Tips and Tricks for End of Year Google Drive Clean-up.

 End-of-Year Google Cleanup 

Asynchronous Learning Library

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Make it Visual with Emojis

You can add an emoji to the title of a Google Drive folder to make them easier to find. Simply copy the emoji from a tool like <a href="https://emojikeyboard.io/">Emoji Keyboard</a> and paste it into the title of your folder. Drive will categorize the emoji as coming before A if you have your drive sorted in alphabetical order. Emojis can also be placed in titles of Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, too!

Files in 2 Places at Once

You can make a file appear in more than one folder by using shortcuts. This is different than making a copy and placing a copy in a different folder, as the shortcut traces back to the original file. This means you will always have the most recent version of the file at your fingertips. Shortcuts can be used in Drive or Shared Drives. Anybody with access to the folder can see the shortcut. However, if they don't have access to the actual file, they won't be able to open the shortcut. To make a shortcut right-click the file and select Add Shortcut to Drive.

If you like visual cues, you can organize your Google Drive folders by color. Right click a folder in Drive and then select "Change Color." If you are changing the color of a folder that is shared with others, they will not see your color selection and can choose their own color within their own Drive.

Find important files or folders quickly so that you can find them later! When you star a file, it is also added to the Starred menu in the left-hand folder navigation of your drive. You can star a file by right clicking on it in Drive and selecting "Add to Starred" or by opening the file and clicking small star next to the title of the document. You can unstar files the same way to remove them from your starred section of Drive. It's helpful to clean out your starred content each school year.

Reflect on Organization Strategies

Using the topics feature on the classwork page helps organize assignments for students and teachers. There are several different ways to organize. You might organize by week, unit, topic, or file type. You an also organize more deeply by subtopic. Which style worked best for you this year? Which would you consider for next year? For ideas, check out this post on <a href="https://shakeuplearning.com/blog/how-to-organize-assignments-in-google-classroom/">How to Organize Assignments in Google Classroom</a>.

Google Classroom does not automatically roster or archive your classes. Once it's archived, students and teachers will not see it in their Classroom dashboard. You Classroom still lives in Archived section. The folder in your Google Drive associated with the archived class will still remain in your Google Drive and in your students' Drives, so material is still accessible to all.

How to Archive a Class in Google Classroom

<a href="https://support.google.com/edu/classroom/answer/6149813?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&amp;hl=en">Archiving Google Classroom Classes</a>

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A great organizational strategy is to clean up the bookmarks you no longer need on your Chrome bookmark bar. Click on the 3 dots in the top right-hand corner and then click on Bookmarks &gt; Bookmark Manager. On the left-hand tab, make sure you have clicked Bookmarks Bar. If you no longer need the bookmarks, delete them by right clicking the bookmark and then selecting delete.

05/23 EOY Chrome Bookmark Cleanup

For more tips and tricks on how to use Google Drive, check out our <a href="https://read.bookcreator.com/yPkO96leC0Qpq7GzrVHcVRAm2hv1/a2rPou_PQHu34PXe58S9HA">Google Classroom Tips and Tricks eBook for Teachers</a>!

Do you need to find out which files you own or a colleague owns so that you can transfer ownership or make a copy? Use the advanced search features to search by a specific type of file (Slide, Sheet, video) or a specific owner (you or a teammate). You can also search by people it's shared with, words in the title, and date modified.

More Google Please... <a href="https://youtu.be/0yD1ZD03Nn4">https://youtu.be/0yD1ZD03Nn4</a>By Lauren Richardson

Advanced Search Options in Google Drive

Clearing cache and cookies fix loading and formatting issues. When you clear your cache and cookies, settings on some sites will be deleted. You may need to sign into accounts on websites again. To Clear Cache and Cookies: Click on 3 dots in the upper right corner&gt;More Tools&gt; Clear Browsing Data

<a href="https://jeffcohelp.freshservice.com/support/solutions/articles/16000016410">Jeffco Help: Clear Cache and Cookies (Chromebook)</a>

Professional Development Credit

If you would like to earn 1 hour of professional development credit for completing this eBook, please fill out this<a href="https://forms.gle/5j3AKG2B1fEs5qsm9"> Google Form</a>. The title of this eBook is End-of-Year Google Clean-up. A 1-hour certificate will be emailed to you upon completion.

Are you a person who simply needs a visual cue? If that's the case consider deleting the name of the bookmark entirely. This will leave a favicon (symbol/logo for a website) in your bookmark bar. Most websites have different favicons, which makes them easily recognizable. You might consider organizing your favicons by frequency of use, topic or color. 

Google Chrome Quick Tip: Using Icons in the Bookmarks Bar

<a href="https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/how-to-save-your-bookmarks-as-favicons-in-chrome">Create Favicons in Chrome</a>

How to clean up your... <a href="bookcreator://page/z4K20HcLREC_DOmoPQNscw">Google Chrome</a> <a href="bookcreator://page/HK0wNFfzQPe7zQdiuirhsQ">Google Drive</a> <a href="bookcreator://page/ch86YKzoSWerCmz1CZtInw">Google Classroom</a>

Once you have selected your favorite organization method for Google Classroom you can create a master class. Make a copy of the class as your template. You can continue to make a copy every time you need a new class and already have all of your topics created and organized, and your assignments will be saved as drafts! To make a copy of a class in Google Classroom: Go to your Google Classroom home, then click on the 3 dots on the class card and select “copy.” <a href="https://shakeuplearning.com/blog/how-to-create-a-class-template-in-google-classroom/">How to Create a Class Template in Google Classroom</a>.

