Useful Google Classroom updates to start the school year!

Did you know that since Google Classroom launched three years ago, students have submitted more than 1 billion assignments? As the school year is quickly approaching, Google has announced 10 updates to Classroom and Forms designed to make teachers’ lives easier this school year.

Here are six of the updates that make us here at NWOCA most excited.

1. Single view of student work: To help teachers track individual student progress, Classroom now has a dedicated page for each student that shows all of their work in a class. More on this feature.

2. Reorder classes: Teachers (and students) can now order their classes to organize them however they want. Learn More.

3. Decimal grading: As teachers know, grading is often more complicated than a simple point value. So, educators can now use decimal points when grading assignments in Google Classroom.

4. Transfer class ownership: Things can change a lot over the summer, including who’s teaching which class. Now, admins and teachers can transfer ownership of Google Classroom classes to other teachers, without the need to recreate the class. More details.

5. New Classroom integrations: Apps that integrate with Classroom allow teachers to to easily share information between Classroom and other tools they love. Now Quizizz, Edcite, Kami and (coming soon) code.org will officially integrate. More info.

6. Display class code: Joining Google Classroom classes is easier than ever thanks to this new update. Teachers can now display their class code in full screen so students can quickly join new classes.

Learn more about all 10 new features on Google's blog.

Hopefully, these Google Classroom and Forms updates help you teach more efficiently and effectively this school year!

Comments

Power up Google Classroom with Private Comments

One of the most powerful elements of Google Classroom is the private comments feature, which works with assignments only. Comments become conversations with students, allowing for more back and forth discussion than can happen with verbal feedback. Every student can have a voice and communicate their ideas or struggles with a task. To use private comments, open an assignment in Classroom, and there you will find a space for private comments. Any comments left here will be seen only by you and the individual student. One of the challenges to using private comments is knowing who the comments belong to. Here’s a workaround from Alice Keeler : Students start all comments to you with your last name You start all comments to students with your initials This helps in filtering those comments in Gmail, or searching. It also lets you quickly see who responded last in the roster: You can also use links in private comments to give students more informat...

I want to Shoot My Screen!

OK so now I have your attention! If we re-arrange the words a bit "I want to take a shot of my screen" aah yes screen shots but what are they good for? Many websites while allowing students to do drill and practice and take quizzes, they lack the ability to save or record scores or results. Have the students take a screenshot of their results and submit via google classroom as an attached image. Screenshots are a way of capturing a picture of your screen, be it your chromebook, a desktop computer or even your cell phone. The secret to unlocking this feature is to know the magic key combinations or button presses for your particular device. Windows - The old standby is Alt + PrnScn which copies the entire screen to the clipboard. You can then paste it into your favorite editor to save as an image file. Windows 7 and above - Included in your list of apps is one called the Snipping Tool . Add a shortcut to your toolbar and when invoked this app lets you take a scree...

Calculated Moves

I see a lot of teachers and students using iPhone’s Calculator tool in class. Just like with any calculator, it is easy to hit the wrong number key. Rather than clearing the entire calculation and starting over [sigh!], there is a quick way to backup. To clear the last digit entered, simply swipe left or right on the calculation window. If you need to backup a few more spaces, swipe the number of digits you want to erase.

Tech Tuesday Tips

Search This Blog