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Six Tips for Using Google Classroom

March 24

For many of us, using Google Classroom for distance learning has become the new normal. The experience of social distancing, hybrid schedules, and/or not having school buildings open has been surreal, but, in many ways, also inspiring. But, no matter the circumstances, teachers are determined to do what is best for our students.

As my school’s instructional coach, I work to support teachers and students. That support doesn’t look the same for every teacher and every situation. My school is 1:1 with all students using Chromebooks, and most teachers using Google Classroom daily. But, it can be difficult to keep up with changes to Google Classroom (and it is ALWAYS changing!). So, I try to stay on top of Google Classroom best practices in order to help teachers use it most effectively and efficiently.

Google Classroom is a great tool to support distance learning and keep you connected to your students.

If you already know the basics of using Google Classroom for distance learning, here are six tips you can use to make it work even better for you.

Tip 1: Change your Classroom(s) to the “Only Teachers Can Post and Comment” setting

You may have times when you want students to be able to comment on a post, but I would only suggest allowing that when you can actively monitor their comments.  Otherwise, keep it on “Only Teachers Can Post and Comment.” It will save you the headache of a student posting an inappropriate comment (or just clogging up the feed with to many “heyyyy” comments).

Here’s how to change this setting: 

  1. Open one of your Google Classroom classes, and click on the gear icon in the upper right.
  2. Scroll down to General.
  3. Next to Stream, select “Only Teachers Can Post and Comment.”

Note that you will need to do this for EACH Google Classroom class you have.

Tip 2: Control the notifications you receive 

Google Classroom has the ability to clog up your inbox very quickly with notification emails. You can change the settings depending on your preferences, which is a really helpful feature.

Here’s how to get there in Google Classroom:

  1. Click on the three lines in the upper left, and you will see a menu appear on the left side of the screen.
  2. Scroll all the way to bottom and click on Settings.
  3. There you will see plenty of different options for what notifications you wish to receive. Tailor the notifications to what works best for you.

Tip 3: Always use “Make a Copy for Each Student”

When assigning work to students that they will have to complete individually, use “Make a Copy for Each Student” whenever possible. This is a much easier option than having students upload their own Google Doc, Google Slides, etc. because you can easily see what the student has completed even if they don’t click Turn In for the assignment.

Let’s say you want students to write a daily journal entry, and you usually would let them create their own Google Doc for their journal entry. I suggest scrapping that method and pushing out a blank Google Doc to them using the “Make a Copy for Each Student” feature. All you need to do is create a blank Google Doc in your Google Drive with the title of the assignment and attach that blank Google Doc to your assignment post in Google Classroom.

Pro tip: If you create an assignment and forget to use the “Make a Copy for Each Student” option, you cannot click Edit and change it. Instead, you’ll have to create a new assignment in Google Classroom.

Tip 4: Organize Your Classwork Tab with Topics

You and your students will be able to find things so much more easily if you use Topics on your Classwork page. Do not use the Stream to post assignments or materials. My advice is just to let the Stream do its thing and only use it for an announcement here and there if you REALLY want to. (Or, just never post on your Stream page.) Instead, post them to your Classwork page and make sure every assignment or material post is organized under a topic. 

Here’s how you make and use Topics within a Google Classroom class:

  1. Click on your Classwork Page.
  2. Click Create at the top.
  3. Select Topic and type the Topic you want to create.
  4. Then, every time you create a new post in Classwork, be sure to add the Topic.

Pro Tip: You can also create a topic as you are posting a new Assignment or Material for students. Just click Topic and select New Topic while posting. 

Tip 5: Organize Your Classroom Tab Using Drag and Drop

Once you are using topics on your Classwork page, you can drag and drop posts within each topic to get them in the most logical order for your students. You can also drag and drop your topic headings on your Classwork page. I LOVE this feature to keep everything organized, logically sequenced, and easy-to-find for my students.

Pro Tip #1: Make sure your posts are first categorized under the topics you created. Drag and drop doesn’t work with uncategorized posts. Plus, drag and drop ONLY works on the Classwork page, not on the Stream page. 

Pro Tip #2: If you find you are trying to drag and drop off the screen and it isn’t working well, use the zoom out tool to make it easier to drag and drop.

Tip 6: Use the Email Feature to Communicate with Students

You can email your whole class, a group of students, or one student directly from Google Classroom. This saves a TON of time typing in email addresses, and a big plus is all the students in a group email are automatically added to the bcc line so no one can use “reply all.”

Here’s how to use the email feature in Google Classroom:

  1. Go to the People tab.
  2. Select the student or students you want to email. If you want to email the whole class, select the box just under the word Students.
  3. Click on the menu that says Actions, then select Email.

Bonus Tips

BONUS TIP: You can schedule posts to appear for students at a certain time. You will find this schedule feature by clicking the small arrow next to the Assign button for any post you create on the Classwork page (this doesn’t work on the Stream page – see Tip 4 above). Unfortunately, you can only schedule a post for one classroom at a time.

BONUS TIP: If you need to push out an assignment to only some of your students, not the entire class, this is easy to do when creating an assignment post or any other type of post. When creating a post on the Classwork page, just click on the “All Students” dropdown on the right. You can select only certain students and then even edit the post later to include more or fewer students.

Using Google Classroom for distance learning has been a challenge, but I do see a lot of silver linings for us to focus on. One of those is finding new ways to support our teaching. Another silver lining is improving our skills on tech tools and platforms such as Google Classroom. The biggest silver lining by far is that when this is all behind us, I know that I will appreciate the little things so much more. Stay strong, friends.

Looking for ideas for engaging Social Studies assignments that can be assigned through Google Classroom? Check out my no-prep Road Trip Projects and Webquests for Google Classroom.

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Welcome! I'm Anne. Thank you for visiting Social Studies Aloft. This site is dedicated to providing ideas, resources, and inspiration for inquiry-based Middle School Social Studies classrooms like yours.

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