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How to use Kahoot! for schools - intro guide

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27 Formative Assessment Tools for Your Classroom

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In this post, you will find 27 Formative Assessment Tools for Your Classroom! Formative assessment is such an essential part of the learning process and student success, and many digital tools can help support this process.This list has a wide variety of features and options to help you solidify your formative assessment strategies! Many of the tools below are great for both formative and summative assessments.

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Ed Tech

Google Classroom streamlines the management of student work - announcing, assigning, collecting, grading, giving feedback and returning. It has certainly saved many teachers hours of work.

Without a solid workflow and some strategy, grading digital work can be cumbersome. Google Classroom does make working with student work more efficient - but only if you understand how Classroom works and how to use it to your advantage.

Sometimes, a few quick tips can make all the difference.

Below are LOTS of tips!

In "20 tips to use Google Classroom effectively and efficiently," the second 10 tips are all submitted from readers of the Ditch That Textbook blog.

There's a whole free ebook of Google Classroom tips! Download and read the 50+ Google Classroom tips and tricks ebook!

Plus, check out the "30 Google Classroom tips every teacher must know" ... they're submitted from the #DitchBook Twitter community!

20 tips to use Google Classroom effectively and efficiently

3. Use the right kind of comment.

There are several kinds of comments you can leave students in Classroom. Knowing how each one works can make you more efficient and effective.

Adding class comments: Do this by adding a comment in your class stream on the "outside" of an assignment or announcement. This will make the comment visible to the entire class (important if it's an answer to a question anyone might have).

Adding private comments: Do this by viewing student results and clicking on an individual student. On the right, where you can see student submissions, the comment bar at the bottom adds a comment that only the student can see (important if it has sensitive grade or feedback information).

Adding comments in a doc/slide/sheet/drawing: Do this by clicking on the student's file that he/she submitted to you. Click the black speech bubble icon after highlighting something you'd like to comment on. This adds a a very pointed comment on specific items in student work (important to be very exact in feedback).

5. Use the keyboard instead of the mouse.

Keyboard commands beat moving and clicking the mouse every time. The best one in Google Classroom: When entering grades, type the grade for a particular student's assignment, then click return to get to the next student. Cycle through students with keystrokes instead of mouse clicks to save lots of time.

Check out 22 killer keyboard shortcuts (and a challenge!) for busy educators for more.

6. Reuse posts.

Don't recreate assignments, announcements or questions that are similar to those you've already created. Click on the Classwork tab then click the "create +" button in the top left and select "reuse post." Choose an assignment, announcement or question you've created before. You can modify and update it before you repost it.

When you reuse a post, you can even choose to create new copies of all the attachments you used before.

9. Get ideas from others.

Educators that are already using Google Classroom hang out in lots of online communities where you can read their posts and ask questions. Here are some suggestions:

Lean on the knowledge of others. If you are willing to get help and advice from other teachers, you will do just fine with this system. -- Kina Gill

15. Turn off stream notifications.

Click the gear icon in the top right of your screen and scroll down to the Stream. SHUT OFF notifications in the Stream. This will keep your announcements and student collaborations more organized and easier to find! -- Laurie Guyon

Teachers/students new to Google Classroom especially get confused by the Stream - many see assignments, etc there, and never get to the Classwork Tab where there might be beautiful and purposeful organization, so BEST TIP is to go to settings and "Hide Notifications" for the Stream.
The Stream then can be used as a "hallway or cafeteria" or other SOCIAL gathering space. Happy Birthday! Joke of the Day. Would you rather. At the very least, train students to stop here for an overview or announcements for the day. -- Cammie Kannekens

18. Take screenshots as you go and share.

Taking screenshots as you are teaching and then paste them into student work for students who may have been absent or students with accommodations. That way you do not have to go back. This is a good way to help individual students. Also, use screenshots of virtual reading materials so they can be pasted into assignments the students need to refer back to for example a writing assignment that they need to reference a certain part of a text. -- Elizabeth Drummond

50+ Google Classroom tips and tricks FREE ebook!

Google classroom is great for speed, simplicity, and efficiency but not all functions are easy to get at first and even if you're a pro there are always new updates and features we need to dive into. So we have compiled our best Google Classroom resources into one ultimate resource to get you geared up and ready for a great year.

But that's not all! We know that sometimes you want to share great resources with your colleagues and you need an easy way to do that. So we have compiled 50 of these Google Classroom resources, including the quick-start guide, into a FREE ebook that you can email or even print and share if you want to!

30 Google Classroom tips every teacher must know

Google Classroom is constantly getting updated with new features. By utilizing these features we can make Google Classroom work even better. We asked the #Ditchbook community to share their top tips, tricks, and strategies every teacher must know when using Google Classroom. Educators shared ideas for using topics, announcements, comments, feedback, emojis, and more!

Scroll down or click here for 30 tips to help you make the most out of Google Classroom!

Looking for more? Here are some of our most popular Google Classroom posts

What do you do to use Google Classroom more effectively and efficiently? We'd love to hear your ideas!

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20 tips to use Google Classroom effectively and efficiently

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Ed Tech Google Classroom streamlines the management of student work - announcing, assigning, collecting, grading, giving feedback and returning. It has certainly saved many teachers hours of work. Without a solid workflow and some strategy, grading digital work can be cumbersome.

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Google Classroom Blog

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Read the latest news about Google Classroom, a tool designed to help educators and students teach and learn together.

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Google Classroom

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