Creating an Inventory for Your Classroom Library -- in Minutes

Image from Notebook

I am easily impressed with Google Apps for Education but this idea could be my
Number One Reason Why I Love Google. For any teacher who has a classroom full of tubs housing a bazillion books, you will love, love, LOVE this idea too.

Here's the scoop:
Using a Google Form, a stack of books and some students, an inventory can be created in about 45 minutes. In less than an hour, you'll have access to a spreadsheet with ALL of your book titles.
I was anxious to see this in real time so with Therese Long's 5th grade class, we asked them to participate and complete a survey for each book title.

Students submitted a form for each title

Nothing for Therese to do but sit and relax...                       

Here's a snap shot of the working document, changing each time a form was submitted.

Interested?? 

You can do this too and here's how...

Create your own Google Form 

OR click on the link below for a generic template:

Classroom Library Survey

Make a copy (once you've opened the spreadsheet, go to File > Make a copy. Tweak as you see fit and then place the survey link so students can easily access it. 

For Therese's class, we placed it on her Student Bookmark section on her ed1stop account.

That's all there is to it. As soon as a survey is submitted, it records the results on a spreadsheet. Part of the fun was displaying the spreadsheet for the class to see. While the kids were working, the numbers increased with each submitted form. Talk about immediate feedback. Her class was able to inventory 218 titles in 30 minutes. The best part? Kids were so excited to have played a huge role in the creating of the data. They all agreed that having a reference like this will make it easier to find books.

Have younger students? No access to laptops? Not a problem...
Students too young? Ask your Big Buddy class to help.
No access laptops? Bring the tubs of books to your computer lab instead.
Big Buddies too young? Ask a few eager parent helpers.

If you like this idea but are unsure about how to start, don't hesitate to contact me. I'll be happy to join you for any portion of this endeavor.

Enjoy your eduTech Tuesday,



Patsy Templeton
OUSD Technology Coach
ptempleton@orinda.k12.ca.us
925-258-6317