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by Terry Heick

Google Classroom is quietly becoming the most powerful tool in education technology.

It may lack the visual appeal of iPads or the student credibility of a BYOD program. It may not be as forward-thinking as we'd like here at TeachThought, but Google Classroom excels in providing solutions for a broad swath of teachers who have a variety of expertise and comfort levels with education technology. It also uses Google's familiar template that many teachers have used for years. As such, it scratches the itch for many teachers in many classrooms right here, right now.

So below are (at least) 60 things you can do with Google Classroom. We'll be updating this list as new ideas come in, the platform changes, and we learn more about its subtleties on our own.
60 Smarter Ways To Use Google Classroom

1. When an assignment, lesson, or unit doesn't work, add your own comments-or have students add their own feedback), then tag it or save it to a different folder for revision.

2. Align curriculum with other teachers.

3. Share data with your professional learning community.

4. Keep samples of exemplar writing for planning.

5. Tag your curriculum.

6. Solicit daily, weekly, by-semester, or annual feedback from students and parents using Google Forms.

7. Share anonymous writing samples with students.

8. See what your assignments look like from the students' point-of-view.

9. Flip your classroom. The tools to publish videos and share assignments are core to Google Apps for Education.

10. Communicate assignment criteria with students.

11. Let students ask questions privately.

12. Let students create their own digital portfolios of their favorite work.

13. Create a list of approved research sources. You can also differentiate this by student, group, reading level, and more.

14. Post an announcement for students, or students and parents.

15. Design more mobile learning experiences for your students-in higher ed, for example.

16. Have students chart their own growth over time using Google Sheets.

17. Share due dates with mentors outside the classroom with a public calendar.

18. Email students individually, or as groups. Better yet, watch as they communicate with one another.

19. Create a test that grades itself using Google Forms.

20. Control file rights (view, edit, copy, download) on a file-by-file basis.

21. Have students curate project-based learning artifacts.

22. As a teacher, you can collaborate with other teachers (same grade by team, same content across grade level).

23. Encourage digital citizenship via peer-to-peer interaction that is documented.

24. Use Google Calendar for due dates, events outside the classroom, and other important "'chronological data.'

25. Communicate digitally with students who may be hesitant to 'talk' with you in person.

26. Streamline cross-curricular projects with other teachers.

27. Aggregate and publish commonly-accessed websites to make sure everyone has the same access, same documents, same links, and same information.

28. Vertically-align student learning by curating and sharing 'landmark' student assignments that reflect mastery of specific standards.

29. Encourage a common language by unpacking standards and share district-wide.

30. Encourage students to use their smartphones for formal learning. By accessing documents, YouTube channels, group communication, digital portfolio pieces and more on a BYOD device, students will have a chance to see their phone as something other than a purely for-entertainment device.

31. Create and publish 'power standards' (with students, other teachers, and other schools) for transparency and collaboration.

32. Promote peer-to-peer and/or school-to-school interactions-students with other students, students with other teachers, and teachers with other teachers.

33. Create 'by-need' groups as classes-based on reading level, for example.

34. Check which students have accessed which assignments.

35. Provide student with feedback.

36. Add voice comments to student writing (this requires a third-party app to do so).

37. Help students create content-specific YouTube channels.

38. 'Closed-circuit publish' annotated research papers according to specific styles (MLA, APA, etc.) or other otherwise 'confusing' work.

39. Share presentations.

40. Create a digital parking lot"' for questions.

41. Administer digital exit slips.

42. Instead of homework, assign voluntary 'lesson extensions' for students. When questions arise about mastery or grades, refer to who accessed and completed what, when.

43. Create folders of miscellaneous lesson materials. digital versions of texts, etc.

44. Enjoy smarter conferencing with students and parents with easy-to-access work, data, writing, feedback, access data, and so on.

45. Save pdfs or other snapshots of digital resources in universally accessed folders.

46. Create a data wall but with spreadsheets and color-coding.

47. Make substitute teacher work or make-up work easy to access.

48. Collect data. This can happen in a variety of ways, from using Google Forms, extraction to Google Sheets, or your own in-house method.