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End-of-Year Google Clean-Up

For more tips and tricks on how to use Google Drive, check out our <a href="https://read.bookcreator.com/f1CqFNDSRNRgQu3gROjMSbkfcFu2/J3ZUs1fNQi-jDqZkYmBhjQ">Google Classroom Tips and Tricks eBook for Students</a>!

For more tips and tricks on how to use Google Drive, check out our <a href="https://read.bookcreator.com/yPkO96leC0Qpq7GzrVHcVRAm2hv1/YXlGXeDvSDqOssYI09lesA">Google Drive Tips and Tricks eBook</a>!

When you create a class in Google Classroom, it automatically generates a calendar in your Google Calendar. As you archive classes, head into Calendar and delete the calendars from your list for classes you no loner need. Before you delete, however, you may wish to take a photo for your records to help with pacing and due dates. Tip: choose schedule view so you can see dates in a list format.

<a href="https://shakeuplearning.com/blog/google-classroom-cleanup-tips-for-the-end-of-the-year/">From Shake Up Learning</a>

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Chrome extensions are programs that are installed on your Chrome browser that change its functionality. This includes adding or modifying features to change how the browser behaves. Although many Chrome extensions are beneficial, there are some that can impact the browser in a negative way. This can include slowing down your browsing speed, causing loading issues, giving errors, or changing permissions on other programs. Chances are if you are experiencing an issue while using Chrome, it's probably due to an extension. For this reason, it is important to regularly clear out extensions you aren't familiar with, don't use, or are developed by a third party.

<a href="https://jeffcohelp.freshservice.com/support/solutions/articles/16000016340">Jeffco Help: Cleaning Up Extensions</a>

With Google Drive, you have unlimited storage space, which means you don't need to delete files. In order to clean things up, you might consider creating an folder called Archive. Then you can move files you no longer need into that particular folder. You might also consider renaming the files and folders in the folder to contain the word "Archive" so that when using the search, you don't accidentally pull up outdated information.

Google will suggest work that it thinks is a part of the same project or tasks. You can easily add these files to workspaces so that you can collect content and access it quickly and easily. To add a file to a workspace, enter into your drive and right-click the file and select Add to Workspace. There is a limit of 25 files per workspace. Each  fall or spring, it's a good idea to clear out and set up new workspaces based on the new work you will be part of completing! 

<a href="https://youtu.be/89E0MbfUnaI">Creating a Workspace in Google Drive</a>

Create a Master Folder for the Year

Because most of us in education work on a school-year cycle, moving everything from this year into a 2020-2021 folder will help keep next year's content fresh and organized. You can make copies of last year's work and put the new versions in a 2021-2022 folder so that you retain the older version for your historical records. 

<a href="https://shakeuplearning.com/blog/13-tips-to-organize-your-google-drive/">From Shake Up Learning Podcast</a>

If you are leaving your team or the district, you will want to transfer ownership of files in your Drive that your Jeffco colleagues need to keep. You will need to transfer files one by one. Transferring ownership of a folder, does not transfer ownership of the files within it. *Note: you cannot transfer ownership to a Google account outside of the district. A second option is that the returning members could create a copy of the file. This allows them to have ownership over the new file, while the owner retains ownership over the original file. This is not recommended for sensitive materials.

Google Drive - Transfer Ownership of Folder / Document

<a href="https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2494892?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&amp;hl=en">Make someone else an owner</a>

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Organize your bookmarks into folders. This is helpful in keeping sites for the same project, unit of study or content area all grouped together. Right-click on your bookmark bar and click add folder. You will be asked to name the folder and click save. To manage bookmarks, click on the 3 dots in the upper-right hand corner. Click bookmarks &gt; bookmark manager. Here you can drag and organize your bookmarks into your new folders.

Bookmarks & Using Bookmark Folders  in Chrome

Ignore your Shared With Me

Your 'Shared with Me' folder is a composite of everything that has been shared with you ... ever. There's no way to clean it an organize it, which is why you should avoid looking in there -- scary! Just remember, these are not your files, they are the files of other people: your peers, your students, others in the district etc. If you'd like to keep these files to make them easier to find, use the "Add Shortcut to Drive" option and then file them into the folder in your own Drive that makes the most sense. If they are really important, you could star them or add them to a workspace. 

How to STILL Add Files (see update) and Folders to Google Drive, NOT Shortcuts!

Perhaps the very long name of a bookmark does not serve your needs and you'd like to rename it to better meet your purposes. Simply right-click the bookmark and click edit to rename.

You might consider also creating a visual cue by adding an emoji to the name of your bookmark. You can add a book to an article, a letter to your email, or a heart to a favorite site etc. Simply use an emoji keyboard like <a href="https://emojikeyboard.io/">emojikeyboard.io</a>. Copy the emoji and paste it into the name of the bookmark.

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