Many middle school elective teachers are looking for
tools and resources to save time and make their lives easier. Often times a
large portion of your class period is taken up by the process of collecting
student work and making sure your students are aware of upcoming assignments.
As a solution, many teachers have started using Google Classroom to help with classroom management.
If your district provides you with a G Suite for
Education (previously Google Apps for Education) account, you may want to look
into setting up and maintaining Google Classrooms for all of your classes.
I started using Google Classroom as a way to collect
work and files that students turn in for grading. We had a “Dropbox” feature on
our Web portal, but they removed that feature to save money and offered Google
Classroom instead. Now I collect all of my students’ work using Google
Classroom. All the files are in one place, and I can grade it using my
classroom computer or when I get home.
Google Classroom
Classroom is a free web-based platform that
integrates your G Suite for Education account with all your G Suite services,
including Google Docs, Gmail, and Google Calendar. Classroom saves time and
paper, and makes it easy to create classes, distribute assignments,
communicate, and stay organized.
Teachers can quickly see who has or hasn't completed the work, and provide direct, real-time feedback and grades right in Classroom.
Teachers can quickly see who has or hasn't completed the work, and provide direct, real-time feedback and grades right in Classroom.
1. Creating a Class and Adding Students
Google Classroom allows you to create a unique class
for every class that you teach. In just three mouse clicks and a few keystrokes
you can create a class. Google Classrooms are divided into different
sections... for the purpose of this article, I will cover Students and the
Stream.
In the Students section you can view all the
students in your class. You can either add students to your class manually, or
they can join your class on their own using their own Google account. When you
create a class, Google Classroom provides you with a class code located on the
left side of the screen. Share that class code with the students you want to
join that class. From their computers, laptops, or Chrome books, students log
into their Google accounts and use the class code to join.
Within the Student section you can also determine if
your students are allowed to comment on the questions, announcements, and
assignments you create or if they can only post. If you desire you can also
choose to be the only one who can post and comment in your class.
In the Stream section you’ll find the assignments,
announcements, and questions that you create. This is the section in which
you’ll spend most of your time after your classes are set up. Read below to
learn about assignments, questions, and announcements within Google Classroom.
2. Using Google Classroom Assignments
One of the best features of the Google Classroom
Assignments is that you can add files to the assignments you create. You can
add a file from your computer, a file from Google Drive, a YouTube video, or a
link to a Website. One idea is that a business education
teacher can assign a writing prompt on a
relevant person in the news and add a link to a YouTube video of that
individual delivering a speech.
Students can submit any type of file to your
Classroom, not just Google Docs.
Not only can students submit their completed work as files, you can open them
directly from Classroom and grade them right there. You can open files
submitted to your Classroom as long as your computer has an Internet connection
and the software needed to open the file… you don’t even have to be on your
school computer!
For example, you can assign an essay and your
students can submit their completed essays to an assignment you created in your
Google Classroom from any computer that has an Internet connection. You
can then open the file and grade it on your computer at school or at home.
Google Classroom acts like a "Dropbox" for assignments. Students no
longer need to print their work and physically hand it in to you. This gives
you more time during class to focus on moving forward, as opposed to wasting time
collecting work.
3. Spark Discussions with the Questions Feature
Google Classroom allows you to ask a question within
a specific class. As with assignments you can add files to the questions you
post, and can assign a due date to it if you want. You can post short answer or
multiple choice questions for your students to respond to in Classroom.
As students answer a multiple choice question,
Google Classroom tabulates the results for that question and shows you the
breakdown of the students’ answers in real-time. When you click on one of the
multiple choice answers, Classroom indicates which students chose that option.
When students respond to a short answer question,
Google Classroom cannot tabulate the results so it simply shows student
responses. At that point you can comment or reply to each student, and give a
grade as you see fit.
4. Announcements for Your Students
In addition to creating assignments and questions,
Google Classroom allows you to create announcements. Students can respond to
your announcements and you can respond back, creating a thread. In reality the
entire class can have a conversation based on one announcement. Once again you
have the option of adding a file, a YouTube video, or a link to an
announcement.
