Home
August 16, 2018
On behalf of Curriculum & Instruction and Technology Services, good afternoon and welcome to your classroom! Over the past few days, you received information regarding Google Classroom from Technology Services and Curriculum & Instruction. Based on feedback received, we wanted to provide clarification and additional information so that you can make the best decision about whether you utilize Google Classroom in your classes this year.
Al Davenport
Adam Smeets
What is Google Classroom?
Google Classroom is an optional instructional tool that is based on a learning management system – it’s big kid sister products are Moodle, Blackboard, etc. You can create assignments, send announcements, and start class discussions. Your students can share resources with each other and interact in a class stream or by email. You can also quickly see who has or hasn't completed the work, and give direct, real-time feedback and grades. Again, this is an optional resource available in your toolkit.
You talked about Little SIS? Why does it matter?
For teachers that have used Google Classroom – it’s huge! If you haven’t used Google Classroom but are intrigued – it’s still huge! Little SIS removes the need to manually create not only your Google Classrooms for each class you teach, but also takes care of updating your student enrollments for each class.
In the past I needed to manually add/remove my students from Google Classroom? Do I still need to do this?
Hooray! No, you do not need to manually maintain your class list. Each evening, your class list will be updated for each of your Google Classrooms.
I was using Google Classrooms and my course names changed? Can I change them?
Yes, this was confusing in our previous messages. Great question! We have fixed an issue that was reverting course names back to their default names. You can customize your course names so that they best fit their function.
I noticed that there are duplicate Classrooms with the same name? Can I delete one?
You’re on a roll – great question again! We also fixed an additional Google bug that involved missing quarter, semester or other marking period information. You should notice these changes on a rolling basis beginning today, and addressed in full tomorrow.
A course I created previously disappeared? Can I bring my course back?
As part of the creation of 2018-2019 Classrooms, previous marking periods were auto archived. Not to worry, while you won’t see it among your classes on your homepage you can restore the course by following the instructions available at https://support.google.com/edu/classroom/answer/6149820?hl=en&ref_topic=9049977.
I accidentally denied / changed my mind about accepting a Google Classroom? Can I bring it back?
Not a problem! Send an email to techsupport@ipsd.org and we would be glad to send a new invitation to your Google Classroom.
We hope that this information is helpful for you as you evaluate the tools and instructional materials that you are considering for your classroom this year.