With your @loomiswolves.org school google account you get unlimited storage within Google Drive! Since this is the case it is best practice that you save most of your files and items to your Google Drive rather than saving them to your laptop hard drive.
*Backup and Sync or Drive File Stream*
Clicking on the above image takes you to the Google support page and has links for downloading either Backup and Sync or Drive File Stream.
Which one is right for you is somewhat of a personal preference. Knowing that many of you save files to your Desktop or Documents folder of your Mac laptop quite frequently this would lead me to say Backup and Sync is better for you. If you don't often save to your Desktop or Documents folder then Drive File Stream might be the choice. If you use and save to a Shared Drive often then Drive File Stream would be your pick. If you often work offline (without internet connection) and have the available hard drive space on your machine I would probably lean towards Backup and Sync.
Click on the appropriate link for the option that you would like to download and install.
Then choose your proper operating system and follow the instructions to set up the backup service selected and choose what to backup through it.
Go to the System Preferences, Users & Groups, and then the Login Items tab. Click on the +plus symbol and choose for the proper app to start automatically at login. This way should you restart your machine the service will start automatically each time. You can see the Backup and Sync logo in the top menu bar on your Mac and can monitor that to make sure things are syncing when working and saving items.
*Photos & short videos are more easily backed up through the use of the Google Photos app. When setting up Backup & Sync there is a checkbox near the bottom of the window under the Google Photos section that states: Upload newly added photos and videos to Google Photos. Placing a checkmark in this box will send your photos and videos from your Mac to Google Photos storage rather than just into your Google Drive.