As Google Classroom Will turn 6 Later This Year: 6 Tips to Use GClassroom Like a Rockstar!

Hey Everyone!

We are living in strange times. The Coronavirus Pandemic has shut down most of the world and when you read or watch the news, all we see is how coronavirus is changing the very way we live, think and act!

The pandemic has almost overnight disrupted education. Where online classes lay on the sidelines till even a month ago, it has become more mainstream with thousands of school and millions of teachers and students now navigating the space of distance, digital learning. 

It is in this context that I write today's blog on 6 creative ways to use Google Classroom. By the way, Google Classroom will turn 6 later this year... hence the number 6! 

6 Creative Ways to Use Google Classroom:

1. Communication Central: Set Announcement as an ASSIGNMENT so u know who has read it. Do not put announcements in the Classroom STREAM. Posts in stream jus get buried as you create more and more posts through the weeks and months, and instead of the 'letter lost in transit'. Set up you announcement in the CLASSWORK Page as an ungraded assignment and ask your students to Mark as Done to show that they have read and understood it.                                        
2. Use Private Comments to reach out to students one on one: We can't schedule "office time" or "see me separately" in the current lockdown scenario. Holding Online office hours may not be feasible all the time. PRIVATE COMMENTS to the rescue. Assignment and Question Posts in the Google Classroom allow for students and teachers to send PRIVATE COMMENTS to initiate a conversation meant to be only between teacher and that students. Here, students may ask for clarifications, share concerns and the like. The teacher can provide personalised feedback to the students.                                                             
3. Speak to your students via video from within the Google Classroom: The Google Classroom Mobile app has a video recording and sharing feature. You do not need to leave the app to record a video. In the mobile app, go into the Classwork Page>Tap on the (+) > Tap on Assignment/Question/Material > Give it a Title and Instructions > Tap on Paper clip icon on top f the mobile screen> Tap on Record Video/Open Camera>Select the video recorder> record your video (upto 10 minutes). The video will get automatically attached to the Post and you can assign it. 
4. Video Assignments to demonstrate understanding/learning: You don't need a third party app to get students to submit video assignments. Ask your students to show their thinking and explain how they solve a problem or reach a solution. For example give them a mathematical problem and ask them to record a video of themselves/sheet of paper, demonstrating how they solved the problem using the concepts they have learned. The student interface to record and attach the video will be a littel different. When they open the Assignment/Question you have posted, they will use the (+) Add Attachment Button> Record Video/Open Camera> Record their video and its gets automatically attached to the Assignment/Question > Submit.                             
5. Take a Poll: Use the Question post in the Classwork Page to take a poll. Perhaps you have organised an online debate for your class. After the speakers have expostulated their arguments for or against the motion, use the Question Post to take a poll to see how well the speakers may have swayed the audience.                                            
6. Set it up like Twitter: Again using the Question Post, post something like you would on Twitter. Then ask students to answer as if they were commenting on a tweet. Up the challenge and encourage your students to reply to each other's replies to your original "Tweet".

There is so much more!! Watch out for more posts on Google Classroom. 

Till then.........

Google Forms: Import Questions Feature

Hi Everyone!

Its been rolled out a couple of months ago. Have you noticed it? I know many of you have. It is the Import Questions feature in Google Forms!

I use Google Forms.... A LOTTT!! And I often need to use questions that I have already made in previous forms. I had to retype or copy-paste the questions and options (in MCQ or Checkbox type) every time. It was tedious and annoying.

But now with the new IMPORT function within Google Forms, I can save a TON of time! 

The process could not be easier!

1. Select the 2nd Option from the Floating Menu on the Right side of your screen.

2. Choose Which Form

3. Checkbox the Questions

                      

Review

This new update is very useful if you want to pull in a few questions from a previous form, perhaps those where the students had not fared well. Or you simply want them to revisit those questions as they advance on to new topics.

Question Bank

This is my favourite! I create Master Forms for each Unit, where I keep adding questions as they come to me. Earlier, I had to laboriously copy-paste from the Master Form to the Form I administered to my students. Now all I have to do is check all the questions I want from the Master Form in one go! Don't share the the Master Form, but make multiple Forms in different permutations and combinations for your students!

Add your colleagues as collaborators to your Master Form and expand your Question Bank!

Be a SMART Educator

Google Forms and CBSE's Objective Type Questions.

Hello Fellow Educators!

In the recent months Central Board of Secondary Education, India's premier school education board and assessment authority has brought about some fundamental changes in the design of the Class 10 and 12 Board Exam question paper for all subjects. The biggest of them is 20 marks worth of objective type questions. It is a given that Classes 9 and 11 will follow the same pattern as we try to acclimatise our students to these new assessment methods.

Today the CBSE released the sample papers for Classes 10 and 12 for all subjects. Find the links below:

1. Class 10 Sample Question Papers and Marking Scheme
2. Class 12 Sample Question Papers and Marking Scheme

So how are you planning to provide this practice for your students? 

I know many of you are making worksheets and administering them to your students either as homework or in the classroom. Once you have collected the work from the students, you need to correct the Objective Question Worksheets. 

How long does it take you to go through all the students' worksheets and give them feedback? A minute per worksheet? So 30/40/50 minutes? 

That's just busy work. You are doing mindless, repetitive work. Writing the similar feedback again and again and again. Just take a step back and think how this monotonous and tedious work is adding value to your students' learning or your creativity and most importantly is it giving you the time and scope to enrich and deepen your relationship with your students?

