One year later, what have I learned? Trial by error, experimenting, and working out issues have helped me to streamline using Google Classroom and making it an effective tool in the classroom. So, what are the top 5 things I have learned using this incredibly awesome tool?
1) Use the 'About' section to add resources for Units and Chapters.
2) Label your assignments to find them quickly.
3) Not everything needs to be paperless.
4) Make comments in the documents. Make them often.
5) Link to your stuff in Google Drive.
1) Use the 'About' section to add resources for Units and Chapters.
- Use the About section to create resource sections for students. Announcements are great for resources, but add them to the About section so students can have easier and quicker access to them instead of scrolling through the feed to find them.
2) Label your assignments to find them quickly.
- Many teachers have taken this approach. Label your assignments with numbers, such as 001 Name of Assignment, 002....., etc. This will make it easier to look for and find an assignment, open them, and make comments. This also makes it easier to enter them into your gradebook.
3) Not everything needs to be paperless.
- With the addition this year of "Mark as Turned In", Google Classroom made it easier for us to comment on and grade non-digital assignments. Not all projects need to be digital or paperless. In fact, I think this would limit creativity for students if I were to require my students to make all digital projects. My ABC Dictionary, student storyboards, our fairy tale project require students to use their own creativity and think outside the box: some will create a notebook, some a cartoon, some stop motion photography.
4) Make comments in the documents. Make them often.
- Use the comments feature in documents so that students can see comments. You can also have a running dialog with students so that if there are issues or concerns, you can communicate with students in comments.
5) Link to your stuff in Google Drive.
- Google Drive is your storage site. Use it to save your templates, instructions, work, forms, etc. When you add an announcement or assignment, it makes it so much easier to link to your documents and share them out to students.