4. Once your class is created, students can start joining it. You might want to update the following first.

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1 Set up your class in Classroom 1. Go to classroom.google.com. You can use Classroom if you log in using a Google Apps for Education account (i.e. your Google login is your school e mail address). 2. Click on the + button in the top right to create your first class. (It is next to your e mail address you used to log in.) Then click Create class. 3. Add a class name and a section. The class name should identify the class. Then click Create. 4. Once your class is created, students can start joining it. You might want to update the following first. Click Change class theme on the right side of the header. It will open a gallery of header images you can use to spice up your classroom. Enter class details in the "About" tab. This provides some basic information, such as the name of the course, a description of the course, the room where it meets and the teacher e mail. You can also add materials (like a syllabus, classroom management plan or anything else students might need to refer to during the year) by attaching them. 5. The time has arrived your students are ready to sign up for Classroom! This is really one of the easiest parts. Have them log in to Classroom with their school Google account and click the + just like you did. It will prompt them for a class code, which you can give them (write it on the board; show it on a projector, etc.). Once they enter it, they are in like magic! Give students the class code. After your class is set up and students join, you have a fully functioning Google Classroom. Congratulations!

2 Here are some things you can do in your Classroom: Communicate with announcements. ADD AN ANNOUNCEMENT: This is a good way to communicate with your class and give them up to date information. Click the Announcement button to display a message to your class. You can even attach files (from Google Drive and otherwise), add YouTube videos and provide links. Tip: If you assign an activity outside of Classroom (i.e. such as QUIA), you can link to it in an announcement so there is a record of it in your class. Add assignments with details. ADD AN ASSIGNMENT: Creating a new assignment is almost the same as an announcement, but it has a due date. Write the title of the assignment, a description of it and attach files (if necessary. Then specify when it s due. In student accounts, it will put extra notifications on assignments in your class to remind students when something is due or when it is late. Manage details of students in class. MANAGE STUDENTS: From the Students tab, there are several actions you can take to interact with student accounts. You can manage permissions, giving students the ability to post and comment, only comment, or give only the teacher the ability to post and comment. The envelope icons let you send e mails to individual students (if Gmail is available through their school Google accounts). By checking individual or multiple students, you can remove them from the class, e mail them or mute them from commenting. Grade and return work. Click the title of the assignment to open it. Click on a student s name to show any files attached that you need to view and to reveal a text field where you can type a comment to the student. Classroom flags every assignment as not done, done, late or done late. Classroom does not change student grades if assignments are late, but you can. Once you have viewed assignments, you can assign a grade by clicking where it says No Grade. If you want to change the number of points an assignment is worth, find the Points section at the top of the page and change it. Use the button at the top of the assignment screen to download student work to your Google Drive or to view the Google Drive folder where the student work is being stored. Be sure to click the blue Return button to finalize all of the grading you have just done. Note: Once students turn work in using Classroom, they will not be able to make changes to those files until you return them to the students after grading them. What Classroom doesn t do. Classroom is not a full fledged LMS (learning management system) like Schoology, My Big Campus, Canvas, Edmodo, and others. It is Google s foray into the education world and strives to help teachers with very specific, basic functions. Here are some things that Classroom will NOT do: Provide tests and quizzes. Those can be created using Google Forms and a link to that form can be added to an assignment or announcement in Classroom. Google Forms can be graded automatically using the Flubaroo add on. However, all of this happens outside of Google Classroom. Chat. There are no chat features within Classroom itself. If enabled by the administrator, students can chat with each other and the teacher within various Google Apps, but not in Classroom. Calendar. There is no connection to Google Calendar to display due dates. You can do that separately in Calendar, but Classroom will not do it itself.

3 Full featured forums. If you want a forum or discussion board, an announcement can serve that purpose in a limited way. You would need another option for more complete nested discussions, though. Tips and tricks 1. There are many places to provide feedback (which is great!). You will want to think about where you want to provide it. It can be left in a comment in a file attached to an assignment. It can be left on each student s assignment (only visible to that student). It can be left on the assignment when you click Return (visible to all students). 2. Adding descriptions to assignments is a good thing to do. The assignments in Classroom become good points of reference for absent students and kids that see their grades and wonder why they are as they are. Spelling out all of the details makes for easy reference later. 3. Student work lives in a Google Drive folder in your Google account while it is turned in to you in Classroom. You have access to that folder, but it is not a good idea to make many changes to those folders in Google Drive. Make all of your changes directly through Classroom. Added Features and Functionality since the initial roll out. Share to Classroom with Chrome: Students and teachers can use the Share to Classroom Chrome extension to share web content to their classes. Teachers can use the extension to instantly push web pages to all students in a class, or create an assignment or announcement in Classroom. Ask and answer a question: Teachers can post a short answer question to students in the class stream at any time, with options to allow students to edit their own answer, and to see and reply to classmates answers. Students answer the question in the class stream, and teachers have the option to grade answers. Reuse a post: Teachers can reuse existing posts (announcements, assignments, questions) from a current or previous class. Move a post to the top of the class stream: Teachers can change the order of posts in the class stream by moving any item to the top of the stream to give it priority. Visual refresh: Classroom has a new simplified design for creating and posting assignments, announcements, and questions and for viewing assignment details. The design updates enable quick and easy access for teachers and students. Mobile notifications: Students can see immediately when a teacher creates a new assignment or announcement, comments on a student s post, or grades or returns an assignment. Teachers can see immediately when a student comments on a post or sends the teacher a private note and when the teacher is invited to teach a class. Classroom share button: Teachers and students can share links, videos, and images from other websites or products to Classroom. Support for multiple teachers: Teachers can invite other teachers to join their classes. Draft posts and assignments: Teachers can save their work on an announcement or assignment and post it later once it is ready to go.