Announcements are a great way to post reminders
about assignment due dates to your students. You can even schedule
announcements to post at a later date, which can help you stay organized as
well as your students.
I don’t have a homeroom so I don’t have many
announcements, but I would imagine homeroom teachers can use the announcement
feature to post reminders, permission forms for field trips, handouts in case
students lose them or forget them in their lockers, the list goes on and on.
5. Why Google Classroom Should be Used in Elective Courses
for Middle School
What I find the most compelling about Google
Classroom is that it allows you to communicate better with your students
outside of the classroom. Before Google Classroom students had to be physically
in the classroom for you to ask them a question. Now you can do it anytime.
Likewise students can submit work from anywhere they have internet access. This
saves those of us who teach elective courses for middle school a lot of
time when you think about how many students we can have during the school
year!
Google Classroom saves you time and paper, and
allows you to create classes, post assignments, and communicate with your
students with ease. It also allows you to see which students have
completed their assignments and you can provide direct, real-time feedback and
grades. Google Classroom essentially puts all of your assignments,
announcements, and student work right in one place.
No matter what subject you teach, Google Classroom
is a great tool for sharing information with your students, collecting their
work, and providing feedback. If you have a Google Account through your
district, Classroom is just sitting there waiting to help you challenge and
engage your students.
Set Up Your Google Classroom
Google Classroom is available for free for anyone
who uses a Google Apps for Education account. You will simply need to go to classroom.google.com.
From here, you will follow the steps for creating your classroom. You will be
able to add various classes and sections as needed. You have some freedom when
it comes to the basic classroom design, such as class themes. After the class
is set up, then it is time to sign your students up. They will need to sign in
with the class code, which Google will generate. At this point, your Google
Classroom is ready for use.
Store Class Materials
Use the about section of Google Classroom to store
important classroom materials that students will refer to throughout the school
year. For example, many teachers attach materials like a class syllabus, rules,
or helpful lesson guides.
Additionally, Google Classroom works well to store
the rest of your classroom materials. In Google Classroom, student work is not
placed in a shared folder, so it is private between the teacher and the
student. When it is time to grade student work, you will be able to access it
wherever you have a computer and internet access.
Make Announcements
The Announcements Feature is helpful for sending out
important notices. When you post an announcement, students will receive an
email, and the announcement will post at the top of the classroom thread.
Create Assignments
Google Classroom makes it easy to create assignments
paperlessly. For instance, when you create an assignment, you title it, add a
description, and a due date. Additionally, you can attach multiple files such
as images, step-by-step guides, or YouTube videos.
Use the Questions Feature
While Google Classroom does not have a test or quiz
making tool, you can use the Questions feature to ask students multiple choice
questions and receive scores immediately.
Grade Assignments
Teachers can also grade assignments within Google
Classroom and comment on student work. Google Classroom also stores grades.
Integrate Apps
In addition to using Google apps with Classroom, you
can also integrate other apps, such as Newsela and Quizlet, making your
classroom a truly digital learning space.
As we close, it’s important to note that Google
Classroom allows teachers to move from focusing on the result to collaborating
with students throughout the learning process.
Smarter Ways to Use Google Classroom
- When an assignment, lesson, or unit doesn’t work, add your own comments–or have students add their own feedback), then tag it or save it to a different folder for revision.
- Align curriculum with other teachers.
- Share data with professional learning community.
- Keep samples of exemplar writing for planning.
- Tag your curriculum.
- Solicit daily, weekly, by-semester, or annual feedback from students and parents using Google Forms.
- Share anonymous writing samples with students.
- See what your assignments look like from the students’ point-of-view.
- Flip your classroom. The tools to publish videos and share assignments are core to Google Apps for Education.
- Communicate assignment criteria with students.
#smartstudenterp# #googlesoftware# #googleclassroom#
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