Using Google Classroom

Click on any topic below to jump to that section.

• Create a class
• Enroll students
• Ask a question
• Post an announcement
• Post an assignment
• Tag assignments, questions, and announcements with a topic
• Grade an assignment
• Use the Share to Classroom extension
• Use the classroom calendar
• Upload class materials
• Change the theme
• Adjust posting and commenting options
• Add a co-teacher
• Archive classes and organize the classroom folder in Drive
• Invite parents and guardians
• Use Google Forms to create self-scoring assessments in classroom

Create a Class

1. Go  to classroom.google.com.
2. Click on the plus sign in the upper right corner next to your name.
3. Title your class and put in a description if you prefer.
4. Once your class opens, you will find the enrollment code in the header bar on the left.

Enroll Students

1. Direct students to classroom.google.com.
2. Have them hit the plus sign in the upper right (next to their name).
3. Have students use the join code to enroll in your class.
4. Or: Click on People and use the plus sign under Students to add students by email.

Post an Announcement

Posting an announcement displays it at the top of the stream and emails out to every student.

It’s one way to get information to students but wait until you see what we can do with the Share to Classroom extension! ☺

Ask a Question

Classroom allows teachers to prompt students to respond to short answer or multiple choice questions in real time. Teachers can also select whether students are able to see and respond to the posts of their classmates by turning on “Students can reply to each other.”

Post an Assignment

You can simply title and put in instructions, but there are advantages to attaching a template for students. Anytime you attach a file or upload a document from Drive, you’ll have three choices for sharing it.

1. Students can view file: Consider uploading instructions for students or an example of the product with this setting. Students will not be able to edit the file.
2. Students can edit file: Use this setting for a collaborative document that you want the whole class to work in. You can also assign documents to particular groups or students under the Students dropdown at the top of the assignment box, so you could also use this setting to assign one doc to a group for a project or to differentiate for individual students.
3. Make a copy for each student: This setting will create a uniquely named document for each student in your class. These documents will automatically populate the folder in your Classroom file in Drive. As soon as students open it, you will also have the file and can check their progress along the way. Students working in this type of file get a Turn in button at the top of their Google document so they can submit their assignment directly from Drive.

Tag assignments, questions, and announcements with a topic

Once you start to use Classroom a lot, it can be a challenge — for both teachers and students —  to find past posts. When you post - whether it is an assignment, an announcement, or a question, you can assign a topic. Consider creating topics that can serve as tags for multiple posts. For example, you might assign topics to match your unit titles. Then students can search a unit topic and find all the posts from that unit.

Grade an Assignment

Within Classroom:

1. Set the total points.
2. Grade each assignment from the Classwork tab and record in Classroom.
3. Classroom saves results automatically. You can choose to return assignments one at a time as you score them or return them all at once when you are done with a class.
4. When you’re done, you can Copy all grades to Google Sheets or Download as a CSV file when you’re done by clicking on the gear in the assignment page. Unfortunately, Classroom does not integrate with the Power Teacher Gradebook so you’ll have to manually enter grades or upload the CSV sheet in the old PS gradebook.

Using the new rubric feature:

1. When creating your assignment, click the +Rubric button to add a rubric.
2. You can add multiple criteria (expectations) and score points for each criterion.
3. When assignments are ready to score, you’ll see the rubric in the side panel on the right.

Use the Share to Classroom Extension

The Share to Classroom extension makes everything we can do in Google Classroom available to you in the address bar with one click.

1. Teachers need to install the extension at the link above.
2. Instruct students to install the extension as well.

1. Go to the Chrome Store.
2. Search for Share to Classroom.
3. Click on Free and follow the steps to install.

3. Some uses:

1. Students are all signed in and need to go to a web page together.

Teacher: Go to the desired website and click on the Share to Classroom button in the extension menu.

Select your class and Push to students.

Students will receive the link or a new tab will open to the site.

2. Teacher wishes to post an assignment from a document that will be the template for the assignment.

Open the doc and click on the Share to Classroom extension.

Select your class and then Create an assignment.

3. Students wish to share a link to the Classroom stream.

Students: From the website, click on the Share to Classroom extension

and select Push to teacher.

Use the Classroom Calendar

As soon as you create a class in Google Classroom, a calendar is created for you and for your students. Every time you add an assignment with a due date, it will appear on the calendar. You can also add events directly to the calendar. Clicking on the events will open the details and provide a link to the assignment.

Upload Class Materials

1. Open Google Classroom and select a class.
2. Click on the Classwork tab.
3. Click on Create and then on Material.
4. Add anything here that students need access to throughout the course: syllabus, schedule, supporting documents, links, etc.

Change the Theme

1. Open Google Classroom and select a class.
2. In the banner across the top, click on Select theme to load a standard Google theme or on Upload photo to make the banner unique for your class (a class photo, a picture of the school, etc.).

Adjust Posting and Commenting Options

1. Open Google Classroom and select a class.
2. The default setting allows students to post. You may not want this until you establish rules for posting.
3. Click on the Settings gear in the upper right on the class page.
4. Under General, you will see the class code and a box for selecting posting and commenting options.
5. Note: You must turn on commenting in order for students to reply to classmates when you post a question.
6. You can also mute individual students from the People tab by checking the box in front of their name and selecting Mute from the Actions dropdown menu.

Add a Co-Teacher

1. Open Google Classroom and select a class.
2. Click on the About tab.
3. Click on Invite Teachers in the menu at left.

Archive Classes and Organize the Classroom Folder in Drive

You’ll want to archive in two places in order to avoid confusion.

1. Open Google Classroom.
2. On the main page for all of your classes, click the three dots on any class and select Archive. You can always go back to Archived classes in the main menu.

3. Open your Google Drive.
4. Open the Classroom folder.
5. Create a folder inside of this folder called Archived Classes.
6. Move the folders of classes that you just archived into that folder so that they are not confused with current classes.

Invite Parents and Guardians

 NEW! In the fall, Google Classroom added the ability for parents or guardians to receive weekly or daily updates on their child from Google Classroom.

1. The challenging requirements?

1. Parents must have a GMail account.
2. Teachers must have accurate email addresses for parents.
3. You must add a parent/guardian one at a time to each student.

2. Open Google Classroom and select a class.
3. Click on the Students tab.
4. Next to each student, you’ll see an option to Invite Guardian. Click on this and paste in a GMail address for the parent/guardian.
5. Parents will receive an invitation and will be able to select their options for receiving updates.

Use Google Forms to create self-scoring assessments in Classroom

1. Go to Google Drive.
2. Click on New.
3. Click on more and then select Forms.
4. Name your quiz and click in the title box (where it says “Untitled”) so that your form will be named the same.
5. Click on the gear in the upper right. In settings, you’ll be able to customize the quiz. Collect email addresses automatically for ease of capturing names and scores.
6. On the presentation tab, you can choose to shuffle questions or allow students to see their progress.
7. On the quiz tab, customize your settings as far notifications and scoring.
8. Once you are ready, click on the eyeball to preview your quiz. It’s that link that you will need to share with students.
9. If you have the Share to Classroom extension installed, then from that screen jst click the extension and decide if you wish to push the quiz to students or post to Classroom as an announcement.
10. Once students take the quiz, you can see the results from the Form and you can open the scores in a sheet.

More resources:

Google Classroom Help Center

Kelly Fitzgerald’s Google Classroom Resources