Take 5 for Tech

Can you believe that Google Classroom has been around for ten years now? The transformation has been gradual, but things really look nothing like it once did! This newsletter is dedicated to all the cool things that make GC a fast and effective classroom tool.

• Abilty to make student "Groups": Go to the "People" tab and toggle to "Groups." This makes differntiation easier since only teachers or co-teachers can see the different groups. You can also make & grade group assignments using groups.
• Improved Guardian Summaries: Before students could only see a description of the assignment. Now, with the teacher's discrestion, they can allow parents to see the actual work. For more information, look below in Other Resources.
• Improved visibilty & teacher oversight: There's a better way for teachers to see a student's progress on Google products. Teachers can more easily see who hasn't modified a Google assignment yet, when the last edit occured, and send reminders to students.
• Better Visibility Features: "Dark Mode" is now avaible in GC for mobile devices. This helps students (and teachers) determine which way Google Classroom is most gentle on the eyes.
• Practice Sets: While this isn't new for 2024, this 2023 have generally flown under the radar.

Please note that these add-ons are associated with WCCC Google Classroom accounts since that is the organization "paying" for the application. If your Google Classrooms are associated with your associate school, your local IT department will be the one who install these.

If you have questions about this and how it works, please don't hesitate to reach out to Winnie Milner.

It's important to archive your Google Classroom courses at the end of every school year or term. So what does it mean to archive your classes? It's when courses, including content like materials and grades, are saved. When they are archived the content can still be retrieved, but is no longer visible with active classes. This is important to you and your students.

• For you, it helps you stay organized so you don't have a mismash of old and new classes with old and new students. It also helps keep your digital materials organized and easily accessible. Additionally, it helps you to stay focused on your current students.
• From a studen't point of view they can have upwards of ten or so classes each year and when the classes aren't concluded, they are ended to the new year's classes. That creates a lot of confusion.

Archived classes can be Restored or Deleted. You need to be the primary owner of the class to archive.

Please note that you can't delete a course until it's been archived and only primary teachers, not co-teachers, can delete.

• Creating your Google Classroom from Scratch & a Copy: (Doc)
• Concluding your Google Classroom: (Doc)
• Guardian Email Summaries (Post)
• Set Up Email Guardian Summaries (Post)
• Practice Sets (Demo)
• Free Sites & Apps to Pair with GC (Post)
• Ditch the Text Starter Guide: with TONS of great links!
• Ditch the Text FREE Google Classroom Course