Communication

Lesson Description:

In this lesson you will learn two primary ways to communicate using Google Classroom.

Key Vocabulary

Stream - First page that students see when they log into your class. This page shows changes to your class and allows for announcements and other posts. This is not to be confused with streaming, which is viewing videos online.

Guardian - Any adult that has permission to see a student's grades. This can include parents, legal guardians, or school employees assigned to help the student in your class.

Communicating with Google Classroom

In the video from the last lesson, you saw how you could leave comments on students' work, however what about those times you want to send a message to the entire class, or want students and/ or guardians to know how a student is doing? This kind of communicating is easy in Google Classroom. The two main ways to communicate with your students or their guardians are through the Stream, and with the built-in email options.

Using the Stream

The Stream is the page that opens as soon as a student logs into your class, so it makes it a great place to post announcements or other things you need to communicate with students. Below are some ideas that might prove useful when using the Stream:

You need to make an announcement. Ex - "The quiz has been rescheduled from tomorrow to Friday."
You have a document you need to share with your students. Ex - "A lot of you were having trouble adding images to your docs. Attached you will find a step-by-step guide."
You want to share video. Ex - "I am grading today's classwork and many of you are missing the question about differential equations. Watch this video to review the steps."
You want to share a link. Ex - "Great discussion today in class! Some of you wanted to know more about how hurricanes form, so I am attaching a link to a website that covers this in detail."
You want to send a message to just one or just a few students (Make sure to only choose the students you want if you do this!) Ex - I saw how hard you were trying today. Keep up the great work!

Now that you have some ideas of how you might want to use the Stream watch the video on how to post announcements on this page.

Email Students and/or Guardians with Google Classroom

There is not a teacher that hasn't had a parent ask for updates on how their child is performing. With the email summary option, guardians can receive email updates in just a few clicks. You can also send the same summaries to students. Students can already see this information when they log into your class, so we will focus on sending emails to guardians in this lesson. In order to use this feature you need to invite guardians first.

Invite Guardians:

Note: Only invite guardians that you know have permission to see information about that child, and also verify the email address.

Go to the class you want in Google Classroom.
Click on the People tab at the top of the page.
Find the student of the Guardian you want to add and click on the menu (3 stacked dots) button.
Click Invite Guardians
Type or paste the email address on the line provided.
Click invite.

Email Students and/or Guardians with Google Classroom:

Watch the video walk-through below to see how to email summaries to guardians.

In the Next Lesson:

In the next lesson we will be wrapping up the course.

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