Google Classroom Basics

One of my favorite online tools to use when you start flipping your classroom or go 1:1 with technology in your classroom is Google Classroom. This may seem pretty basic to some, but Google Classroom is always changing and these are some of my favorite ways to use it.

Uses for Students

1. Sharing Content

To share a post, you can just start typing in the top box on the stream. I frequently use Google Classroom to post website links or resources for students to use in their work. In a flipped classroom, you can also easily upload videos with lesson content, or add in video links.

*To upload a video, simply record a video from your device. Then, when you go to create a new post, you can attach a video. This can be done from a phone or iPad, as well as any computer you are using as long as you have the camera and video recording available to you. (Sometimes I also upload to YouTube and then insert the link - this allows me to share the link in other ways, but does add some extra steps in uploading.)

2. Assignments

You can create assignments on Classroom as well. At the top of the page, click onto the Classwork tab, then click the Create+ button, and select assignment. This can be a blank assignment - I use this for the spelling tests I mentioned in my Spelling City post. You can also add files from Google Drive and set it so that it creates a copy for each student. This is great for template or "worksheets" that you want students to complete. Once they have made their changes, they just click "Turn In." You can also still see the files even if they forget that step!

3. Assessment

Google Classroom has made changes that make it very easy to give quizzes to students. Create a quiz using the quiz feature on Google Forms. This allows you to create a form, but you can also add correct answers and points for each question. If students answer exactly correct, the grade will already be there. For other answers, you can choose to have it automatically marked wrong, or you can go through and select the correct and incorrect answers. It groups them together, so even when I have used this to grade 130 quizzes, it can be done in a very short amount of time! Then, when you add the quiz onto Google Classroom by either adding it from your drive as an assignment or creating a quiz assignment, you select to have grade importing. Then, students' scores will show up right in the assignment after you click to import them.

4. Collaboration

Students can also comment and create threads on Google Classroom where they can work together. The settings can be changed to allow comments or to turn them off, but this could be a powerful tool in a flipped classroom. Students can ask and answer each others' questions both inside and outside of class. Similar to an online class, the discussions can add a lot to student comprehension.


Sharing with Educators

This is also a great tool to use to share information with other educators. You can create a classroom for educators to join for professional development. You can have them working through assignments as students to better understand classroom, or hold other forms of professional development, like book studies through this platform. It would be great to use it to teach educators all they can do when they start using it in their classrooms!


Google Classroom is a great tool for turning over some of the power in the class to better empower students and give them some more control over their learning. This can be done in small ways or in larger ways like starting the switch to a flipped classroom!