4 Draft grades: Teachers can save grades for an assignment and return the graded assignments to their students later. notifications: Teachers and students can receive notifications when someone creates a private comment for them. Upload your own class theme: Teachers can use their own photo or other image as the theme for their class in Classroom. Students can view the class resource page and share images/pdf/videos to Classroom assignment submissions. Archive a class: At the end of the school year or a semester, you may want to archive a class to preserve the class materials, any assignments, and any postings to the class stream. Assignments page for Teachers: On the Assignments page, teachers can review student work for any assignments as well as any grades or previous comments. Attach multiple Drive files: Teachers can attach multiple Drive files to an assignment. Profile pic in Settings: Teachers and students can easily set their profile pictures in Classroom. Teachers are editors: Teachers are added as editors to Drive files attached to student assignments, so they can see revision history and provide feedback before assignments are turned in and after they are returned. +Mentions: You can +mention classmates or your teacher in comments and posts. Invite students more easily with Groups: If you already have a Google Group set up for your class, you can now use that group to invite students to Classroom. Mark assignments as done : Not all assignments require students to submit work online like reading a chapter or conducting an experiment so students can simply mark assignments as "done" if there is nothing to turn in. Stream controls for teachers: Teachers can set permissions for whether or not their class can post or comment in the stream, mute individual students from posting or commenting, and view previously deleted items in the stream. Export all grades: Teachers can download grades for all assignments for a class at once, making it easier to export assignments to a gradebook. Sort by first or last name: Teachers can also choose to sort students by first or last name, depending on their needs.

5 Things you need to know about Google Classroom. 1. Student View is Different from Teacher View Be aware that how Google Classroom looks to you are different from how it looks to the students. Any Google Doc you attach as Make a copy for each student will not show in the student stream. The student must click on OPEN to view the file.

6 2. Filter by Folder When searching for Google Docs to attach to an assignment or announcement you can filter your search by folder. Double click on a folder while searching for files and then type your search keyword. Results will be filtered to the folder you are in. This is not true for Google Drive. 3. You Cannot Edit Make a copy for each student When attaching a file as Make a copy for each student and you click Assign you can no longer edit the attachment. You CAN edit the description and add resources such as links or documents students can view. You cannot delete the attachment or add new attachments of Make a copy for each student. You can also not add other classes after you have saved the lesson set. Before you click assign make sure you have shared it with all of the sections you teach. 4. Students Lose Editing Permissions For my class I have a list of assignments for students to check off throughout the semester. This means they need to retain editing rights all semester. In order to give each student a copy of this list I need to distribute it as an Assignment in Google Classroom. When a copy of a document is made for a student, the student is the owner of the document. When the students Turn In the assignment the teacher becomes the owner of the students document and the student becomes a viewer. When students Turn In an assignment via Google Classroom they are not able to edit the document until you return it. Returning a document returns ownership to the student. Students can also choose to Unsubmit an assignment so they can continue to edit it. Continue Editing If you want students to continue to edit a document, remind them NOT to turn in the document. You might need to periodically go into the assignment in Google Classroom and return the document to students who did turn it in. 5. Link to Folder in Google Drive Student work is not stored in Google Classroom. It is saved into a folder in Google Drive. Google Classroom automatically creates a folder in your Google Drive for you.

7 On the class tile page and for each assignment you can link to the folder in Google Drive. For each class Google Classroom creates a folder in Google Drive and for each assignment, a folder is created. This means you do not need to go to Google Classroom to view student work. On any device, simply locate the Classroom folder in your Google Drive. 6. About Tab Lets You Add Resources The About tab in Google Classroom is a great place to link your resources that students need access to all semester. The syllabus, a permalink to a Google Hangout for virtual office hours, class rules or help guides, link to classroom website, etc these links do not get lost in the stream as the semester goes on. Direct students to find these resources in the About tab. 7. Sharing Settings Solved If you have ever shared a Google Document with students or had students share Google Docs with you that could not be accessed due to sharing permissions Google Classroom solves this problem. Google Classroom automatically sets the sharing settings on Google Docs. Never again will you hear students cry out It says I do not have permission nor will you be thwarted in your grading efforts by not having permission to view a student s Google Doc.