Take 5 for Tech

1. Don't forget to return all student work. When students turn in work, it becomes read-only. In an technical sense, the teacher becomes the "owner." Giving back their assignments restores full ownership to them. This is important because if you skip this step and then "delete" something, you will actually delete it entirely, as you're officially the owner.
2. Unenroll students if you no longer want them to have access to the course. Teachers typically do this to prevent future potential cheating by having enrolled students share content with new, incoming students.
3. Archive concluded classes. This process tidies thngs up by removing the course from the Google Classroom dashboard. It essentially "freezes" the class in time; it is a good option if you want students to be able to refer back to the class in the future, but disallow any changes or submissions.
4. Remove your class calendar. Not completing this step will quickly clutter your calendar list, making it harder to find the current courses. To do this, go to your Google Calendar and find the specific class calendar (on the left) that you want to delete. Click on the skinny snowman, find "Settings & sharing" and select "Delete."
5. Tidy up old class folders in Drive. Google Assignments that accept submissions create folders for the teacher. Please don't delete the Classroom folder, as it can be very challenging to restore. You can remove class files from your "Shared with me" location in Drive.

For a more in-depth explanation and details how to perform these tasks, take a look at this blog post from Eric Curts, one of the best in the biz. I used this resource in the creation of this Smore.

Without a doubt, you are absolutely spent by the end of the school year. You may not feel like doing these last few tasks, but if you can muster the energy to do them, it will make your back to school transition so much smoother. Here are some of the ecommended actions that will help you to have a better classroom in the future.

1. Consider creating a class template. When you make a template, it will save the follwing items:

• all assignments,
• the class title,
• the course description,
• the subject,
• all sections and
• all topics.

For additional information about what gets copied and what doesn't, see the image below. Assignments become drafts with no dates associated with them. To make them active, add the necessary changes and then "Schedule." It will change your assignments from drafts to live assignments.

To create a template, click the "Skinny Snowman" on the course card (on the GC dashboard). Select "Copy." When the copy process is complete, you will want to clearly label your template.

2. Have a folder for exemplary work. This may seem like a no brainer, but I have to say it. It will never be easier to remember who had the best works for specific assignments and then find them, than it is right now. Of course the ideal is doing it as you go through the school year, but chances are, this didn't occur. That's why doing it before you've had a summer to erase your memory is critical!

At the end of the school year, there are a few simple things you can do to make for a better back to school transition. Understanding the difference between "archiving" and "copying" a Google Classroom class helps.

Archive a Class-

Archiving a class is something that's done after the class ends. The archiving process makes it read-only, preserves content like assignments, student work & posts and removes it from the student GC dashboard.. Teachers and students who were enrolled can still see its content. From a teacher perspective, the archived class remains on their Google Calendar. Archived classes can be restored if needed.

Copy a Class-

Both active or archived classes can be copied to use again. Another term for a class copy is a template. Only teachers (or co-teachers) can copy a class. Once a class is copied, it automatically becomes "Active." For more information about what copies over and what doesn't, refer to the image below.

Transfer Ownership of a Class-

Because your Google Classrooms are involved with a Google Workspace for Education account, you can typically only transfer ownership to a teacher in your domain.

Delete a Class-

Classes can be deleted, but that deletion process can never be undone. Only the files in the Google Drive from that class will remain. Please do this with caution.