In a nutshell, Google Classroom is Google Drive Management. It allows you to assign assignments and collect work from students. If you are just starting off with Google Classroom this is a useful video to watch, it provides a brief overview of Google Classroom and explains what Google Classroom is and how it works. In particular (and these are also the things you will want to try first):
- How to create your classes and add students.
- Creating and distributing an assignment.
- How students see their work.
- How to review assignments and give grades and feedback.
Useful Tips:
- Create a Class – When you first log in you will be asked if you are a student or a teacher. It is very important that you indicate that you are a teacher. If you make a mistake, you will need to contact your Google Apps administrator at your site to reset your status.
- Create an Announcement – For your first announcement why not invite your students to say hello. Rember Google Classroom is new to the students also, hey will be trying out the system along with you. Let them get their silliness out by posting “hi!!!!!!!!!!!!.”
- Create an Assignment – It’s a great idea to number all of your Google Classroom assignments. Start EACH assignment with a number such as #001, #002, etc… This makes it really easy to refer students to the correct spot in Google Classroom.
- Provide Feedback – Remember Control+Alt +M (Option+command+M) to insert a comment to give fast feedback right in the doc
- Returning Work – Remember when a student has submitted work to Google Classroom they lose their editing rights. After reviewing student work click on the “select all” checkbox and click on the blue “Return” button. This returns ownership and editing rights back to the student.