great to have you in the GEC! Please, feel free to invite all of your GEG members to join as well. Also, feel free to start a #MalawiGEG thread in this discussion space! 

How was the launch?

[mel_fungooli]

Hiya! It was quite but alright 🙂 

[DoctorHarves]

Fany meeting you here.