My Trip to Google

Last week, I had the opportunity to go to Google Chicago to be a part of a Google Educator Group (GEG) leadership planning event. It was a wonderful day of learning, collaboration, and developing my PLN. In addition, I totally geeked out because it was my first trip to one of the Google offices. I am pretty sure that everyone knew I was excited as I continued to take selfie after selfie as I entered the building and walked throughout the illustrious working spaces. 78 pictures to be exact. #geek


Everything I imagined about the space at Google was pretty spot on. It is obvious that they practice what they preach when it comes to collaboration, creativity, and student-centered learning spaces. The space itself provided collaborative, comfortable places for the staff in multiple areas on every single floor. It was refreshing to see a variety of people working in different chairs, couches, standing desks, cubicles, and meeting rooms as I toured the building. In addition, interesting and unique art decorated the walls of Google Chicago and highlighted the beautiful city that we call home.  It would be impossible for anyone to forget where they are with the amount of Google logos around the building, but each one was decorated a bit different in order to draw your attention to take a closer look. In addition, the outer walls of Google are all glass, so the city of Chicago was on display at every turn.  While Google's employees were all hard at work, it was obvious that they felt at home in all areas of the building. I felt at home on our floor during the planning event and inspired by the vibrant space, platforms for creativity, and passion from the other GEG educators. 

The day itself flew by as the GEG worked together in order to plan events for other educators in the Chicagoland area. Although the meeting itself focused on leadership for instructional technology use, our best work came from collaboration with one another, sticky notes, revision, combination of ideas, and the excitement of members. Like myself, the teachers and tech coaches present at this meeting were more than excited due to the location of our meeting. Along with the enthusiasm about Google Chicago, my colleagues were genuinely thrilled to be joining forces to help other teachers, tech coaches, and administrators produce a student centered learning environment. The conversation never focused on the technology tools; instead, the dialogue focused on pedagogy and the most important part of education: the students. 



I left Google Chicago proud of the work we accomplished and excited about the upcoming events that were planned during our meeting to enhance and transform the classroom. More importantly, I felt thankful to be a teacher and to have the opportunity to meet other teachers who share the same passion for the profession. As I always say, it is amazing to see what happens when you get a group of passionate educators in a room to talk about teaching and learning...especially if that room is at Google! #whatsup