Tech Tuesday-Google Classroom

If your students have Google accounts you should be using Google Classroom to help simplify how you create assignments, provide feedback and communicate with your students.  Google Classroom is simple, user friendly, and can make your digital organization a breeze.

Five Reasons To Love Google Classroom

1. Organization

When you create an assignment in Classroom it creates a folder in your Google Drive with the same title as your assignment.  Within that folder you will find all of your students' work for that assignment, and the best part is their name is in title! No more "no name" papers! As the teacher you can access their work either by going through Google Classroom or in your Drive.  Students will also see a folder for your class, and all of their assignments will automatically be saved to this folder.

2. Templates

It is often challenging to get students to format a Doc or Slides Presentation exactly how you want them to.  When students are not proficient in their keyboarding skills, and they are just learning how to navigate Google Apps, it is nice to be able to give them a template to work on.  You can create Doc, Slide, Drawing or Sheet with the formatting set how you want it, and Google Classroom can make a copy for each student. No more "share, make a copy, share back"!  This way students can focus on the content of their work rather than spending time adjusting margins.

3. Differentiation

Earlier this fall, Google Classroom added the option to send assignments to specific students. This is a huge step forward in the ability to differentiate!  Since students do not see each other's assignments or work, you can now easily give assignments with different directions, expectations, or content while preserving student privacy. 

4. Reusing Posts

The creators of Google Classroom understand that teachers spend lots of time creating assignments for their students, so they built in the Reuse Post option.  This allows you to reuse an assignment from a previous year or from a different class. You can make necessary tweaks to the assignment and change the due date.

5. Planning Ahead

Another fairly new feature is the ability to save drafts of posts, and to schedule when things are posted for students to see. This is nice for projects or assessments that you know you will use throughout the year.  You can set them up ahead of time and push them out to students when you are ready.

If you are looking to get started with Google Classroom, check out the tutorials below or contact me to help you get started!

Setting up and adding students

Tips and Tricks