Google Classroom Workflow and Organization Tips and Tricks

Google Classroom is a great workflow solution from Google Apps for Education. It is important to understand that Google Classroom is not a traditional website that can be fully customized. Google classroom is more of a Learning Management System. Classroom allows teachers to post announcements, post and collect assignments, ask questions, share resources, and create a calendar of due dates in a secure online location.

Google Classroom is an essential tool to support collaboration, communication, and digital workflow connected to Google Apps for Education.

Google Classroom Tips and Tricks Resource Document

Google Forms as Learning Frameworks - HyperDocs and More

I've long been a huge fan of Google forms for exit slips, surveys, and formative assessments. For me, it is one of the easiest tools to efficiently engage my students in reflective learning and assessments. I've even dabbled with using Google forms as learning pathways. Similar to Google Docs and Slides as HyperDocs, Google Forms can be used for student-paced activities and lessons. 

A great feature of Google Forms is the ability to direct learners to different sections of the form based on their answers to specific multiple-choice questions. This is a great way to support differentiated learning experiences. Students can be directed to additional information, video, a website or other digital resources based on the answer they choose.

I've also recently seen some posts connected to using forms to create Choose Your Own Adventure Stories. I've used Google Slides for Choose Your Own Adventure Stories, but I like also the idea of doing this with forms.  

Students can even create their own branching forms. This has some great connections to critical thinking and computational thinking.

Newsela for Remote Learning Engagement - Readings With Built in Assessments

Reading is at the center of all learning and Newsela is a great resource to engage students in relevant articles connected to topics that teachers and students care about. Newsela has event build a great Coronavirus Text Set that can quickly be shared and explored by students. 

"Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that brings together engaging, accessible content with integrated assessments and insights to supercharge reading engagement and learning in every subject. Content on Newsela covers topics students care about, that connect to core curriculum, and are aligned to standards. Each article on Newsela is published at 5 reading levels so that every article is accessible to every student in a class, regardless of reading ability. Thousands of articles are leveled specifically for grades 2-6, ensuring that you'll find content that is accessible for younger readers too. Additionally, many articles available in both English and Spanish. Assessments are integrated directly into articles to help students engage with the content and to give teachers and principals actionable insights on students’ activity. The result is more engaged readers—and engaged readers are better learners." Source

Newsela is supporting all teachers and learners by offering free access to all educators. Just visit the Newsela site and click on the red bar on the top of the page to get set up.

Learn more about engaging students with Newsela on the Newsela Support Page

The Newsela Blog is another great place to learn more about teaching with Newsela.

Video and Audio Resources for Remote Learning Experiences

A flipped classroom is a type of blended learning where students are introduced to content at home and practice working through it at school. This is the reverse of the more common practice of introducing new content at school, then assigning homework and projects to completed by the students independently at home. In this blended learning approach, face-to-face interaction is mixed with independent study–usually via technology. In a common Flipped Classroom scenario, students might watch pre-recorded videos at home, then come to school to do the homework armed with questions and at least some background knowledge. (Teach Thought)

The idea of flipped learning can also be applied to support students in the event of an eLearning day. Videos and audio recordings can be used to engage students in learning experiences outside of the classroom. These recordings can be simple introductions to a topic or complete learning experiences for students connected to classroom content. Most of the resources on this document are geared towards laptops or Chromebooks, but many also have mobile apps.

Tips to Use Google Applied Digital Skills for Remote Learning

Google Applied Digital Skills is a great resource to engage students in project-based learning using video. Educators can use the lessons with little or no modification. Teachers can also connect their classroom content to many of these lessons. The lessons can be used in class or as part of remote learning experiences.