in Education

GTA Seattle 2011 participants and “Lead Learners”, alumni of past GTAs who come back to teach their subsequent colleagues.

About the Academy

The GTA is a FREE professional development experience designed to help primary and secondary educators from around the globe get the most from innovative technologies. Produced by CUE, each Academy is an intensive, two-day event during which participants get hands-on experience with Google's free products and other technologies, learn about innovative instructional strategies, receive resources to share with colleagues, and immerse themselves in a supportive community of educators making impact.

Here is how past participants have described the GTA:

“The whole Academy was mind-blowing!”

“I left with a far greater impression of how much more there is to learn and how little I have actually mastered - but at the same time encouraged that with the help of all the amazing talent out there in the Google community that I can make a greater impact as a teacher.”

“I learned about so many Google tools that I had never encountered before (Moderator, Ngram, Apps Script etc.) and developed my understanding of so many tools that I use daily.

"My everyday work was impacted instantly.”

“What an amazing community of new GCTs. It was a pleasure to listen to and share ideas with so many passionate educators”

Alumni: Google Certified Teachers

Educators who attend a Google Teacher Academy become Google Certified Teachers (GCTs). GCTs are:

• Outstanding educators with a passion for using innovative technologies and approaches to improve teaching and learning.
• Creative leaders who understand opportunities and challenges, and have a desire to help empower others in their local community and beyond.
• Ambassadors for change who model high expectations, life-long learning, collaboration, equity, and innovation.

After the GTA, GCTs are expected to:

• Develop a "Personal Action Plan" outlining a project they will complete
• Lead at least three local professional development activities over the course of 12 months.
• Successfully deploy one school on to Google Apps for Education.
• Actively participate in the GCT online community.
• Share the impact of their work with other Google Certified Teachers through mid-year and end-of-year reflection.

In addition to two free days of training, GCTs get:

• Access to the GCT Online Community.
• Opportunities to give feedback to Google on educational uses of tools.
• Invitations to join Google at special events.
• The right to post the GCT web badge on their website or blog.

Applicants

Approximately 50 innovative educators from around the world are selected to attend each GTA based on the merits of their online application. Applicants include classroom teachers, curriculum specialists, technology specialists, librarians, administrators, professional trainers, and other education professionals who actively serve the world’s primary and secondary teachers and students.

Participants are selected based on their professional experience, their passion for teaching and learning, and their successful use of technology in school settings. We are particularly interested in educators who actively provide mentoring or training for other teachers.

Participants must provide their own travel, and if necessary, their own lodging. The GTA is designed to create a strong professional community of educators who support each other over the course of a year, so if you are not local, you must be willing to be resourceful with all technologies to facilitate communication and collaboration with your fellow Google Certified Teachers.

Application Requirements

All applications to the Google Teacher Academy must be submitted using our online form. We will only accept applications submitted before the deadline. The application includes short answer questions and a video. For many of you, the school year is over soon, so please do consider what footage you may want to gather soon.

The original one minute video must be on one of the following topics: "Motivation and Learning", "Classroom Innovation," or “Positive Change in My Community.” Be as creative as you like, but make sure you follow copyright laws. Once you create the video, you must post it on the Web to YouTube, then paste the specific URL for your video into the appropriate field on the application.We will not accept videos by email, and we will not watch more than one minute of video. We realize that you may not have produced a video before and that you may not own video equipment, but we are confident you can find a way to meet this requirement. You do not need to be in the video, but please do not submit videos produced for another project or videos created by others. Do not include any copyrighted images, footage, or music.(For more information visit the copyright education site on YouTube.