Browsing Tag

distance learning

Six Of The Most Common Questions About Google Classroom

iPhone with Google Classroom sections on screen

I was alone at a friends house a few months ago when one of their breakers got tripped and shut off my very important TV show. I proceeded to flip it back but when I did, the soundbar wasn’t working! It took me FOREVER to figure out how to reconnect it correctly, and I was so frustrated! Of course when I told them about it, they were like, “Oh yea… you click this and that and push this and you’re good to go!” 

Sometimes I feel like Google Classroom is this way – frustrating to figure out until we finally get it. 

Not a day goes by where I don’t read a frustrated post by a teacher in a Facebook group about something they can’t figure out in Google Classroom. Now don’t get me wrong… Google Classroom is a fabulous tool for what it does. But a few things consistently trip us up and frustrate us. 

If you had the answers, wouldn’t life be easier? Good news, my friend! These are the top six questions I see online, and the answers to all of them. You’re welcome. 

1. Why can I sometimes “make a copy for all students” and sometimes I can’t?

Great question! The very first time you create an assignment  and push it out, you can make a copy for all students. However, if you post the assignment and then try to edit it, you cannot make copy for all students.  You would have to create a whole new post for the assignment if you’ve already posted it and are trying to edit the settings.

2. Why do I not have the option to include a due date?

 This is the difference between an assignment post and a material post.  creating an assignment allows you to set a due date and points. You can also  make a copy of documents for all students when you create an assignment. Creating materials are for student reference only.  This might be something like an announcement,  a link to your website, or something else students consistently use that they will not turn in. 

3. I get so many alerts in my email… how do I manage them all?

First, turn them off! On your main menu with all of your classes, click the three horizontal lines to open up the side menu. At the very bottom, click the settings gear and scroll to see the notifications section. You can select or deselect all or any notifications on the list to get emails for! You can even select specific classrooms. (Also, check out my digital missing work form. It’s a LIFESAVER!)

4. I want to make posts or parts of my directions stand out. Can I bold or italicize my fonts? 

You would think, right?! Unfortunately this is a feature Google Classroom does not have! I use emojis to emphasize my posts. Read about it here

5. My stream is so disorganized. How do I clean it up? 

Turn that bad boy off! I rely solely on the Classwork tab unless I’m posting an announcement (usually that I’m not there for the day and there will be no Google Meet). By keeping the Classwork tab organized, students can only go one place to look for assignments. Inside of each Classroom, you can click the settings gear in the top right corner and scroll down to General Settings. Under Classwork on the Stream, select Hide Notifications

6. I assign work to all students and they swear they completed it. But when I look at the post, there’s no assignment. What is happening? 

There’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that your students are deleting the work and telling you it went missing. The good news is, once you assign it to them (whether they delete it or not), it’s shared with you and in the Classroom folder in your Drive. Simply open the Classroom folder, find the class, find the assignment and their name should be on it! When you open the file, you can see their edit history – showing whether they did it or not. 

It took me a while to figure out some of these tricks and tips. Now you can feel a little more confident navigating Google Classroom properly so that you can troubleshoot quickly and keep teaching!

Classroom Management, Digital Learning

Three Ways to Use Gmail Templates

iPad Screen showing Gmail

I am not a fan of writing emails. It takes so much time, and even copying and pasting is tough because I usually have to copy and paste the email. Then I lose my message. What if I told you there was a shortcut to sending emails with a few clicks? Introducing Gmail templates!

Google allows you to save email templates so at the click of a couple buttons, you can fill in an entire email and send it off! 

Scroll down to watch how to set them up! 

1. Checking on student work

Let me show you the three ways I use them most! When students are virtual, I can’t always tell they’re working by looking at them on the virtual meet screen (most likely because their camera is off). But if I can see their progress on Formative, EdPuzzle, or I open their Google Doc and they haven’t completed work, I’ll send them a generic email from my template bank saying: 

Hi, 

We’ve been working on our assignment on Formative for almost the whole class period so far and I don’t see that you’ve made any progress. 

Do you need help? 

Sometimes I send it to the kids, sometimes I send it to parents. Either way, it gives me a tool to document work and hold kids accountable. 

2. A generic response

I use a missing work form to keep track of digital late work. When kids send me emails saying they’ve turned in late work, I send them the following email using about two clicks: 

Hey there, 

If you’ve turned in a late assignment, please be sure to fill out a missing work form on the classwork page of the website! That way, I have a record and know go back to look at it. If you only email me, your missing assignment will get lost in other emails. 

Here’s the link: (link to form here)

I love it! It saves me so much time in typing out the exact same email! 

3. Periodic communication

When conferences came around, I created a Gmail template to send to parents of students who I needed a conference with. All I had to do was copy and paste the email, click a few buttons, and change the students name and I had a clear, almost personalized email to parents inviting them to conferences. This is something I also do for students who are missing projects, are failing, or anything else where I need to email more than two parents or students for something. 

Gmail templates are the easiest tool I wish I’d known about for years! Watch the video below to learn how to make them!

