New Classroom Features: Co-teachers & Questions

Google Classroom, how do I love thee?

Not only has Classroom helped me all but wipe out late work, but now it also lets me ahead and make and save drafts of assignments until I’m ready to release them to my eager padawans. However, two of Classroom’s other more recent features have given me new insights into effective collaboration and student needs.

Co-teachers

I’m not co-teaching anything this year, but I’ve added two different co-teachers on two of my Classroom classes, and it has been glorious.

First, I added my principal as a teacher on my classes. She wanted some specifics on an essay assignment for SAT Prep that she saw mentioned in my lesson plans. All she had to do was open up my Classroom class and open the assignment herself (now that I’ve showed her how)! Also, when a students makes a not-quite-appropriate comment on Classroom, guess who else gets the emailed notification now–AND can respond on Classroom to the comment?

I also added my Art Club president to our Art Club Classroom as a teacher. “I’m a teacher now! How cool is that?” Not only is it an easy way to recognize leadership, but this meant when I was having trouble posting an “assignment” (she had the idea to do weekly crowd-sourced inspiration themes to start our sessions), my commander-in-art was able to jump in and fix the problem without me even saying anything! Plus I have someone else to post reminders and preview the inspiration presentations before anything…compromising…could be posted.

Questions

I haven’t done much tinkering with the questions yet, but I have tried them out as sort of a quick reference and reflection place.

I had SAT Prep post their individual essay topics, so I don’t have to go picking through previously submitted Docs to find each kiddo’s personal prompt–and neither do they. It also kind of keeps them working toward answering the question they proposed and conscious of the need for revision if they find their topic developing differently than they anticipated.

After the first IPA this year, I also tried posting a reflection question to get some quick easy feedback and to work on fostering the reflection piece our summer #langbook book, Make It Stick, suggested. So now in addition to the actual IPA results, I have the additional feedback based on their perceptions as well as the inkling planted that they need to take some kind of action before the next one (although we’ll definitely need to explore what “study” really means).