While Google Classroom has a pretty specific purpose, it continues to be a very valuable part of the way many of us teach and manage student work. Here are some recent updates to Google Classroom that you may find valuable as you begin this semester.
1) Parent/Guardian Email Summaries
We as teachers now have the ability to invite parents/guardians to receive email updates about assignments and announcements from Google Classroom. Parents can choose to receive these summaries daily, or weekly, but the information they receive is pretty limited and they won’t actually have access to your Google Classroom as students do. Hopefully a full guest access feature will be implemented at some point.
For more details on how to invite parents, see this video walkthrough.
2) Reusing an Old Post
This feature is very useful for those of use who are using many of the same assignments and announcements we used in a previous semester. It’s quite easy to do, and many of you have likely discovered it already. If you want a little help, see this video walkthrough.
3) A word about Archiving past Classes
While it’s not a new feature, it’s worth mentioning that it’s a good idea for you to archive old Google Classroom courses. You can still reuse posts from these courses while they are archived, and you can even restore an old course if you realize you want to for some reason. Archiving classes will declutter your ‘classes’ page, and students will no longer see that course on their list of current courses, which is helpful for them. From your main classes page, simply click on the three little dots in the upper right corner of a course, and select ‘archive’.
Let us know if you have any questions or need a hand. We, as your tech coaches, would also be happy to help any of you who are not currently using Google Classroom but want to give it a try.
GRCHS Teacher Tech 