Ben Whitaker
Educational Consultant, Round Pegs Square Holes Ltd
Google Certified Innovator, Trainer & Coach
Ben is a certified Google Trainer, Innovator and Coach, and former Assistant Principal, who has led training around the UK and beyond. He is a passionate speaker who engages and inspires all those he works with. He has a background in leading sixth form, senior leadership, digital marketing and school governance. Ben's teaching speciality is 11-18 Religious Education and Philosophy. Until June 2021, Ben was Curriculum Manager and Digital Technology Lead at Burnley College in Lancashire, where he is based, before becoming an independent educational consultant. His areas of focus are cultural change, digital transformation and innovation around teaching, learning & assessment. Ben is also a co-host of the popular Edufuturists podcast.
Using Google Sites for Creative Portfolios
Google Sites is so much more than a website building tool or a staff intranet. Coupled with Canva for brilliant, entry-level graphic design, it can be a transformative tool for students' creative portfolios. Media, Art, Photography, Music, Performing Arts, Apprenticeships - they can all present beautiful work in an accessible way to showcase to parents, exam boards, universities and employers. This session will showcase some great examples and help you get to grips with the tools.
Effective Ongoing Tracking with Google Tools
Keeping track of where students are up to in their studies is one of the most critical roles a teacher has to undertake. Finding effective ways to do this efficiently is the focus of this session - using Docs for ongoing Learner Intervention Logs, creating bespoke action plans and targets, as well as Forms for progress reviews, feeding into conditionally formatted Sheets to visually represent the progress!