Tech Talk Tuesday
May 12, 2020
Tips & Tricks for Google Classroom
Since all of us are using Google Classroom to run our classes, we thought we would share some ideas to think about. Some of these are more basic and others are more advanced. But no matter where you are, I hope you find them useful.
Classroom Organization Tips
- USE TOPICS: Topics all you to organize all of the items you post in Classwork. It also allows you to sort your Topics so the ones that the students will use the most are at the top.
- Number your assignments--all assignments are organized alphabetically so even if you posted it recently if it starts with an S it will go toward the bottom. Simply put a number at the end of the name (e.g HW #1 or Project 2) and all of the assignments will be ordered the way you entered them.
Work Smarter Not Harder
- Reuse Posts--Instead of creating new assignments for every class, use the Reuse Post option and select the class you want to pull from. You can even go back to Archived classes and use them.
- Archive Old Classes--there is no reason to delete your class at the end of the school year, even if you are not teaching that topic anymore. When you are looking at the main screen with all of your classes in front of you, click on the 3 dots, and choose Archive. If you delete a class, all of your work disappears.
- Schedule Posts--Next to the Post (stream) or Assign (classwork) button you will see an arrow that allows you to schedule posts. This is great for making sure that your posts always show up on time even when you are running a few minutes late to class.
- Rubrics--Google Classroom has a built in rubric system that you can add to each assignment. It's super easy to setup and it pops up right in front of you when grading student assignments. Also, the rubric will show up for the students with the description of the assignment.
- Comment Bank--there is a comment bank feature when grading student work. This option works great if you tend to repeat the same comments when giving feedback.
Track Student Work Better- I've applied for Free Access for the district but you may want to apply for your school.
Classwork Zoom (no, not that Zoom) is an extension for Google Chrome that links to your Google Classroom and allows you to track all of the changes that your students make to Google Slides, Docs, Sheets, an Drawings. This is Revision History to a totally different level. It shows how long a student has worked on a file, if large sections were added in short periods of time (aka copy and pasted), and if that work might have come from another student's work. Everyone in the district has free access through July.
Application link: https://schoolclosed.classworkzoom.com/
Classwork Zoom: Introduction / Demo
Create Custom Google Classroom Headers
Creating Custom Google Classroom Headers
Leave Voice Comments and Instructions
Tech Tip--Comment and Talk Extension