Google Classroom

This week I was really excited to see Google Classroom on the list of tools. As I have already mentioned, I have been using Google Classroom since it's launch in 2014. Our school is G Suite based. We are a 1:1 iPad school but we use the G Suite. This was great for me as I was already familiar with G Suite as I have a Chromebook at home. 
When I first started teaching years ago, I slowly started integrating technology into my lessons and I was never afraid to do so. I played around with whatever I could get my hands on. Once I moved into a private school (not the one I am at now) and had a bit more leeway, I really started to look at purpose and benefit a bit more. That's the thing. When you can have what you want, then you need to decide what is useful and what is not. After many years there, I made the decision to move schools and found myself where I am now. Again, with wonderful access to technology, but a different population of students. The technology was different than what I was using at the other school and I felt overwhelmed with curriculum and new faces and everything that first year there (and my own children starting school). 
One of my co-workers suggested that I try Google Classroom. She said it would be perfect for me and that I would love it. I protested. I said I was too overwhelmed to take on any new technology. I told her to let me get through the first half of the year and I would try it in January. 
So that is what I did. Over the course of the first half of the year, I did research and took PD on Google Classroom to get my self ready to set up for January. I prepared the students for the change in January. When we made the switch, it was strange at first. Google classroom took some getting used to and was a lot of trial and error in those first few years. But I have to say that it is such a huge part of my class now. It has made it so much easier to assign and collect work and the transition to remote was much easier. 
My own children use Google classroom too. When we went remote, my three 3rd graders were using the G Suite too and were able to maneuver everything as well as my high school students. They could access, edit, and submit their work on Google Classroom. They figured out how to take pictures of their work, email it to themselves, save it, and upload it to their assignments (or email it to their teachers). It's crazy the things kids can pick up. I will tell you that they figured out how to chat and video chat really quickly through Google. I had to turn that feature off (and one of my kids figured out how to turn it back on!). 
If you are interested in using Google Classroom, here are some cool things that you can do with it. 

How about unique ways to use Google Classroom? Maybe you are an administrator? Coach? You Co-Teach? Run a Club?

Check out this list of apps that integrate seamlessly with Google Classroom. You can share them (and assignments) directly to GC. https://shakeuplearning.com/blog/20-awesome-apps-that-integrate-with-google-classroom/

And if anyone wants to get fun and creative with their Google Classroom....

I hope that others find Google Classroom as helpful as me. I don't think I could run my classroom as smoothly as I do without it now. 

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