Digital Learning, Middle School, Professionalism, Uncategorized

5 More Reasons Teachers Need GoFormative

Girl sitting at coffee table with ipad

I shared all about how amazing GoFormative is in my last blog post. If you missed it, check it out here

Great news – that’s only half of it! Let me show you the next five reasons why you need to use GoFormative

The power is in the settings.

As awesome as all the features are that teachers and students use while creating and completing the assignment, the settings are the real powerhouse of the program.

It syncs with Google Classroom (if you don’t use Google, stick with me). 

YA’LL! This is awesome! Go to the Class tab on the top left of your screen to add classes through Google. Upload and post directly to Google Classroom. If that’s not easy, I don’t know what is. 

If you’re not a Google teacher, you can still create classes and ask students to join via code. Then they can access their GoFormative dashboard by logging into GoFormative.com. 

You can clone assignments.

I use this feature ALL THE TIME! When I am done creating an assignment for my classes, I clone it. Use the clone to create accommodations of the assignment for students who need it. I will change questions to multiple choice or take away answers – whatever I need to do to create an accommodated assignment. 

Original assignment and cloned assignment

Restrict access to certain students

This is the best for that cloned version you just made. You literally lock students out of assignments. Use this to assign accommodated versions to only your students who have IEPs or 504s and the regular version to everyone else. 

This feature is also nice for students who are absent for a test or quiz. I can deselect them from the list, and they won’t have access until I edit that access.

Schedule open and closed times

If the assignment is due by the end of class, you can close the assignment at the end of the period and it locks students out! Is the assignment a bell ringer? Set it to close after 10 minutes. I like using this on tests or quizzes that have to be done by the end of the period or for assignments due on a certain date. You can reopen assignments as students need more time. 

So Many Options After Submitting Work

First of all, GoFormative saves all of students’ work as they type it. No need for them to submit it if they’re not done. But, you have a lot of options regarding submission. You can allow them to submit and make edits, or have it hidden from their dashboard completely after they submit it. You can select to have a score shown right away or after it closes. One of the settings lets you show students the correct answers after submission. 

I particularly like the release answer feature for distance learning. It gives kids feedback very quickly and they could see what they did wrong. There were some assignments I was able to go over with them, but this was great in a pinch for a quick assignment.

It’s the best digital tool

I am telling you again, this is the best digital tool I’ve found for my classroom. Whether you are distance learning or back on campus, you need GoFormative. 

Check it out here to try the premium version for 30 days. Don’t just go with the free version… really try the premium! Like I said in my first post, I’m not getting any kickback for sharing this. I just love it that much.

GoFormative changed my teaching and you have to try it!

Sitting at table with iPad

Digital Learning, Middle School

How To Create Digital Interactive Assignments with Google Slides

Pre-COVID school shutdown, I was pretty familiar with how to manipulate Google Slides to facilitate distance learning. I had even made a few digital interactive assignments in the past. But what I didn’t know was that there are a lot of teachers who struggled with this. I feel it is definitely my job to give you some direction on how to do this! 

If you’re reading this and thinking, “I don’t use Google on my campus!” … I’m sorry! I’ve found Google is the most widely used platform at this point, and there are a few things I think you’ll still find valuable (there are similar features on Powerpoint).  

If you want to download my sample digital activity to follow along and see some of the features, click here!

GOOGLE SLIDES VS. POWERPOINT

When you start making digital interactive assignments, this might be the first question you have. There are pros and cons to using both programs to create editable Google Slides. The bottom line comes down to this: both allow you to get to the same results, just with different steps. Google Slides is already included in your G-Suite for Education. I personally like Powerpoint because I can use fonts I downloaded onto my computer but other than that, Slides will work just fine. More on why it doesn’t necessarily matter which program you start with in a little bit. (If you don’t have Powerpoint, don’t go out and buy it – use Google Slides!)

WHAT KIND OF ASSIGNMENT SHOULD I MAKE?

My Monster Family Digital Genetics project requires kids to copy and paste monster parts to create a family! Want it? Click here!

Next you have to decide what you’re going to put on your slide. What is the goal of the assignment? Big question – I know. Are students using this as a worksheet or simple Q&A? Include want more spaces for writing or typing. If you’re using it as a review or instruction, you may want links to click and videos to watch. Can students drag and drop vocabulary or pictures?

STATIONARY BACKGROUND & ELEMENTS

Of course we want our students to manipulate some elements on the digital interactive assignments you’re creating. But there are certain things we may not want them to change or move. A title, the background, directions, or tables may be an example of this. 

I solve this problem by creating two files of the same assignment. The first file (if you use Powerpoint, this is where can use it). I start with is what I want to be stationary and immovable by students on the activity. It will be the background to the assignment I am giving them.

Let’s say I am giving them vocabulary on landforms and they have to look up the definition, write it down, and find a picture of that type of landform in real life. 

The following items should probably be stationary: a border, clipart or an image, the title, directions, and a data table for students to organize their work. You won’t want students to move, delete, or alter these pieces. Of course, some students won’t if they’re not stationary, but others definitely will. 