49. Give prompt feedback for learning.

50. See who's completed what-and when-at-a-glance.

51. Track when students turn in work.

52. Since access is tracked, look for patterns in student habits-those that access assignments immediately, those that consistently return to work, and so on-and communicate those trends (anonymously) to students as a way of communicating 'best practices in learning' for students who may not otherwise think

53. Differentiate instruction through tiering, grouping, or Bloom's spiraling.

54. Create groups based on readiness, interest, reading level, or other factors for teaching and learning.

55. Use Google Forms to poll students, create reader interest surveys, and more.

56. Model a 'works cited' page.

57. Create reference sheets.

58. Design digital team-building activities.

59. Create a paperless classroom.

60. Share universal and frequently-accessed assignments-project guidelines, year-long due dates, math formulas, content-area facts, historical timelines, etc.

60 Smarter Ways To Use Google Classroom

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by Terry Heick Google Classroom is quietly becoming the most powerful tool in education technology. It may lack the visual appeal of iPads or the student credibility of a BYOD program. It may not be as forward-thinking as we'd like here at TeachThought, but Google Classroom excels in providing solutions for a broad swath of teachers who have a variety of expertise and comfort levels with education technology.

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to read

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Google Classroom ( http://classroom.google.com) is available to schools with a Google Apps for Education (GAfE) domain. Classroom is a way to get all of your students in one place and allows you to easily assign work and for students to turn it in. Book: " 50 Things You Can Do With Google Classroom" now available on Amazon. For a tour of Google Classroom visit 50thingsbook.com.

20 Things You Can Do With Google Classroom

1. Sharing Resources: Google Classroom allows you to take a document, video or link and push it out to your students.

2. Create a Lesson: More than simply assigning work to students, Google Classroom allows you to build an assignment. Include a description and attach multiple documents, links and videos. This puts the entire lesson in one place.

3. Make Class Announcements: Google Classroom gives you a place to post your announcements. Unlike a website with one way communication, students can comment back on the announcement.

4. Go Paperless: Using Google Docs you no longer need to collect and pass out paper. You can assign students a blank Google Doc or use a template that your students will fill out. Google Classroom creates a copy for each student and gives them a turn in button for when they are done.

5. Simplify the Turn In Process: When using Google Documents, notoriously students forget to change the sharing settings or to turn in their work. Google Classroom eliminates this issue by placing the document in the teacher and the students Google Drive immediately. Students simply need to "turn in" within Google Classroom to signal the teacher they are ready to have their work assessed.

6. Protect Privacy: Rather than creating a global folder shared with all of the students in the class, Google Classroom restricts access to the documents to the teacher and the individual student.

7. Reduce Cheating: Since the entire classes documents are not in a shared folder the temptation to copy another students work is eliminated.

8. Classroom Collaboration: When sharing a document the teacher is able to choose if the students can view the document or can edit it. Creating a document and giving all the students in the class editing access to that same document allows every student to contribute their piece to a class project.

9. Create a Discussion: A spreadsheet can be utilized to collect student opinions on a discussion topic. The ability to have multiple tabs allows for multiple discussion questions. Sharing a single Google spreadsheet with student editing access gets everyone on the same page quickly and gives every student a voice in the discussion.

10. Organize Assignments with Due Dates: In creating an assignment in Google Classroom you are able to assign a due date that is clear for both you and the students.

11. Capture the Middle of the Process: An important shift in the teacher student relationship is to get away from evaluator and focus on being a coach to your students. Google Classroom places all of the students work into a folder that is easily accessible from your Google Drive. While students are in the middle of working on their assignment you are able to go in and insert comments and guide them through the process.

12. Email Students: No longer do you need to create a group of student email addresses, Google Classroom allows you to email everyone at once.

13. Notify Students Who May Need Help: Google Classroom show you who has and has not completed an assignment. Send an email notification providing tips for success and encouraging the student to work on the assignment.

14. Assignment Q&A: When an assignment is posted to Google Classroom the students have the ability to comment on it. No longer do students have to wait to be called on to ask a question. This transcends the walls of the classroom to allow students to ask questions outside of class. When the teacher posts the response it is available to all of the students.

15. Create an Ad Hoc Playlist: Google Classroom allows you to attach multiple YouTube videos to an announcement or assignment.