Most likely not. So what do you do? What if you could automate the grading and standard feedback process? 

Work smart, not hard....

Google Forms is your answer. If you set it up as a Quiz, you can...........

1. Different types of questions:

2. You can preset the Answer Key

3. You can add feedback based on the answers of the students

Once you set up your form, you can reuse this with multiple sections, across academic sessions, updating as required. Once ready, the students can get instant feedback, within seconds of submitting their work. 

This timely feedback is always more relevant than feedback given the next day or the next week!

Use you saved time to plan and execute more creative and effective teaching-learning strategies in class!

Be a SMART Educator!

Sanchita Ghosh

Colours of Pride with Google Sheets

Hey Everyone!

Did you know you can auto colour the columns in your Google Sheets? This was activated a while ago but I discovered it only recently.

Would you like to see how its done? Then watch the video below!

Google Form Update

Hi Everyone!

How many of you regularly use Google Forms? It is one of my favourite tools for school purposes.

Here is a quick list:

1. Create a self grading Quiz
2. Event Registration
3. Feedback Tool
4. Data Collection
5. Exit Tickets

And this is just the beginning. 

Recently there was a mini update in Google forms which can change the way your form looks

Watch the video below to know more.....

Alumni Connect #1: With Surbhi Bhambri

Hey Everybody!



I always believed that time and distance cannot prevent you from connecting with people. I also believe that students are more open to learning from their seniors than from their parents and teachers. Thats what set me thinking about catching up with our alumni and connecting them with my current students. But school schedule does not always allow for time, or alumni are located away from the city or the country. Connecting in real time using Google Hangouts on Air is the way to go...



Here is how my conversation went with my ex-student Surbhi Bhambri. Do watch. And do go back and connect with yours.

You could even interview a subject expert to enrich your student's learning experience!

Any other ideas for Livestreaming/Hangouts On Air? Share them in the comments section below!

Google Forms Tip #1: Assess Your Students Using Forms

Today's tip is really for beginners. If you want to know how you can supercharge your Google Form for more advanced assessments, leave me a comment below...

Google Doc Tip #1: Style your Table

Hello Everyone!

I'm back again with another tip today. Of course you know that tables can be added to a Google Text Doc, but how many of you know that you can style the table too? Maybe some of you do, maybe some of you don't. Hence the post.

Styling Google Doc tables is one of the easiest things to do....

Here's how:

Google Sheets Tip #3: Wrap Text

Hey Everyone!

Have you administered a Google Form where respondent's answers are in sentences/paragraphs? What does you response sheet look like? Sentences hidden  behind next cell, after the first few words? Or just untidily spilling over the adjacent cells?

Help is at hand to make your sheets more presentable and readable! 

Check out the Slideshow below......

Hope you found this helpful!

How to Create Personalised Maps

Hi Readers!

Integrating technology in the classroom is an area I feel very strongly about. I always on the look-out for new ways to engage my students in the learning of History using technology. 

I already have an up and running website for my students. But more on that later.

CBSE requires Grade 12 History students to prepare a research project. The general understanding is that the students will either in groups or as individuals make a pen and paper file of their project topics. The maximum use of technology, in most cases is using Google as a search engine, copying and pasting from Wikipedia, printing all this out, slap it into a folder and submitting it to the teacher.

I wanted to make this engagement with technology a bit deeper. So this year, I have asked my students to create a website instead of a file. 

Among other things I want my students to create their own customised historical maps, especially since images of historical maps of India are not so easily available. For this they do not need to be a tech whiz, know HTML and a whole bunch of geeky things, whose names I do not know......

                    

Google My Maps has come to the rescue. How to use it? Here's how! 

Go ahead, try it out, and tell me how it worked for you!

Google Sheets Tip #2

Hi All!!

I'm back again with another Google Sheets tip today.

• Do you have to deal with huge amounts of data? 
• Do you lose track of the headers as you scroll down the sheet?

I had similar problems, especially when dealing with student grades and ,marks. Is there a solution to the problem? Yes there is!

1. Select the row/s you want as your header.
2. Click on VIEW
3. From the Dropdown Menu select FREEZE
4. From the side menu select UP TO CURRENT ROW
5. Your header wont budge as you scroll down the sheet

Is left to right scrolling a problem too? Are you loosing your horizontal reference points?

1. Select columns you want as a constant
2. Click on VIEW
3. From the Dropdown Menu Select FREEZE
4. From the side menu select UP TO CURRENT COLUMN
5. Your Reference points wont budge as you scroll left to right!

More next time!

Google Sheet Tip #1

Hey All!

Do Google Sheets stump you occasionally? I get stuck all the time. So, I've decided to figure things out! The best way to learn is by teaching the topic! So that's my assignment.

So What's the tip for today?

Have you worked with Google Sheet before? If you have worked with Google Form then you've obviously had to handle all the data thus collected, in Sheets. 

But the headers just seem to dull and hardly look different from the data in the other cells......

Want to change that? 

1. Select Row 1
2. Click on Format in the Menu Bar
3. Click on Font Size from the Drop Down
4. Click on a number to get the Font size you want
5. Click on the   Icon
6. Select your preferred colour from the grid that opens.
7. Click on  Icon
8. Select your preferred colour from the grid that opens.
9. Done!

Until next time......