“Google Classroom is a tool built specifically for teachers and students. It provides a platform for communicating with students, assigning and collecting work, and providing learning resources.”
Google Training Centre, 2016
Put simply, Google Classroom us a virtual classroom. The above tutorial video will guide you through the setup process. Once a class, or classes, have been created, teachers can use their digital classroom to post announcements, assignments or questions. The screenshot below shows these options in the bottom-right.
Google Classroom shows how many students have completed an assignment and how many have not. By clicking on the numbers, teachers can see those students very clearly. To begin with, you might choose to use your Google Classroom for homework. After all, one of its advantages is that students and teachers can access it anywhere. Using Google Classroom for homework eliminates excuses such as lost sheets or forgotten work, and it engages the students.
Similarly, teachers can see who has answered questions that have been posted. As well as answering the question, students can comment on each other’s responses, creating meaningful, online discussions. This has proven to be a very useful way of getting students to think about essential questions.
The assignments option allows teachers to assign tasks to students and monitor their submissions. When a document is submitted, the ownership of the document switches from the student to the teacher, allowing the teacher to leave online feedback at any convenient time, from any device. After the feedback has been given, the work can be returned to the student (with a grade, if appropriate) and the students can then resubmit an improved version.
The SAMR model was recently introduced to our school and I believe that Google Classroom, when used effectively and creatively, is one way to use technology to transform learning. Google Classroom is not simply a substitute for paper submissions. Google Classroom is an efficient way to organise work (for students and teachers) and submissions can be made online at any convenient time. Giving vital feedback to students has never been easier, and the sharing capabilities allow students to collaborate in a way that is not possible with paper.
To summarise, the eLearning Industry (2015) identify these key benefits of using Google Classroom:
1. Easy and accessible from all devices
2. Effective communication and sharing
3. Speeds up the assignment process
4. Effective feedback
5. No need for paper
6. Clean and user-friendly interface
7. Great commenting system
8. Google Classroom is for everyone.
How do I add Google slides as an assignment?
Hi Nikki,
When you create an assignment, it will give you the option to upload from Google Drive. You can then select your slides from there. Let me know if you have further questions.
Thanks for getting in touch!
Adam
It definitely removes the stress of lost worksheets and saves the planet by not wasting so much paper! Definitely looking into this!
Schools use so much paper! It’s criminal! Not only will schools save trees and money by reducing paper, they will also become more efficient by having documents available digitally outside of school and on any device. Adam
I havnt ever used Google Classroom as of yet, but I think it would be a great thing to look into for the older year groups in our school. I don’t think I could use it in foundation but it looks very interesting. However, saying that I could use it for setting homework for my parents, which is something we already do 🙂
Interesting, very interesting.
Great idea. I’d love to know how that goes! Setting and monitoring homework is a great starting point, but it’s just the beginning. Watch this space for more Google Classroom posts. I love it and your parents will too!
I want to know more about parent homework. I’ve never come across it before and I’m intrigued…
Well, basically in foundation stage as you may or may not know, we use learning journeys to keep track of and store evidence of every child’s development and learning process. So we thought it would be a great idea to expand into home learning journeys, which go home every weekend with two tasks set inside. One for the parent(s)/guardian to complete WITH their child and the other for the child to complete attempting on their own. They can either both related to one another, or on two different topics around the same theme of the home work.
For example, the adult task could be to help assist researching a particular topic or help them explore a particular idea, and to provide evidence of that, in which ever way they wish. We encourage them to be as creative as possible 🙂
The issue is, that our demographic of children that come to our school are from the majority of families that struggle with parental involvement, and by using this tool it has opened up a gateway between home and school, which encourages the parents to WANT to get involved in helping with their child’s learning.
They are even encouraged to write a small note / comment at the end of each task, explaining how they and their child found the activities.
And of course we as teachers, right a little note back for them to read on the next piece if homework. With encouraging feedback and comments on their participation.
I hope this makes sense anyway. We have found it to be extremely effective.
That’s really interesting. Thanks for sharing!