The Commons

Hi all, 

My school is using Go Guardian Teacher with student devices this year.  We are a fully online school.  I was wondering if anyone who uses Go Guardian had any advice or best practices.  I have completed their online training but I would like to hear what those who have experience using the program have to say.  Any tips or best practices you can share?

Thanks so much for any advice and ideas! 

I am not an expert at it but I would definitely say to use the Scenes option.  If you apply a scene to a class then students can only visit or open tabs for what you have in advance allowed.  If there is a research project to be done (i.e. many websites that could not be known in advance that need to be used by students), then just remove the scene for that class period/day.

Hi all, 

My school is using Go Guardian Teacher with student devices this year.  We are a fully online school.  I was wondering if anyone who uses Go Guardian had any advice or best practices.  I have completed their online training but I would like to hear what those who have experience using the program have to say.  Any tips or best practices you can share?

Thanks so much for any advice and ideas! 

Hi all, 

My school is using Go Guardian Teacher with student devices this year.  We are a fully online school.  I was wondering if anyone who uses Go Guardian had any advice or best practices.  I have completed their online training but I would like to hear what those who have experience using the program have to say.  Any tips or best practices you can share?

Thanks so much for any advice and ideas! 

Marisa,

My district has used it for several years now and it is a great tool for one-to-one devices.  I make sure to leave the chat open and always start the year explaining that it is not just a "Got ya," but another way for me to see if someone is struggling or give instant feedback. It allows me to communicate to individual students on a personal level in a way that does not call them out. I may reach out and message something like, "You look tired today," or "Is everything OK? You don't seem like yourself today." Coming out of the pandemic, it allows students to ask me questions without having to raise their hands and feel on the spot. In addition, it allows me to pause the class and reteach something when I notice a misconception.

I agree with Joanne scenes is a wonderful tool. Over the years depending on the class or students I have limited the number of tabs students can have open, been able to copy, paste and block popular game websites students have been on instead of working. I also like the feature of being able to open a web site for a student.  Having taught in Middle School for many years, I have also had a few occasions where I have locked student devices who ignore me and just want to watch a movie or play a game. Although this rarely happens, it allows teachers to take control of the virtual classroom and help focus student learning back to the task at hand.

Hi all, 

My school is using Go Guardian Teacher with student devices this year.  We are a fully online school.  I was wondering if anyone who uses Go Guardian had any advice or best practices.  I have completed their online training but I would like to hear what those who have experience using the program have to say.  Any tips or best practices you can share?

Thanks so much for any advice and ideas! 

Hi all, 

My school is using Go Guardian Teacher with student devices this year.  We are a fully online school.  I was wondering if anyone who uses Go Guardian had any advice or best practices.  I have completed their online training but I would like to hear what those who have experience using the program have to say.  Any tips or best practices you can share?

Thanks so much for any advice and ideas! 

Our district has been using GoGuardian for a couple of years now. We find scenes super useful. At our middle school we use a shared scene for our building-wide intervention and enrichment period. One teacher manages it - it even rolled over from last year (that was a nice surprise). One word of caution that took us by surprise last year. Students found a javascript workaround that they bookmarked. It made it appear that the student was offline. We were able to block it, but they are always shopping for work arounds. I suppose that would happen with any product though.

------------------------------
Elizabeth Davis

Original Message:
Sent: 09-18-2023 13:47
From: Marisa Petraglia
Subject: Go Guardian Advice

Hi all, 

My school is using Go Guardian Teacher with student devices this year.  We are a fully online school.  I was wondering if anyone who uses Go Guardian had any advice or best practices.  I have completed their online training but I would like to hear what those who have experience using the program have to say.  Any tips or best practices you can share?

Thanks so much for any advice and ideas! 

