Post date: Apr 21, 2016 2:15:12 AM
With Molly Schroeder (@followmolly).
You need to have Classroom enabled and you need to have a Google Apps for Education account. So if you can't access it, this is probably why. Talk to your GAFE administrator if you get stuck.
Well, previously, students had to label everything in Google Docs and share them back with you.
With Classroom, you don't have to. Everything is auto-shared, owned by you, and labelled for the kids.
Google Classroom is not an LMS. It doesn't have to replace your LMS but it will do pretty much everything you need, but without the clunkiness or drama of using something like Moodle, Edmodo or Schoology. Combined with Apps, etc, it will do pretty much everything your LMS currently does...if not more.
Classroom takes seconds to set up!
A Google Calendar and Google Drive folder are auto-magically created for you.
You can use it with teacher-teacher collab, not just teacher-student work.
Use email (groups or individual addresses) or a handy code for students to join your class. Teachers can also join classes as a student so it's easy to share ideas and resources.
You can set permissions here to allow students to: post and comment; only comment; or ONLY teacher can post or comment.
Personally, I leave it wide open because it gives some awesome opportunities to practice digital citizenship. You can turn this on or off as you need it.
You can mute a student who is being inappropriate - from the Students tab or from their comment in the Stream.
Easily find your calendar, your Drive folder and regularly used resources you have added to this tab, eg class textbook, useful websites, etc. You can add links, attachments, items from Google Drive or YouTube videos or playlists.
The little blue cross icon in the bottom right hand corner is your go-to point for everything.
If your kids say something inappropriate, you can "show deleted items".
You can ask questions, eg an exit ticket, and allow a short answer or multiple choice. It acts as a poll rather than a quiz. You can allow students to reply to each other, or not, and allow them to edit, or not. It will give you a tracker of who has done and not done their work (same as assignments).
Assignments are similar, but you can also add attachments, Drive items, etc. If you add a Drive item, the student can "Turn In" the assignment via the doc. You can mark and comment in the Doc, or you can give a private comment via Classroom. Students lose edit rights when they Turn In, but they can unsubmit to edit. (This will show as "not done" again for the teacher). You can always see the submission history to see if and when they've unsubmitted or submitted. Just click on the student in the assignment grading section of Classroom.
If they create their assignment in Classroom, it auto-names it, etc. This allows flexibility of format they use to submit.
If multiple teachers are doing the same assignment or using the same content, they can be added as a teacher to your class, then simply "Reuse post" to share collaborative content with others. GREAT IDEA: Create all your work collaboratively in one class, then share it out to your individual classes by using Reuse Post!
Yes it's possible to grade questions and assignments, but it is a numeric value. You can change the number that it is out of. If you use an alpha grading system, you might change it to 5 where a 5 = A, or similar. (You could use formulas in Google Sheets to auto change the grades to alpha standards if you like).
Anything with a due date goes straight in the calendar!
Add Goobric for Students as a Chrome Extension and add Doctopus as an Add-On. You can add the rubric before they start working. Then you can make it accessible to students, allow self/peer assessment and send an email notification to students. You can give voice feedback or written feedback using the rubric.
There is no file or folder organisation in Classroom. Keep requesting this in the little question mark area in the bottom left hand corner. The more times a question or request is posted, the more likely it is to be viewed.
There is no way to schedule posts. That would be very handy! Let Google know.