You Need the Google Classroom App on Your Phone
If you don’t have the Google Classroom app on your phone, you need to install it-now! Go ahead, I’ll wait…
Ok, the app’s installed? Great! You are now a fully mobile teacher! You are free to navigate throughout your classroom, weaving through your students as you administer your class with the Classroom app. Now, let’s examine what it can do and how it can make your teaching life easier.
First, let’s take a look at what you can do with the Class Stream. The app gives you the ability to post to your class stream. Posting a discussion question on the fly and asking the students to comment on the post, creates a virtual discussion. The app also allows the teacher to comment on a post. To do so, turn a post into a topic and comment on it. For example, post a reminder about an upcoming test, then use the comment section to post study questions or hints on what students should specifically know for the test.
Next tab over on the the bottom of the app is the Classwork tab. Not only can you post assignments, class material, or a quick question, but you can grade assignments here as well. Clicking on a student name allows you access to the students work where you can also add a grade. But wait! Here’s where the true magic happens: Clicking on a students Google Doc opens up their work. In the upper right, there’s a magic wand (actually, it’s just a pen, but we can pretend it’s a wand as it lets you do a couple of cool things.) Clicking on the pen allows you to markup a students work. Clicking one of the tools on the bottom allows you to write comments with your finger or stylus, circling or underlining particular parts of the work, or write a grade on the paper. There’s also a text tool that allows you to type a comment on the students paper. Pretty cool, huh?
Lastly is the People tab. The teacher can you add students to the class, email a specific students, and check a students work history. And there’s one more thing that this section can do — it can serve as a random student selector too! Clicking on the blocks in the upper right corner of the app will take you to the Student Selector. Clicking the start button will present you with a menu on top showing how many of your students have been picked, how many have not been picked, and how many are absent. Students are represented as cards. After calling on the students on the card, simply click the “next” button and your next student will be randomly picked. If that particular students isn’t ready to answer, click “call later,” and they’ll be reshuffled back into the cue. If the student is absent, click the “absent,” and they’ll be removed from the cue.
The Google Classroom app is an invaluable tool to have on your phone. Run your class from the palm of your hand with the Google Classroom app!
