Technology In Practice

To set up your Google Classroom:

• Navigate to Google Classroom

• Click the 'plus' icon, and then "Create class"

• Name your class the following way: Department Name + section number. Example: Humanities 6-1.

  • The section number should be visible in the Class Name - this helps you when viewing archived classes, and when you're using the device monitoring platforms). Every other field can be left blank. If you don't have a section number please indicate the grade - example "6th Grade Band."
    

• Click "Create"

Creating Your Topics in Google Classroom:

• Click "Create" & then "Topic"

• Create a Topic Called "Class Zoom Link"?

• Suggested: Create additional Topics called:

  • 1. "Important Documents"

    • This would be for any documents you think your students might refer to throughout the school year. If you don't have any, skip this one!

  • 2. "Unit 1" (and Unit 2, Unit 3, etc.)

    • You can add names to your Units if you have them, ex. "Unit 1: Fractions" "Unit 2: Electromagnetic Energy") 

  • 3. "Just For Fun" or "Additional Resources" at the bottom

    • This is a topic for anything that you want to keep in your Classroom for fun, or for students look at on their own time, BUT that you don't want them to have to scroll past every time

• ​​​​​​​Now DRAG your Topics so that they are in the above order (Class Zoom Link; Important Documents; Units; Just For Fun)

Below, see instructions for:

1. Adding a Co-Teacher/Chair/Learning Services to your Classroom

2. Customizing Google Classroom Email Notifications

3. Archiving a Classroom From a Previous Year

4. Customizing your Stream Settings

5. Google Guardian Settings

6. Scheduling Posts

7. Reusing a Google Classroom Post For A Different Class

8. Posting an Announcement to More Than One Classroom

1. Adding a Co-Teacher/Chair to your Classroom:

• Make sure you are on the "People" tab

• Click the 'Add Person' icon next to 'Teachers' (not 'Students'!)

• Search for your Chair by their BC email address (or other person), and Click "Invite"

• To add Learning Services, search for: bclearningservices@berkeleycarroll.org

2. Customizing Google Classroom Email Notifications:

To customize which emails you are getting (overall, and per individual class):

• Click the three horizontal lines from your Classroom Home Page, to open the Menu

• Scroll down to the very bottom of the Menu and Click on "Settings"

• You can now customize WHICH POSTS you will receive email notifications for (this applies to every class you teach, OR are enrolled in)

• To customize which CLASSES you are receiving emails for, scroll down to 'Class Notifications' and Toggle On/Off specific classes

• You can always go back and change these settings!

3. Archiving a Classroom From a Previous Year:

To keep your Google Classrooms organized, you can 'Archive' old classes. Archiving is NOT deleting. It just goes away, so it isn't clogging up your Home Page of Classes! To Archive a class:

• Navigate to your Google Classroom 'Home Page'

• Click the three vertical dots on the Class you want to archive, and then Click "Archive" (Tip: You can also COPY a class from here! You might want to consider doing this before you Archive the Class, unless you want to start totally from scratch)

• Click "Archive" again (remember, you don't want to do this unless it's a class you are no longer teaching)

• If you do need to go back in and edit anything in an Archived class, Scroll down & Click on "Archived Classes" from the Classroom Menu

• Then Click "Restore" in order to make changes, or edit an Archived class

4. Customizing your Stream Settings:

It is recommended that you customize your Stream Settings for each class. This is the ability for students to post, comment etc. on the Stream. Because we are STRONGLY advising that students use email, rather than Classroom this year for clarifying questions & correspondence about assignments, we recommend turning off the ability for students to comment, or post themselves on Google Classroom. To do this:

• Click on the 'Settings' icon IN THE SPECIFIC CLASSROOM (not the overall Classroom Settings within the Menu)

• Under 'General,' adjust the settings next to 'Stream'

5. Google Guardian Settings:

You will want to ensure that Google Guardian Settings are ON for your Class (exceptions for this may be 'special' Classrooms, such as Affinity Groups, that you KNOW you do not need guardians to receive notifications for. To turn them on:

• Click on the 'Settings' icon IN THE SPECIFIC CLASSROOM (not the overall Classroom Settings within the Menu)

• Toggle ON Guardian Summaries

• You can now Click the 'Checkbox' that would turn on Guardian Summaries as a default option for ALL classes, or keep it Checked OFF & do it per class

• Make sure to Click "Add class"

6. Scheduling Posts:

It can be helpful to SCHEDULE Assignments, especially if you think you will have trouble remembering to post something before 4pm, or you will not be able to post something right at 4! Please note that currently, it is not possible to schedule a post to more than one Classroom at once. Meaning, even if you have the SAME assignment to post for differerent classes, you have to follow the steps below by going into each of your different Google Classrooms, and scheduling them separately.

