Let me just start out by saying that I was in no way solicited or compensated for writing this post about Google Classroom. In fact, my school division is still a little bit hesitant to jump wholeheartedly on this bandwagon until they see the successes and struggles of others first. Thus, I independently did some research, consulted Twitter and dove into what turned out to be one of the coolest teaching tools I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing.
Setting Up
Setting up Google Classroom couldn't be easier. It took me approximately 5 minutes to set up courses for each of the 3 classes I am teaching this semester, including customizing the banner picture and playing with some settings. That being said, I was still a bit apprehensive about adding students to each course as I have a variety of technology ability levels and the technology I have access to ranges from slightly quirky to downright unusable depending on the day. As it turns out my concerns were unfounded. After a brief explanation of how to enrol in a class all 14 of my students were logged in, enrolled and working on their first assignment in minutes.
Setting Up
Setting up Google Classroom couldn't be easier. It took me approximately 5 minutes to set up courses for each of the 3 classes I am teaching this semester, including customizing the banner picture and playing with some settings. That being said, I was still a bit apprehensive about adding students to each course as I have a variety of technology ability levels and the technology I have access to ranges from slightly quirky to downright unusable depending on the day. As it turns out my concerns were unfounded. After a brief explanation of how to enrol in a class all 14 of my students were logged in, enrolled and working on their first assignment in minutes.
Assignments
My first assignment on Google Classroom is one I like to use approximately biweekly in my social class to keep kids thinking about current events. Normally this assignment goes as follows:
Students find a recent news story and become an "expert" in it by reading a few articles about it. Once they feel comfortable with the story they write a short summary of their article and 2-3 discussion questions to pose to the class and they lead us in a discussion of their news story.
This assignment is pretty quick once students have practiced and it is pretty engaging since it allows them to research the stories that interest them. And since my students are already pretty familiar with this assignment I thought it was a pretty good one to use as my first assignment on Google Classroom.
Assigning this assignment was as simple as writing the instructions for the assignment, attaching a Google Doc for the students to record their summaries and questions for class discussion and clicking the "assign" button. My Google Doc had a section for each student to record their summary and questions, and since Google Docs allow multiple students to work on one document at once it made process of answering the discussion questions pretty seamless.
My first assignment on Google Classroom is one I like to use approximately biweekly in my social class to keep kids thinking about current events. Normally this assignment goes as follows:
Students find a recent news story and become an "expert" in it by reading a few articles about it. Once they feel comfortable with the story they write a short summary of their article and 2-3 discussion questions to pose to the class and they lead us in a discussion of their news story.
This assignment is pretty quick once students have practiced and it is pretty engaging since it allows them to research the stories that interest them. And since my students are already pretty familiar with this assignment I thought it was a pretty good one to use as my first assignment on Google Classroom.
Assigning this assignment was as simple as writing the instructions for the assignment, attaching a Google Doc for the students to record their summaries and questions for class discussion and clicking the "assign" button. My Google Doc had a section for each student to record their summary and questions, and since Google Docs allow multiple students to work on one document at once it made process of answering the discussion questions pretty seamless.
Reflections on My Experience
Overall, I had an overwhelmingly positive experience with Google Classroom. It was amazing to be able to watch, in real time, as my students completed their assignment. I was able to provide guidance, praise, and corrections when needed by "commenting" on their section of the Google Doc as they worked. Being able to give instant feedback was greatly appreciated by my students and made me feel like I had a very good idea of where they were all at with very minimal effort.
Functionally the app works great. My recommendation to teachers who plan on having all students work on the same Google Doc at once is to give each student one full page using page breaks to complete their assignment. Initially, my students were often working 2 or 3 on one page and it resulted in the text jumping around frantically as students above or below added and deleted text. This was a pretty easy fix, and once I figured it out things went swimmingly.
The students enjoyed the experience as well. Once we got the small hiccup mentioned above sorted out they were very engaged in the assignment and enjoyed the collaborative and technological possibilities. Many of my struggling students liked being able to scroll up to another student's work to see an example of what they were supposed to produce and the experience of receiving almost immediate feedback from me while they worked.
Any hesitations that my school division or other teachers seem to have appear to be completely unfounded. Google Classroom is one of the most elegant, intuitive, and useful teaching tools I have ever used. I have every intention of implementing it in my classroom on a very regular basis this year and will provide updates on my experiences here. Please comment below with any thoughts or experiences you have had with Google Classroom, or any other Google App for Education.
Overall, I had an overwhelmingly positive experience with Google Classroom. It was amazing to be able to watch, in real time, as my students completed their assignment. I was able to provide guidance, praise, and corrections when needed by "commenting" on their section of the Google Doc as they worked. Being able to give instant feedback was greatly appreciated by my students and made me feel like I had a very good idea of where they were all at with very minimal effort.
Functionally the app works great. My recommendation to teachers who plan on having all students work on the same Google Doc at once is to give each student one full page using page breaks to complete their assignment. Initially, my students were often working 2 or 3 on one page and it resulted in the text jumping around frantically as students above or below added and deleted text. This was a pretty easy fix, and once I figured it out things went swimmingly.
The students enjoyed the experience as well. Once we got the small hiccup mentioned above sorted out they were very engaged in the assignment and enjoyed the collaborative and technological possibilities. Many of my struggling students liked being able to scroll up to another student's work to see an example of what they were supposed to produce and the experience of receiving almost immediate feedback from me while they worked.
Any hesitations that my school division or other teachers seem to have appear to be completely unfounded. Google Classroom is one of the most elegant, intuitive, and useful teaching tools I have ever used. I have every intention of implementing it in my classroom on a very regular basis this year and will provide updates on my experiences here. Please comment below with any thoughts or experiences you have had with Google Classroom, or any other Google App for Education.