Saturday, July 15, 2017

Becoming a Google Certified Educator


Last month I achieved a goal I set earlier in the year of becoming a Google Certified Educator. My school district has used Google Apps for Education for years now and as much as I know about and use them on a daily I felt like it was time become officially certified. In working through the training modules on the Google Training Center site I learned a lot of new things. To that end, even if you don't plan to take the certification exams it's still worth going through them to learn about the tools and how to effectively use them.

If you do plan to take the exams, it's $10 for Level 1 and $25 for Level 2 with a three hour time limit for each. It took me roughly two hours for the first and two and a half hours for the second. In preparing for them the review questions at the end of each training unit are great practice but I personally I found the exams easier. Because of the aforementioned time limit be sure to find a quiet, distraction free spot where you can devote the full amount of time to taking them. Once you start there's no pausing the clock.

A few weeks ago on Twitter I came across an excellent blog post by Eric Curts with skill checklists for the Level 1 and Level 2 tests. In them he breaks down what you should know for each tool in order to pass the exam. They're a great resource if you want to be thorough in ensuring you're familiar with each skill.

Having completed Levels 1 and 2 I recently passed the Trainer Skills Assessment as well. I'm now working on the application to be a Google Certified Trainer and hope to complete and submit that in the coming months.