Introduction To

Google Classroom

Ken Dickinson
Bay Area Computer Training
Table of Contents
Introduction ........................................................................................................... 3
Create A Class ........................................................................................................ 4
Invite Students to the Class.................................................................................... 5
Students Can Join a Class on their Own ................................................................. 6
Features of the Class Page ..................................................................................... 7
The Stream Tab ...................................................................................................... 8
Posting the Material ............................................................................................ 10
The Classwork Tab ............................................................................................... 12
The Calendar ........................................................................................................ 15
Assignment Ideas ................................................................................................. 16
The People Tab .................................................................................................... 16
Parents and Guardians ......................................................................................... 16
The Grades Tab .................................................................................................... 17
The Classroom Menu ........................................................................................... 17
Class Settings ....................................................................................................... 18
Utilize the Mobile App ......................................................................................... 19

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Introduction
Google Classroom is a free service that allows you to share files, create
assignments, grade assignments and communicate with your students in a
paperless way.
Note: Your school or district does need to sign up for a G-Suite for education
account in order to use it with students. Your school or district can sign up
for free. A G-Suite for education account will help to ensure privacy and
protection for your students. You can sign up here:
https://gsuite.google.com/signup/edu/welcome#0
Classroom is available to:
• Schools using G Suite for Education
• Organizations using G Suite for Nonprofits
• Individuals over 13 years of age with personal Google Accounts. Age may
vary by country.
• All G Suite domains

For additional questions you may have about Google Classroom and G-Suite
for Education, search for google classroom FAQ or visit:
https://support.google.com/edu/classroom/answer/6025224?hl=en
To reach Google Classroom without G-Suite for education you must be signed
into a Gmail account.

After signing into your Gmail or G-Suite account, use the link
https://classroom.google.com and the following screen appears.

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Create A Class
The first thing you need to do is to create a class. You can create one class or
several classes for each subject you teach or each group of students you teach.
In order to create a class, you are going to click on the plus + sign up in the top
right corner and then click on Create Class.

If your school does not already have a G-Suite for Education account, you will be
prompted with a message asking your school or district to sign up.

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You will then enter the Class Name, Section Subject and Room number but the
only required item is Class Name

Tip: You could use your personal name for the Class such as Ken Dickinson’s Excel
Class to personalize it for your students.
Click on Create and you are re-directed to the Class page.

Invite Students to the Class

Click on People to invite students to the class

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Click on the Plus sign to invite students to the class or give them the class code

Type in an email address or search for an existing name in your contact list

Students Can Join a Class on their Own

Find the class code under the class name

Click on the Display square to zoom up the code

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To Join a class, students go to their google classroom, find the class and instead
of clicking on the create class option, they will choose the join class option.

Enter the class code and select join

Once a student joins a class once, it will always remain in their classroom until you
remove the student from the class, or you archive the class.

Features of the Class Page

You can change the Theme of the class by clicking on the Select Theme button in
the bottom right corner of the Class masthead

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You can choose a new theme from the choices presented

You can use one of the created themes from google or you can personalize by
uploading a photo from the upload photo option

Tip: You can use a different color for each class or subject area to easily
differentiate the classes

The Stream Tab

The Stream Tab hosts all the activity that has taken place in your classroom such
as any announcements or assignments you have posted as a teacher and any
comments or posts from student if you allow them with the most recent
appearing at the top.
You can easily post announcements or attachments to the stream page by clicking
on the Share something with your class box

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Share a class material with your class by clicking on Add

You can either type a message to your students or attach files from your
computer by clicking on File, or Google Drive, you can add YouTube videos or
Links and then post directly to your Stream page.

Click on Upload to Upload the material

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Posting the Material
You can immediately Post the material, or schedule the post to go out at a specific
date and time, or you can save the post as a draft to go out at a later date.

Select a Date and Time to send the post

Scheduled posts are in the Saved announcements section at the top of the
Stream column.

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For any item in your stream click on the three dot ellipsis on the right hand side

You can Edit, Delete or Copy the link to the Stream item

If you go back in to Edit the item, you can also choose to share the post with all
students in the class or choose specific students,

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The Classwork Tab
This is the area where you can create assignments for your students.
To create a new assignment, click on the Create button and choose the type of
assignment that you want to create.

The regular Assignment option is the most open ended so more popular to use.
You can create your own title, type in your own instructions along with attaching
any documents, you tube videos etc.
Tip: Why is this different than adding an announcement on the Stream page?
Because you can assign a point value to the assignment or have it be
ungraded. You can also assign a due date for the assignment and you can
create a topic for the assignment.
You can post the assignment to go out immediately or to go out on a specific date
and time or you can save it as a draft and return to it later.
Tip: Schedule all your assignments at the beginning of the month when you sit
down to do your long-term planning.

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The quiz assignment will automatically attach a blank google form that you can
use to create a quiz for your students. Click on Blank Quiz to create a new quiz in
Google Forms

Note: Under the direction of your instructor you will learn how to create Quiz
questions and grade responses.

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The Question option allows you to pose a question to your students and then
have them respond to it.

The Material option is a great way to share attachments or materials with your
students for example to share digital copies of notes and other resources.

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The Reuse Post option allows you to reuse a post that you have already created in
another class

The Topic option is a great way to organize all your assignments into Topics

The Calendar
Under the Classwork tab you can also view the Calendar which will display all of
the due dates for all of the assignments that you have created, along with the
google drive folder that you have created which houses all of the attachments
that you have added to your class.

As you add assignments and materials and questions to the Classwork tab, they
will also appear on the Stream tab in chronological order with the most recent
appearing at the top.

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Assignment Ideas
• Link Articles or Websites for research and then have students answer
questions in google classroom
• Link Quizzes with google forms that you want students to complete. The best
thing about google forms is that you can make them self grading.
• You can also have students complete graphic organizers digitally through
google docs or google sheets

The People Tab

The People tab allows you to see all the students and the teachers that you have
connected to your class. Follow the same steps that you used to add students to
the class to also add teachers to the class for co-teaching or if you want them to
have access to your materials.

You also can email students, mute students which revokes their ability to post
and comment on google classroom. This can be very handy or remove students
from your class if they are no longer in it.
Parents and Guardians
If you are using G-Suite for Education, you have the ability to invite their parents
or guardians to the class so that they can receive updates or check on their
students grades. Next to the student’s name click Invite Guardians

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The Grades Tab
Is an online grade book, of all the assignments for all of the students, that you
have on google classroom.
This is very handy to be able to see student grades all in one place
You can also go in and edit any of the grades if you need to, rather than going
directly to that assignment.
You can also click on any assignment and view student work that was submitted,
or you can click on a student and view all of the work that they have submitted
for the different assignments.
The Classroom Menu
Click on the Classroom Menu in the top left corner of your screen to see a list of
Classes that you are teaching along with a To-do list and a list of Archived classes
plus the classroom Settings.

Click on Settings to change your Profile and picture and other Notifications

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Class Settings
Access the Class Settings by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right-hand
corner of your class page

You can edit any information for your class in the Class Details section

The General Settings allows you to change settings for the Class Code, Comments
and Notifications, change the Grading system etc.

The Grading Settings allow you to control the grading method, add grade
categories and show overall grades to students.

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Utilize the Mobile App
A mobile App is available for both IOS and Android platforms. The Classroom app
lets you stay connected any time. App specific features include the ability to add
and edit classes, add and communicate with Students and Upload files, create
Video clips, etc.

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