The One With Google Classroom

As the future for next school year is unknown, teachers around the world are planning to go back to virtual learning in some capacity. Lesson plans as we know it need to be altered to fit the new "norm" of teaching online. I have used Google Classroom (GC) for a few years and found that the more you familiarize yourself with it and keep your classes organized, it really does make virtual learning that much easier.

5 Tips For Using Google Classroom During Virtual Learning(&always!!)

1. Turn on Notifications: Ensure all students are in the Classroom and have turned notifications on for announcements, assignments, etc. To do this, students can go to the top left and select Settings. Once in settings, they can turn notifications on or off and select what they want to receive email notifications for and what they do not. They can chose to receive emails for comments left on assignments, work from teachers,  returned work and grades, and due-date reminders. This will help keep them on track and ensure they are not missing important updates. As the teacher, you can also turn on or off notifications. I recommend having them on for comments that students leave on work as well as for late work and resubmissions.

2. Create Topics: Topics are a great way to organize your Classwork feed. This can be done in numerous ways, depending how you want to get up your digital classroom. I usually make topics by Chapter or Unit. Once the topic is created you can post all materials, assignments, quizzes, etc to this Topic so the Classroom is organized and students always know where to find work. Without using topics, your Classwork stream will just be filled with anything you post in chronological order so it may get confusing for the students to go back and find older resources they may need for a midterm or final.

3.Utilize the Stream: The Stream is a great way to post announcement. When teaching in a virtual setting, this is a great place to remind students about upcoming due dates, what time your class is meeting on Zoom or Google Meets or any other remind you may have. I think of this as my last minute announcement before the class bell rings where I remind students to do their homework, finish their reading, etc. It will appear in chronological order with the most recent at the top but you can easily move something to the top if needed.

4. Integration Features: Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, etc are great to use when using Google Classroom. If you create a slideshow of notes on Slides you can easily make each student a copy so they will have it in their own Google Drive. You can use Docs to make worksheets and again give each student a copy they can write on and send back to you for credit. You can also just give students permission to view the file if you do not what them to edit anything. By using these features as oppose to Microsoft products of PDF, students do not need to download the files or have particular software on their device. Anyone with a Google account can access the docs, sheet, forms, slides, etc.

5.Rubrics: Create rubrics for assignments right in Google Classroom. This will allow students to see what the grading criteria will be and once you have graded the assignment and returned it they will be able to see exactly what grade they received and why. This eliminates having to reference another document for a rubric, as we know many students never open the rubric and wonder why they received a grade they did!

All in all, GC is an awesome tool and the more you are comfortable with the features and make your students comfortable the easier online teaching will be. With tons of blogs, tutorials and resources available on the web, anyone is sure to master GC in no time!