Log in to classroom.google.com directly or add the Chrome Web Apps for easy access. When asked if you are a teacher or student, choose Teacher. If this is your first visit to Classroom, you will see a guided tour of features.

To create your first class, click on the plus sign and choose Create class. Name your class, provide a section (optional), and click Create. If you teach the same class several times (e.g. Algebra I), you can differentiate between classes by adding a section. In a matter of seconds, your class will be created!

Sometimes, the easiest way for your students to enroll in your Classroom class is to have them join by entering the unique class code automatically generated for each class. The code for each specific class can be found in the "People" section of each Google Classroom class. Then help your students navigate to classroom.google.com, select "I'm a student" then select Join class, and enter the code. Once they join, you will see them active in the People section in Classroom. All posts you have made to that Google Classroom class will be accessible by the students when they join.

Sometimes you might want to draw student's attention to a course syllabus, in others it may be a school schedule, or a list of behavioral expectations. In any case, create "Materials" in the "Classwork" page of Google Classroom to keep persistent information easily accessible to all your students. Materials not only provide a way for teachers to add these resources, but also ensures the Classwork page holds all the materials for a class. This organization helps students by keeping everything in one place. Teachers are also able to organize and reorder materials so resources can be easily referenced throughout the school year.

In Classroom, go to Classwork. Click on the Create button to create an Assignment. You will be prompted to add a title and an optional description. Choose the class(es) you wish to add the assignment to (That’s right, if you teach a class multiple times, you just need only assign it once). Finally, set a date and time that the assignment must be turned in. Click the Assign button and your assignment will be created. You can even save a draft of an assignment or schedule a future date on which it will be assigned, allowing you to prepare for the week ahead without sending your students an assignment on a Sunday!

When posting to multiple classes you must post so all students see the assignment. If posting to the whole class does not meet your instructional needs, consider a different option. For example, you create and post an assignment in one class and want to use similar resources in another class. Navigate to the other class where students will need to learn similar material. Instead of creating the same assignment from scratch, click “Reuse post” but this time add additional resources, change the due date, or select the specific students that would benefit from the assignment. Not only does this workflow support individual students' learning needs but can save you time and energy.

If you have access to Classroom already, try creating an assignment telling your class to, “Read chapter 5 of the World History textbook and answer questions 1-4.”

Google Classroom assignments enhance the way students experience work. By adding media, interactives, rubrics, and personalized documents, students can start each assignment with a better understanding of what you want them to accomplish. To do that, click on the appropriate icon and choose your file, YouTube video or link. You can add one or more elements in a single assignment.

For example, instead of only reading chapter 5 of the World History textbook, instruct your students to watch an embedded YouTube video and read an online article. Then have them answer questions on a Google Form to check for understanding. All resources and instructions are included in one assignment post in Classroom.

If you have a document in Drive that you want your students to access, you can add it to an assignment by clicking on the Drive icon when you create the assignment. If you’re simply sharing reading material, set the permissions to Students can view the file. If you want your students to work together on a single document, select Students can edit files. Finally, if you have a worksheet, questionnaire or take-home quiz select Make a copy for each student. With this, each student gets their own copy of the doc to work on.

Open the assignment we created in the previous steps. What steps could we take so that instead of answering the textbook questions, our students can answer a questionnaire from your Drive?

Establishing due dates helps students anticipate which assignments are approaching soon. Teachers and students see upcoming assignments from all classes in their Classwork section of Classroom. Teachers can see additional details about the assignment, click on the assignment and then "view assignment" for all the details, including individual student work.

Students see the Classwork tab and can see all their work under View Your Work. Then students can either start working on an assignment or submit their completed work.

If, when assigning work, you want to share a number of readings or other resource materials with your students, the best way to do it is to share a folder and not individual files. Create a folder and share it with your students as view-only so they cannot modify the original document. Every file within that folder will inherit the folder sharing permissions, meaning you don’t have to share file by file. Point them to the shared Drive folder by sharing the URL, or asking them to view the Shared with Me section in their Drive app.

If you have a worksheet you want your students to access, you can share a file with view-only permissions and have them create a copy. This way, students cannot alter the original document, but each student can make changes to their copy, and can later turn in their work. A quick way of creating copies is to share a URL with, “copy,” at the end instead of, “edit.” For example, use,

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xTOYv/copy; instead of

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xTOYv/edit.

Once you create an assignment in Google Classroom, your students have the ability to turn in their work. All sharing rights are controlled automatically in Google Classroom so educators don’t have to worry about tracking students down to share work with them. Using Google Classroom also cuts down on email traffic so email inboxes are not flooded with notifications of students sharing documents by the truckload. Each assignment contains the work of each student. Perfect organization with zero effort.