I'm Certifiable in a Googley Way!

It finally came. After a summer of watching training videos by my friend Kasey Bell, taking 6 tests (yes, I had to take Calendar TWICE), and completing the 3 trainer application elements, I received the email that I am now a Google for Education Certified Trainer! (and yes, I have been posting the wrong official title for months! Yikes!)

My OFFICIAL Badge from Google!

The process is very involved so I waited until summer to tackle it. Thankfully, I didn't have to take summer courses for my Education Administration degree, so my goal was to get all of the tests and projects completed during the summer months. I signed up for the Become a Google Certified Trainer course created by my Google guru, Kasey Bell, and started working through the courses. As I completed a course, I took a test. All was well until the Google Calendar test. I attempted it at 9:30 in the evening and I KNEW I was too tired... lesson learned! I was so happy when the tests were over, but I did learn a lot from Kasey's course! I sit through her trainings 8 times a year and STILL learn every time I'm her student! Thanks Kasey for your mad skills and servant heart!

The other half of the process was more about how I was currently training my teachers to use the Google tools. I built a Training Highlights resume (image above) to showcase my experience, education, professional associations, and trainings. This was fun because I was able to get creative with Google Drawings! The case study activity was more application based in that I had to give detailed information on a specific training session I conducted. I gave the school information, an outline of my training program, insights from the training, and shared the overall impact of the training. Since this document included information from the school district that I work in, I'm not going to share it here. However, I WILL share the Certified Trainer Application video that I made! (see below) I am pretty proud of it! I knew the style that I was going for, and without professional software, I think it turned out good! The video had to include a one minute introduction and a two minute training. I chose the add-on Autocrat as my training piece. It was HARD to cut it down to 2 minutes! I think the first recording was 9 minutes long! Finally, I had to record each short section so that I wouldn't have ANY "ums" or pauses. ​

​I was able to submit the materials early and then the wait was on. When the email came through on Friday afternoon at 4:30, I didn't even realize it! The notifications from the Google+ Community that Kasey built for us to utilize started blowing up my phone. I saw posts of "Yay! I made it!" and "Thanks for your help Kasey!" and I couldn't get to my email fast enough. (So much for the paper that I was trying to write for my class!)

When I read the email, I hopped up from my desk, screamed, and started running around the Central Administration building! I found Al Shipp and told him, but being a football Friday in Texas AND after school hours, NO ONE ELSE WAS there! Then I remembered that I told Kasey that she would be the FIRST to know so I had to text her! 

It's been a crazy week at work, and this post is a week behind, but I am excited to peruse the Google Education Trainers site this weekend and learn more! I already noticed that I have been using the wrong name for the certification and I just noticed that I have the Google logo printed on grey instead of white for our Google Academy shirts. I'll get it together and make you proud, Google. I promise!