From the start of my teaching career, I integrated technology into my classroom. I used to be a rarity! People would come observe me using tools and ideas that today are commonplace in schools across the country. As education begins its transition into the 21st century, schools are quickly adapting by purchasing technology to aid instructional practices. Teachers are beginning to use these tools to have students conduct research, create multimedia, and take the lesson plan to a different, exciting level!
All of these are steps in the right direction. However, we must remember that this venture into the new land of Ed Tech must be rooted in best practices.
Using Roskos & Neuman’s article from The Reading Teacher as a guide, we’ll be discussing how educational technology can help teachers be more effective and engaging while being sure to implement best practices.
Last year, our district went One-to-One and purchased Chromebooks for all middle school students. Agendas weren’t needed anymore since the students had the technology and Google Classroom, which we were using, had a feature to integrate assignments to Google Calendar. Great! Right?
Not if you use Classroom like I do!
Here’s what I’ve found with the Google Classroom Calendar:
* Classwork assignments look like homework assignments so labeling is critical
* Tests or quizzes can’t be posted on the Calendar unless you make them an assignment – which means posting them in advance?
* The calendar itself gets overwhelming, especially if you’re like me and have 3-4 documents per day (90 minute blocks!)
This is a snapshot of ONE WEEK of assignments in Classroom. This seems overwhelming, even though it’s all classwork!
This is how one month of my Google Classroom looks in my calendar.
Here’s how I’ve remedied the situation:
I created a Google Calendar for my classes, in addition to the one for Google Classroom. Yes, it takes an extra step to set this up, but I found that last year this was a game changer.
Step One: Turn OFF Google Classroom calendar in Google Calendar
Have the students complete this task!
Step Two: Create a NEW Calendar for your classes.
This one will be used for YOU to post homework, test, quiz, and project dates
Step Three: Set up calendar
I set mine to PUBLIC so parents can access as well!
Be sure to CREATE calendar at bottom of screen!
Step Four: Share with students and parents!
You need to send the URL to parents and students!
Step Five: Have students register to the calendar!
Use the following video the help students enroll in your new calendar!
From here, you can post assignments to the calendar without using Google Classroom! Parents have access to the calendar, kids calendar’s are no longer filled with assignments, and you can post due dates for things not done through Classroom!
Hope this helps you in your journey with Google Classroom!
If you’ve been using Google Classroom for the first time this year, you and I are probably sharing similar thoughts as the school year comes to an end: What do I do with my Classroom? Do I really have to start ALL over next year?
After doing some research of my own, I hope you’ll find these helpful tips to successfully finish the year with your online classroom.
Tip One: Download all grades!
Most (if not all) of my record keeping has been completed digitally this year, but we still need to turn in our grade books in June. This is one way to download your grades so you can have them all in one spot. You can export them to Google Sheets, download one assignment as a CSV, or download all assignments as a CSV.
I’ll be archiving my Google Classroom from this school year, but unfortunately, in my Google Drive, the folder for the class will still be there. Therefore, my suggestion is to create an Archive Folder that you can literally move your Classroom folder into so you can have remaining access to those files, just not for your current school year.
This is the easy one. You can archive classes in Google Classroom which is amazing because then you can reuse the posts! Reusing the Classroom itself, while tempting, is not ideal for K-12 education because there’s no flexibility when it comes to reordering assignments, etc. Therefore, archiving and reusing posts is the way to go!
Hope these three tips help you close out your school year with Google Classroom!
Any other tips you’d like to add, please comment below!