------------------------------
Marisa Petraglia Instructional Technology Coach/Secondary Education Teacher
Pennsylvania Distance Learning Charter School
------------------------------

Our district has been using GoGuardian for a couple of years now. We find scenes super useful. At our middle school we use a shared scene for our building-wide intervention and enrichment period. One teacher manages it - it even rolled over from last year (that was a nice surprise). One word of caution that took us by surprise last year. Students found a javascript workaround that they bookmarked. It made it appear that the student was offline. We were able to block it, but they are always shopping for work arounds. I suppose that would happen with any product though.

------------------------------
Elizabeth Davis

Original Message:
Sent: 09-18-2023 13:47
From: Marisa Petraglia
Subject: Go Guardian Advice

Hi all, 

My school is using Go Guardian Teacher with student devices this year.  We are a fully online school.  I was wondering if anyone who uses Go Guardian had any advice or best practices.  I have completed their online training but I would like to hear what those who have experience using the program have to say.  Any tips or best practices you can share?

Thanks so much for any advice and ideas! 

------------------------------
Marisa Petraglia Instructional Technology Coach/Secondary Education Teacher
Pennsylvania Distance Learning Charter School
------------------------------

Our district has been using GoGuardian for a couple of years now. We find scenes super useful. At our middle school we use a shared scene for our building-wide intervention and enrichment period. One teacher manages it - it even rolled over from last year (that was a nice surprise). One word of caution that took us by surprise last year. Students found a javascript workaround that they bookmarked. It made it appear that the student was offline. We were able to block it, but they are always shopping for work arounds. I suppose that would happen with any product though.

Hi all, 

My school is using Go Guardian Teacher with student devices this year.  We are a fully online school.  I was wondering if anyone who uses Go Guardian had any advice or best practices.  I have completed their online training but I would like to hear what those who have experience using the program have to say.  Any tips or best practices you can share?

Thanks so much for any advice and ideas! 

Hi all, 

My school is using Go Guardian Teacher with student devices this year.  We are a fully online school.  I was wondering if anyone who uses Go Guardian had any advice or best practices.  I have completed their online training but I would like to hear what those who have experience using the program have to say.  Any tips or best practices you can share?

Thanks so much for any advice and ideas! 

We use GoGuardian (both admin and teacher). My teachers use GoGuardian both with and without scenes. They mostly use scenes when there are big stakes testing involved, like midterms or unit exams. The rest of the time they watch and comment. Students start using it at the middle school, so by the time they get to the high school they are very used to it. One caveat - make parents aware of what you are doing. Last year the middle school had an incident where a teacher turned on GoGuardian and was observing a parent's laptop while they were at work. The student had signed into the laptop with their school account, and the parent was unaware that there was the possibility of being watched. The parent was incredibly gracious about the incident but they worked at the local hospital and things could have gone VERY badly. Otherwise, it works as intended and staff are happy with it. Every once and a while a staff member forgets to shut the class down and the student wanders into their next class with it still running. I've gotten in the habit of created teacher's classes for them so that I'm a co-teacher. In cases like that, I can shut the class down or I can also help troubleshoot if the teacher is having problems. If you sync from Google, don't forget that anytime you change an OU, you need to sync that OU with GG or those students will not be available. Reach out if you have any other questions. 

Hi all, 

My school is using Go Guardian Teacher with student devices this year.  We are a fully online school.  I was wondering if anyone who uses Go Guardian had any advice or best practices.  I have completed their online training but I would like to hear what those who have experience using the program have to say.  Any tips or best practices you can share?

Thanks so much for any advice and ideas! 