16. Email Feedback: When returning work to students you can provide a global note to all the students or individually provide feedback. Google Classroom provides the ability to post a note to the assignment from the teacher, and allow the student to comment back. This replaces the one sided note in the margin of the students paper, providing a more dynamic experience.

17. Create Folders: What was once a cumbersome process in Google Drive is now done automatically. The teacher has a folder in Google Drive that contains a folder for each assignment. This makes locating student work a snap!

18. Link Directly: While Google Classroom places the student work into a folder for the teacher to find, a student list with a link to the students work is easily accessible directly from Google Classroom. This reduces the need of the teacher to dig through their Google Drive to find the work a student has completed.

19. Multiple Files in an Assignment: Google Classroom allows you to assign more than a single document. This means students can create a multi-stage project and submit all of their pieces in one place.

20. Easily View Student Submission: Google Classroom clearly counts how many students have and have not submitted an assignment.

Link to my follow up blog post: 15 MORE things you can do with Google Classroom.

Link to my follow up blog post: 10 additional things you can do with Google Classroom.
Thank you to Sean Junkins for creating a nice poster infographic based on this blog post. Click on the image to enlarge and print.
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20 Things You Can Do With Google Classroom - Teacher Tech

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Google Classroom ( http://classroom.google.com) is available to schools with a Google Apps for Education (GAfE) domain. Classroom is a way to get all of your students in one place and allows you to easily assign work and for students to turn it in. Book: " 50 Things You Can Do With Google Classroom" now available on Amazon.

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Google Classroom Updates | The G Suite Show

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When you think of Google Classroom, think of it as mission control for a class. Thanks to your feedback and requests from our last back to school episode, we'll highlight new features in Google Classroom, all designed with teachers in mind. In addition, Drea shows off the new generation of Chromebooks for Education.

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Learn the basic steps of getting started with Google Classroom inside your district's Google Apps for Education account

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Let's Get the Most Out of Google Classroom

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Let's Get the Most Out of Google Classroom

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Lots of ideas to check out

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Tutorial: An Updated Guide to Google Classroom (2017)

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Best way to get started using Google Classroom, type in it. Do not distribute links and documents. Do not collect work or have the students do anything. You can literally be up and running with Google Classroom in less than 3 minutes.

Just Type

After logging into Google Classroom click the plus icon in the bottom right and choose "Assignment." Type what non-digital thing you want the students to do. You can OPTIONALLY elaborate in the description. Click "Assign." Done.

Be Consistent

We all know how important consistency is in teaching. ALWAYS posting tasks to Google Classroom provides consistency. This is a great first step to getting going with Google Classroom and blended learning without feeling overwhelmed.

Transparency

Even though you're initially using Google Classroom just to list the tasks you want students to do, it makes it clear to students and parents what was expected to be completed.

Conversations

When my kids get home from school I ask them, "What did you do today?" I typically get "nothing" or "recess." I then tell my kids, "open up Google Classroom let me see." When nondigital tasks are posted to Google Classroom it gives me specific things I can ask my kid about. "Oh, your teacher read the book Wonder can you tell me about it?" "You made a poster of geometry symbols, what did you make?"

Absent Students

My 5 kids were all super sick recently. When they were unable to go to school the first thing I said to them was "Pull up Google Classroom and see what you need to do." The days of calling the school, calling friends, trying to track down clues for what work the kid needs to do should be OVER. As a teacher I spent so much time answering emails from parents, responding to office paperwork for absent student work, or spending classroom minutes talking to kids about what they missed. Taking literally a couple of minutes to list things in Google Classroom can save me cumulatively hours as a teacher!

Fast to Post

It literally takes seconds to post non-digital tasks to Google Classroom, it can even be done from the Google Classroom app as I'm walking down the hall.

I suggest starting each morning by typing the list of tasks students will be doing into Google Classroom. EVERYTHING. Every single thing the kids are doing.

Take notes

Independent practice

Group discussion

Draw on paper

Physical Education activity

Carpet time story reading

Hands on math manipulatives

Watch a brain-pop video as a class

Holiday craft project

Silent reading

Do problems out of the book

We all make adjustments to what we have students do in response to things and questions that come up in class. It is quick to add those things to Google Classroom also. Let Google Classroom be a record of everything the students are asked to do.

