Moving posts to the top - this helps my sense of OCD!  One thing I hate about GC is that the stream is continuous and I feel like some things get lost.

Saving a draft of a post - this is helpful so I can beginning planning ahead and not post for students until I am ready to.

I will use info from the “Assign Posts to Specific Students” video to differentiate and/or assign projects to groups of students. This will make it easier to differentiate assignments and assign project topics to certain groups of students, rather than all students getting information that is not relevant.

I will use info from the “Moving Posts to the Top of the Stream” to move a post to the top of the screen for easy access for my students. Often I find my students only look at the top of their stream, so this is helpful in putting information/assignments I want to be looked at right away, at the top.

I have created a google classroom for my authors study this year. As I was creating an uploading the questions and assignments I noticed they were all out of order from which I wanted them completed. I can now go back and reorganize the assignments. 

Posting a question seems like a simple thing. I now know that I can also use a video. One thing I will use is the option of having students reply to each other posts. Part of the assignment will be that students must reply to two of their classmate’s posts. 

For creating a topic I will now be able to organize my spelling word list and assignments. This way students will not need to search for the correct spelling word list and assignments that go along with it.

Specific Student Posts- This will help me to differentiate to my students’ individual needs as well as help them to meet their IEP goals.

Question- This can be used in lieu of exit tickets. The other additional benefit is that the students can see and comment on each other’s responses helping them to learn to give feedback on their own.

Reuse a post:  I will use this when I have posted an assignment and students need to redo it or I want to use it as a review.  I can easily go back and add to the assignment or delete parts of it to meet the needs at that current time.
Post to individual students:  I will use this feature to differentiate assignments or work to the students.  Many of the students are at different ability levels for reading so this will be a nice way to assign them work to meet their needs.  Each student can get work at their level.  

Using posts in multiple classes:  We are departmentalizing this year so it will easier to choose which class or classes I want to use the assignment in.    

As an ENL teacher, this topic would be particularly useful when co-teaching in the English class so that I could differentiate my ENL students assignments to make them more appropriate for my entering/emerging students versus my higher level students.

In middle school, many of our classes focus on the same material but at different times. This tip would make preparation for the classes much more manageable by only having to post the assignment once instead of three separate times. 

Creating topics would allow us to more easily navigate throughout the classroom as both teachers and students. For example, if we are ending a topic, we can remind students all of the assignments with that topic need to be done to get full credit. It also makes it easier to navigate to find missing assignments for students have been absent.

Assign Posts to specific students: I am often added as a co-teacher and instead of creating a new/different class for just my ESOL students, being able to just select my specific students for certain assignments would be beneficial.  This would allow me to still interact with the entire class and assign whole group assignments as well.  There are also times I need to differentiate among my ESOL students and this feature will be used for that.

Organizing by Topic: I really like this feature to stay organized and find previous posts.  It will be easier than scrolling through all of the posts to find something.

When to reuse a post: I always seem to forget to click “make a copy” the first time!!

Post to Multiple Classes: This feature saves time and ensures that the same lesson or assignment will reach all sections of a course that I teach. Finally, saving a draft of a post - this is helpful so I can beginning planning ahead and not post for students until I am ready to.

 

I really like the feature of “Moving Posts to the Top of the Stream” because it allows me to remind students of previous work, or assignments that could be overdue. I appreciate that I can bring back previous work to students to help them transfer their background knowledge to a new lesson!

 

“Creating Topics” is an excellent way to help me and the students stay organized. Without technology, students fill their backpacks with papers and supplies, and things easily get lost. Their books, worksheets, and notes are all mixed up. With this feature in Google, the students and I can both stay organized, and we can easily reference previous work which can be helpful. Especially at the end of a unit with a project, they may want to refer back to previous work and references.