We use GoGuardian (both admin and teacher). My teachers use GoGuardian both with and without scenes. They mostly use scenes when there are big stakes testing involved, like midterms or unit exams. The rest of the time they watch and comment. Students start using it at the middle school, so by the time they get to the high school they are very used to it. One caveat - make parents aware of what you are doing. Last year the middle school had an incident where a teacher turned on GoGuardian and was observing a parent's laptop while they were at work. The student had signed into the laptop with their school account, and the parent was unaware that there was the possibility of being watched. The parent was incredibly gracious about the incident but they worked at the local hospital and things could have gone VERY badly. Otherwise, it works as intended and staff are happy with it. Every once and a while a staff member forgets to shut the class down and the student wanders into their next class with it still running. I've gotten in the habit of created teacher's classes for them so that I'm a co-teacher. In cases like that, I can shut the class down or I can also help troubleshoot if the teacher is having problems. If you sync from Google, don't forget that anytime you change an OU, you need to sync that OU with GG or those students will not be available. Reach out if you have any other questions. 

Hi all, 

My school is using Go Guardian Teacher with student devices this year.  We are a fully online school.  I was wondering if anyone who uses Go Guardian had any advice or best practices.  I have completed their online training but I would like to hear what those who have experience using the program have to say.  Any tips or best practices you can share?

Thanks so much for any advice and ideas! 

We use GoGuardian (both admin and teacher). My teachers use GoGuardian both with and without scenes. They mostly use scenes when there are big stakes testing involved, like midterms or unit exams. The rest of the time they watch and comment. Students start using it at the middle school, so by the time they get to the high school they are very used to it. One caveat - make parents aware of what you are doing. Last year the middle school had an incident where a teacher turned on GoGuardian and was observing a parent's laptop while they were at work. The student had signed into the laptop with their school account, and the parent was unaware that there was the possibility of being watched. The parent was incredibly gracious about the incident but they worked at the local hospital and things could have gone VERY badly. Otherwise, it works as intended and staff are happy with it. Every once and a while a staff member forgets to shut the class down and the student wanders into their next class with it still running. I've gotten in the habit of created teacher's classes for them so that I'm a co-teacher. In cases like that, I can shut the class down or I can also help troubleshoot if the teacher is having problems. If you sync from Google, don't forget that anytime you change an OU, you need to sync that OU with GG or those students will not be available. Reach out if you have any other questions. 

Hi all, 

My school is using Go Guardian Teacher with student devices this year.  We are a fully online school.  I was wondering if anyone who uses Go Guardian had any advice or best practices.  I have completed their online training but I would like to hear what those who have experience using the program have to say.  Any tips or best practices you can share?

Thanks so much for any advice and ideas! 

Hi all, 

My school is using Go Guardian Teacher with student devices this year.  We are a fully online school.  I was wondering if anyone who uses Go Guardian had any advice or best practices.  I have completed their online training but I would like to hear what those who have experience using the program have to say.  Any tips or best practices you can share?

Thanks so much for any advice and ideas! 

Many great suggestions have been shared already! Using scenes, even if it is a "no distractions" scene. We began building one our first year and adding games and various websites to it. We were able to push that option to teachers as a pre-built scene through the admin portal. I think we have it up to 215 sites at this time. The Allowed Scene can be trickier and seem frustrating at initial use; however, we use that for testing in Canvas. I notice that you said you were fully online. Depending on the age of your students, I would recommend the ability to force open tabs to get everyone on the same page quickly. You can also present your screen and lock students into it using the presentation feature in the Call Students section. If you lock students in, they cannot go to another tab until you turn it off. They may have to hit refresh once or twice after you stop presenting. 

I hope these help!

Hi all, 

My school is using Go Guardian Teacher with student devices this year.  We are a fully online school.  I was wondering if anyone who uses Go Guardian had any advice or best practices.  I have completed their online training but I would like to hear what those who have experience using the program have to say.  Any tips or best practices you can share?

Thanks so much for any advice and ideas! 

Hi all, 

My school is using Go Guardian Teacher with student devices this year.  We are a fully online school.  I was wondering if anyone who uses Go Guardian had any advice or best practices.  I have completed their online training but I would like to hear what those who have experience using the program have to say.  Any tips or best practices you can share?

Thanks so much for any advice and ideas! 

