Google Classroom 101

Introduction

Hi, I'm Daren. I've been a teacher for over 20 years now and I'm currently Learning Technologies Lead for 2 secondary academies in Essex. I am also a Google Certified Trainer, Wevideo Ambassador, Screencastify Genius, Edpuzzle Coach, Flipgrid Educator and part of the team behind @GEG_UK and @GlobalGEG.

The Covid 19 crisis has thrown many educators in at the deep end of Distance Learning and for some, that means changing almost overnight, what you've been doing for years. It can be scary but hopefully this guide will help you feel confident managing your Google Classroom.

It really is a great tool and I couldn't imagine life without it now.

If you enjoy this
book, you can
always buy me
a coffee here.>>>

Thanks

Buy Rangathetrainer a Coffee. ko-fi.com/rangathetrainer

Signing up

First let's head to classroom.google.com where we will be looking to make sure we are signed in with our gmail account. Look for the header bar and the + sign. Click there and when asked, select "I'm a teacher". You MUST do this first time or you will create an account with student permissions only.

Create a class

Creating your first class is
easy. Just click on the +,
select create class and
give your class a name. This is the only information that is mandatory, the rest of the sections; section, subject and room, are optional.

It obviously makes sense to name your classes as they appear on your timetable but you can create additional classes too for things like extra-curricular clubs.

That's it, click create, sit back and let Google do its thing.
You've just created you first class. Easy right?

Customise your class

Now you're in your first classroom, let's take a look around. You can see 4 tabs along the top; stream, classwork, people and marks. Pretty obvious right?

You'll also see the start of your stream and upcoming, a reminder of deadlines approaching.

Inviting people

At the moment, there's only you in your classroom and we need to change that. There are several ways to get students to join your class including by email invite, by class code and by MIS sync.

To invite manually click on the icon.

by email

To invite by email, just enter the students' email addresses and click invite. You can do multiple invites at a time.

by class code

In the top left of the
Classroom header
you will see a class
code. Share this
with students electronically or display on screen. Students go to classroom.google.com just like you did but click the + and join class. They enter the code and wham!

by MIS sync

It is also possible for your school to sync its Management Information System with Google Classroom so that classes can be automatically generated and updated in line with your class registers on your system.

Whichever way you
choose, it's easy for you.

class settings

Every classroom has its own unique settings. Make sure you check these carefully.

Reset the code if it's hard to read or has been shared with someone you don't want accessing your class.

Decide what permissions you want students to have on the stream.

Hide notifications of assignments from your stream to keep it tidy and only for announcements. Students should go to Classwork to find classwork.

personal settings

Personal settings can be found in the left hand side bar, right at the bottom in settings. Adjust these to suit your requirements. If you are a co-teacher, you're settings won't affect your colleague's settings.

the stream

If you haven't turned off notifications from your stream in classroom settings, your stream will quickly become a mess. As shown in the image, the stream should be viewed as a noticeboard, nothing more.

Assignments don't belong here. Keep those in your Classwork tab

posting to stream

Posting to your stream is easy. You can choose which classes to post to, which students and you can also add attachments.

Using the drop downs you can select multiple classes or specific students.

If you post to specific students, they become private messages that others can't see on their stream.

By clicking the 3 dots on a post you can edit, delete or move to the top of the stream easily.

classwork tab

The Classwork tab is where all assignments should be posted and accessed. Train your students to go there to find their work.

You have a choice fo assignment types as well as useful links to things like Google Meet, the Class Calendar for deadlines and the Drive folder with all the work.

How you organise your classwork tab is up to you but here is some advice from me, someone who has tried many different ways.

creating content

When you create an assignment in Google Classroom you have several choices.

Let's take a look at
each one in more
detail in this video
and the following
pages.

Question

assignment

When setting your assignment you can give it a title, add instructions and then attach documents from your Drive, the web or your computer. You can also create a new document directly in the assignment.

Assignments are designed to be handed in or marked as done by a specific deadline. Students can also post comments on the assignment if they have issues. You decide the due date, time and how it will be assessed.
You can for them to be unmarked or for a score can be assigned. You can even design a rubric (mark scheme) to suit your course or class.

QUIZ

Assigning a Quiz enables you to import scores into your markbook and use lock mode on managed chromebooks.

If you choose to ask a question directly in Google Classroom you have 2 options, short answer and multiple choice. What I love about this is that in the assignment answers you can sort by answer as well as name.

Questions are a great way to get quick feedback or to canvass opinions from the class. Students can respond to each others' answers too if you allow them to.