Alice Keeler - Stepping Up to Google Classroom: 50 Steps for Beginners to Get Started

This book is not the ultimate guide to Google Classroom. In fact, an experienced Classroom user will probably notice that several features arent covered at all. This was intentional. Why? Because Stepping Up to Google Classroom was specifically created for educators who are new to Google Classroom and looking for a way to get started. We wanted this book to be a step-by-step guide for beginners, not an exhaustive resource.

One of our favorite phrases is paperless is not a pedagogy, and weve used that principle to guide our approach for beginners to Google Classroom. So this book does get you started using Googles powerful online education tools, but its also designed to help you go beyond a merely paperless approach to education. Rather, the goal is to improve student engagement and learning.

Without that mission, the research is clear, just using new technology will not improve engagement, nor will it create meaningful gains. In fact its the opposite! Several studies show students perform worse when we switch to a digital environment.

When making the transition to Google Classroom, it is incredibly important that we really stop and reflect before simply putting things online. We must look at which research-proven practices actually improve student learning.

Remember, too, the fact that you are new to Google Classroom means that your assignments were designed for paper. Paper is not bad! If an activity was designed for paper, use paper! Besides, kids should do something besides interact with a screen all day.

What all this means is that while it might seem like your obvious first step with Google Classroom should be to do something like making electronic copies of documents for your students, we encourage you to start your journey by considering how you can use this tool to interact with those students.

One of the things a teacher can do is stop administering low-level worksheet activities and empower students to produce representations of their knowledge even if they contain errors and omissions! Learning is an iterative process not a one-and-done process!

Sonny Magana

Like any digital tool, Google Classroom requires a different approach. But while we have to design for the medium, we must still consider the four Cscritical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativityand aim to include at least one of them in each activity we create. Collaboration is fundamental to Google Classroom, so it becomes a natural consideration when designing lessons. Communication can look like so much more than students just answering a question, and going beyond text with Google Classroom provides many exciting formats for students to clearly communicate their ideas. Creative thinking means not every student has to submit the same thing, and Google Classroom makes it easy to leave an assignment open-ended enough to result in a diversity of end products. Its a great tool for critical thinking, too. Critical thinking can be measured by the Depth of Knowledge (DOK) level on a four-point scale. Worksheets and book work generally operate at the DOK 1 level, requiring recall and reproduction. When a Google search is at our students fingertips, we might wonder how to stop them from looking up the answers to the questions on those worksheetsinstead, we must realize that we have to change the questions. Designing for the medium of Classroom means increasing the critical-thinking demands of tasks so that access to a Google search is not cheating.

So paperless is not a pedagogy, but shifting to using digital education tools can allow you to change how you teach, and that change can improve learning!

Visit 50thingsbook.com for a tour of Google Classroom

Access Google Classroom by going to classroom.google.com.

The first time you go to Google Classroom, you will be asked if you are a teacher or a student. It is essential that you select Im a Teacher. Users designated as Teachers can enroll as a student in a class in addition to being able to teach a class. Those designated as Students can enroll in a class or co-teach a class. If you accidentally choose Im a Student, contact your schools G Suite administrator to address the issue.

Google Classrooms home page is called Classes, and it displays tiles for the classes that you teach or are enrolled in as a student. Each tile will list the class title, section, how many students are enrolled, and any assignmentswith due datesthat are upcoming in the next week

Google Classroom Tip

Create a new class every six weeks or for a new unit, semester, or marking period. This makes it easier to reuse assignments for a new class. You can archive classes from the class tiles by clicking on the Three Dots. Assignments can still be reused even if the class is archived.

You must be designated as a Teacher to create a class.

In the upper-right corner of Google Classroom you will find a PlusIcon. Click on this icon and choose Create Class.

Google Classroom Tip

Take advantage of the Section line when creating a new class. We recommend that you include the school year and your name.

After creating a class, you will be immediately taken to its Stream. The Stream is the landing page for your class, and its a great quick reference for teachers and students to access announcements and assignments.

The Streams header will display a default image, and youll likely want to change the picture there. In the bottom-right corner of the header image, you can click on Select Theme to choose a new theme from the Gallery.