We use GoGuardian grades 1-8. My biggests tips and takeaways:

1. Teachers should be transparent in their use of GoGuardian. It's a tool teachers can use to help students focus and complete assignments when working on their computer. Even grown-ups need help staying on task when using a computer.
2. Opening a tab for students saves a ton of time! No need to have them go to Clever or your LMS or god forbid type www... Open the tab for students and students can immediately begin their work.
3. Use the chat feature. Students who don't like to ask questions in front of others, can chat with you rather than not ask at all.
4. Project your GG screen when all students should be on the same page. 
5. Don't close a tab for a students, this can be a real trigger for some. Give students the opportunity to close off-task tabs themselves. As a class decide how many warnings before the teacher closes the tab for you. The same for locking, decide as a class when it's appropriate for a teacher to lock student screens.

I hope this is helpful, Beth

Hi all, 

My school is using Go Guardian Teacher with student devices this year.  We are a fully online school.  I was wondering if anyone who uses Go Guardian had any advice or best practices.  I have completed their online training but I would like to hear what those who have experience using the program have to say.  Any tips or best practices you can share?

Thanks so much for any advice and ideas! 

Thank you Beth! This was all so helpful. 

I know some teachers were really excited about the idea of closing tabs when students were off task so this is helpful to hear this perspective.  I can see how this might do more harm than good. 

We use GoGuardian grades 1-8. My biggests tips and takeaways:

1. Teachers should be transparent in their use of GoGuardian. It's a tool teachers can use to help students focus and complete assignments when working on their computer. Even grown-ups need help staying on task when using a computer.
2. Opening a tab for students saves a ton of time! No need to have them go to Clever or your LMS or god forbid type www... Open the tab for students and students can immediately begin their work.
3. Use the chat feature. Students who don't like to ask questions in front of others, can chat with you rather than not ask at all.
4. Project your GG screen when all students should be on the same page. 
5. Don't close a tab for a students, this can be a real trigger for some. Give students the opportunity to close off-task tabs themselves. As a class decide how many warnings before the teacher closes the tab for you. The same for locking, decide as a class when it's appropriate for a teacher to lock student screens.

I hope this is helpful, Beth

Hi all, 

My school is using Go Guardian Teacher with student devices this year.  We are a fully online school.  I was wondering if anyone who uses Go Guardian had any advice or best practices.  I have completed their online training but I would like to hear what those who have experience using the program have to say.  Any tips or best practices you can share?

Thanks so much for any advice and ideas! 

Thanks for the question.  I never would have thought to ask it.  We are using GoGuardian for the first time as well.  These tips have been helpful.  Thanks!!

Thank you Beth! This was all so helpful. 

I know some teachers were really excited about the idea of closing tabs when students were off task so this is helpful to hear this perspective.  I can see how this might do more harm than good. 

We use GoGuardian grades 1-8. My biggests tips and takeaways:

1. Teachers should be transparent in their use of GoGuardian. It's a tool teachers can use to help students focus and complete assignments when working on their computer. Even grown-ups need help staying on task when using a computer.
2. Opening a tab for students saves a ton of time! No need to have them go to Clever or your LMS or god forbid type www... Open the tab for students and students can immediately begin their work.
3. Use the chat feature. Students who don't like to ask questions in front of others, can chat with you rather than not ask at all.
4. Project your GG screen when all students should be on the same page. 
5. Don't close a tab for a students, this can be a real trigger for some. Give students the opportunity to close off-task tabs themselves. As a class decide how many warnings before the teacher closes the tab for you. The same for locking, decide as a class when it's appropriate for a teacher to lock student screens.

I hope this is helpful, Beth

Hi all, 

My school is using Go Guardian Teacher with student devices this year.  We are a fully online school.  I was wondering if anyone who uses Go Guardian had any advice or best practices.  I have completed their online training but I would like to hear what those who have experience using the program have to say.  Any tips or best practices you can share?

Thanks so much for any advice and ideas!