Mark As Done

You do not need to start with students marking assignments as done, but graduate to having the students go into Google Classroom and marking assignments as done. This can help parents for when students pull up their Google Classroom, parents should see a sea of green checkmarks. This does not even have to be done on a task by task basis. If you're not in a 1:1 situation, when opportunities arise ask students to review the list in Google Classroom and mark what they have finished.

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Google Classroom Start Here - Type - Teacher Tech

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Google Classroom: Work on Consistency First Best way to get started using Google Classroom, type in it. Do not distribute links and documents. Do not collect work or have the students do anything. You can literally be up and running with Google Classroom in less than 3 minutes.

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I am excited to announce that the book "50 Things You Can Do With Google Classroom" is now available for sale on Amazon. The book was co-authored by Libbi Miller who teaches with me at California State University Fresno. We both are users of and fans of Google Classroom. This book dives deeper than my blog posts on ways that you can use Google Classroom. If you are using Google Classroom or thinking of using Google Classroom this book is for you.

Google Classroom helps you to easily create a blended classroom. It integrates with Google Drive to make it easy to create assignments and collect students work. If your school has Google Apps for Education (GAfE) then Google Classroom is available to you. Start by going to http://classroom.google.com

If you are new to Google Classroom the first thing you want to do is set up your classes. You will click the plus icon in the upper left to create a class. The Google Classroom class will have an invite code that will allow your students to join the class.

Google Classroom makes it easy to get started with assigning work. After clicking on the class tile on the home page, you will see the stream where you can post assignments and announcements. Click on assignment and give your students something to do.

My best tip is to number your assignments. You will notice in the book that many of the screenshots demonstrate numbered assignments. When you create an assignment a folder is created automatically in your Google Drive with the same name. Numbering the assignments makes the assignment folder easy to locate and organizes the assignments in the order you assigned them. Number your lesson set assets with the same number. This maintains consistency, makes it easy to associate documents with a particular assignment, makes it a cinch to locate documents, and makes it easy to direct students to the right place in Google Classroom.

Direct students to log into Google Classroom at http://classroom.google.com. They will be able to easily find the assignments and announcements you listed in the stream.

Google Classroom allows students to submit digital work to the teacher. This makes it easy to have a blended classroom and to provide quick feedback to students.

You can find the book on Amazon under " 50 Things You Can Do With Google Classroom. " You can connect with myself or Dr. Libbi Miller on twitter by using the hashtag #googleclassroom

1. Make Class Announcements
2. Sharing Resources
3. Multiple Files in an Assignment
4. Create a Lesson
5. Easily View Student Submission
6. Go Paperless
7. Simplify the Turn In Process
8. Protect Privacy
9. Reduce Cheating
10. Classroom Collaboration
11. Create a Discussion
12. Organize Assignments with Due Dates
13. Feedback Before Students Submit
14. Email Students
15. Notify Students Who May Need Help
16. Assignment Q&A
17. Create an Ad Hoc Playlist
18. Email Feedback
19. Create Folders
20. Link Directly to Student Work
21. Collect Data
22. Share with Multiple Classes
23. Collaborative Note Taking
24. Display Student Work
25. One Student One Slide
26. Target Parent Phone Calls
27. Polling
28. Share a Document with the Class
29. Know Who Edits a Collaborative Document
30. Link to a Website
31. After Hours Help
32. Peer Feedback
33. Distribute Notes
34. Sharing Informal Learning
35. Email the Teacher
36. Student Projects
37. Eliminate Schlepping Papers Home
38. Have One Place for All Files
39. Document Digital Work
40. Students Create Google Docs
41. Clearly Identify Student Work
42. View Assignments
43. Virtual Office Hours
44. Collaborate with Peers (PLC's)
45. Virtual Faculty Meetings
46. Streamline Counseling
47. Watch Students Do Homework
48. Observe Another Classroom
49. Share Student Samples
50. Provide Choices

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50 Things You Can Do With Google Classroom - Teacher Tech

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I am excited to announce that the book "50 Things You Can Do With Google Classroom" is now available for sale on Amazon. The book was co-authored by Libbi Miller who teaches with me at California State University Fresno. We both are users of and fans of Google Classroom.

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Google Classroom Tutorial 2016 for Teachers

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A quick guide to get you started using Google Classroom

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