SAVING YOUR BACKGROUND

Save a slide as  JPEG

Create the bones of the digital slide you want to give to them. If you downloaded the example I created, this is slides one and two. Anything you want students to be able to move or type into should be included on this slide.To make this a stationary background, save the slides as a JPEG image. To do this, click File > Download > JPEG (current slide). This means you’re turning the slide you just created into one flat image. 

Now create your second file. If you used Powerpoint for the first part, you’re going to want to make this on Google Slides. The image you just downloaded will be the background you add to the slide. Right-click your new slide and select “format background.” Drag and drop the JPEG into the box, and that image will be the stationary background for your slide. 

If you’re a Microsoft based school, you can still add a JPEG to a background in a Powerpoint file. Use the Format Background feature to add your picture, and then add features the same way I’m getting ready to talk about! 

ADDING EDITABLE FEATURES

Now that you have the bones of your assignment, you can start adding your editable features. There are a few I’ll highlight. Don’t forget, you want to include the directions for whatever you want them to do on the slide in the stationary background. 

Writing Text

In this case, we want to add text boxes for students to type in. You might think – can’t they add text boxes themselves? Yes, but it is so much easier for you to add them. Add a text box wherever you want them to write and size it to fit the dimensions of the space. Try making this box a light color to show kids they’ll type there or add an outline. 

Text Boxes on Interactive Digital Activities
Students type in the gray and green boxes.

DRAG & DROP 

Since drag and drop is versatile and you have a lot of options, you can do this a few ways. 

Add pictures or clipart to the slide that students drag and drop to a specific spot. This is helpful for sorting or identifying objects. (If you make digital products for TPT, be sure you check the seller’s TOU before you add movable clipart to your digital interactive assignments!)

The next drag and drop feature is vocabulary words. You can just add a text box with the prewritten for students to drag and drop. There is a downside to this. They’re not as easy to move, and students can change the words by retyping in the box if they want!

To fix this, I like to type vocab words on a blank slide, take a screenshot of the word, and then add the screenshot of the text as an image. When you do this, it is no longer editable to the students. 

This is something you can use to categorize, resequence, and create a scaffolded venn diagram… anything you want them to manipulate on the screen. 

SHAPES

This student using the square shape to add layers of the Earth to a grid, creating a scale diagram.

This really depends on your lesson or assignment, but you can use shapes for a lot of things. I’m going to use my example of the square shape. I asked students to fill in a grid showing the layers of the Earth with the correct scale. 

Shapes Interactive digital Activities
This student using the square shape to add layers of the Earth to a grid, creating a scale diagram.

You can add shapes to the slide and ask them to copy and paste the given shape to add more. The line shape can be used for graphing. 

Because there are so many possibilities for this one, I’m going to leave you with those ideas and tell you to think outside of the box! 

ADDING LINKING FEATURES

Sometimes it’s just not possible to include everything you want in a Google Slide. This is where links come in. You can add two types of links: outside websites and other slides in the file.

LINKS TO OUTSIDE WEBSITES

Let’s circle back to links to outside websites. I’m going to talk specifically about a video, because there are multiple ways to do it. The second and third way work for any link, anywhere on the internet!

VIDEO LINKS

Add a video directly onto the Google Slide presentation. Add this on top of your background. Click Insert > Video and search on Youtube for the video you want the kids to watch. This adds a square thumbnail of the video onto your slide, so be sure you have space for it. 

HYPERLINKS

If you’ve seen a different colored font in a paragraph that takes you to a website, you’ve seen a hyperlink. Highlight the word you want to add the link to and click Insert > Link. Add the link you want the kids to go to in the space provided. This option works great when you’re typing onto the presentation the kids edit (and the words are not a part of the stationary background).

LINKS ON A SHAPE

Did you know you can add a link to a shape? This is best when you want to link to something, but the image or text is on the stationary background. Create a shape – use a colored outline and a transparent fill so kids can see through it. Highlight the shape, click Insert > Link and add the link to the site. Drag the shape over where you want students to click. When they do, a notification pops up under the shape with a link. 

I used this assignment in the spring. The background is completely stationary, so I added a transparent shape with an outline over the words I needed to add a link to! It helped students so much!

Shape Link Interactive Digital Activities
I used this assignment in the spring. The background is completely stationary,
so I added a transparent shape with an outline over the words I needed to
add a link to! It helped students so much!

LINKS TO OTHER SLIDES IN THE PRESENTATION

Just like you’d add a link to any website on the internet, you can add navigation to different slides in the presentation. If you have instructions on the first slide with nine slides of activities, you may want to add links to other slides to help students navigate. 

Add hyperlink to slide

Add this the same way you would using option 2 or 3 above, but when you’ll see when you click Link, click the option underneath the link box that says “slides in this presentation.” Select from any of the slides you want to link to!

Pro Tip: I always add a link to the websites kids are using in the speaker notes! But it’s one more fail-safe in case something goes wrong! 

Now assign them!

Finally, you’re done creating your digital activities! Double check everything – make sure your directions are clear and your links work. Then assign your digital interactive assignments and watch your student’s progress!

Don’t forget to download your sample digital activity to follow along!

Digital Learning, Middle School