To Schedule an Assignment:

• Prepare your Assignment, and click the DROPDOWN menu next to "Assign"

• Click "Schedule"

• Schedule your post (for sometime in the future) & Click "Schedule" again

 7. Reusing a Google Classroom Post In More Than One Class:

If you are posting the same Assignment, or Material to multiple Classrooms you can easily reuse the post once it has been created in one of your Classrooms.

• Click “Create” as if you are making a new Post (the original post must already be created in another Classroom)

• Select the Classroom you created the original post in, and then select the post you want to reuse. Then Click “Reuse” - make sure the “Create new copies of all attachments” box is checked!

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• Make sure the post details are correct, and then Click “Assign” like you would with an original Assignment. You can repeat these steps in as many Classrooms as you need!

8. Posting an Announcement to More Than One Classroom

You can post the same Announcement (this is just the Post that just goes into the Google Classroom Stream) into more than one Classroom simultaneously.

• Write the Announcement in one of your Classrooms - BEFORE clicking “Post,” select the class dropdown menu above the Announcement box

• Select which Classes you want to post the Announcement to. THEN Click “Post!”​​​​​​​ This will post the Announcement simultaneously to all of the Classrooms you selected.

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It’s important to name, and describe assignments in a way that makes things clear for students, as well as parents and guardians who may be receiving email summaries. 

Title: CLEARLY name your Assignment and what is it (a worksheet, essay, quiz?)

Description: In the instructions, remember to be as explicit as possible since parents and guardians may be trying to understand this assignment as well

Due Date: The date students need to turn in the work (do not include a due time)

The Topic: Remember to file each post into a Topic

Final Details: Point Value; Rubric; Any added content (a corresponding video, link, or document)

Example of an Assignment Post:

(Expectations discussed during class and posted by 4pm)

Google Classroom does not make managing ongoing Docs easy! Any time something is submitted, or returned, the ownership can get messy & file management can get confusing. Try this new best practice for ongoing documents, which was a collaborative brainstorm between different teachers & departments. Thank you Ruby & Gwendollyn!

Note - this method does take some front-loading, because you will create the original Google Document for each student, and then share it with them so they have editing access. However, we think it will save you a lot of time chasing down, returning, and restoring ownership for every document.

STEP 1 (CREATE A SEPARATE DOCUMENT FOR EACH STUDENT):

• Open Google Docs, and create a new document for one of your students. Make sure the document is clearly named with the student's name included. If there is anything you would like every document to say, or include, write it on this first doc (ex. below "7th Grade Humanities Reading Journal."

• Then Share it with that student (one document for each student). Important! So other students can't access each other's documents, make sure that you are making it restricted to - "Only people added can open with this link."

• Make sure the student is an "Editor" on the doc!

• Now start making a Copy for each student in your section. Do this quickly by Clicking "Make a Copy" from the original document. Just make sure you are sharing each one with the correct student, they are Editors on the doc, and it is Restricted to "Only people with the link can open."

• Continue making copies, and sharing them individually with each student, until you have made a new document for every student in your class!

STEP 2 (CREATE A MASTER DOC LINKING TO EACH DOCUMENT):

• Now create one document with each student's name, and a link to their unique document. You can make a table, or something more simple like the example below!

STEP 3 (POST THE DOCUMENT WITH LINKED NAMES AS A MATERIAL IN GOOGLE CLASSROOM):

• Suggested: Create a Topic in Google Classroom for the ongoing project (if it is something ongoing like a journal, name it appropriately, and put it as one of the "top" Topics," as students will be accessing it throughout the school year.)

• Now post this is a MATERIAL in the Topic for this project. Students will be able to open the Material, and click on their link as an easy way to access their own document.

• Remember - these will not live as Assignments to Turn In, because they are ongoing.

• Recommended: Make your own folder with all of the student's docs in them - as they are not living as an "Assignment" in Google Classrooms, this is a faster way to look through, or find them all at once.

Take a look around this EXAMPLE Model Google Classroom to see a Classroom that we thought met all of the BC Middle Google Classroom expectations.

You'll have to join as a student to view it - don't worry, it's a class from last year without any students. You can always ask us to be removed from the class again!

To Join:

• Go to google.classroom.com

• Click the + sign in the top right-hand corner; Click "Join Class"

• Enter the Join code: icsl22v

We suggest that you create a "Library Resources" Topic in each of your Google Classrooms. This is a quick way for your students to access things like:

• Their specific grade Libguide

• The Library Catalog

• The Database Password page (necesssary for accessing resources off campus)

• Anything specifically created, or helpful for your class!