I’ve been using Google Classroom for a while, but I’m using it in a very different way now. I set it to Hide Notifications for Classwork on the Stream. So my students should be going to the Classwork tab to see everything we do each day. I used the header template from Alice Keeler here.
The Stream has been used only for announcements, such as noting where to click for our live meetings and reminders to fill out forms for the school. Here are some of my announcements.




I’m using topics to separate my Classwork page by day. The most recent days are always at the top. I have a Resources topic that stays at the bottom.
In my Resources space at the bottom is a link to my Office Hours Google Meet, Desmos Graphing and Scientific Calculator, class website, our school’s schedule for remote learning, and Graph Paper (Cornell Notes-style) they can print if they have access to that.
Here’s an example of one of our days. We are required to ask an Attendance Question each day. In order for a learner to be marked present for attendance, the only thing they need to do is answer that question (or interact with the class in some way). I used the Virtual Name Tent Desmos activity modified from Sara and Kristen and Corinne for the first five days. More on that later. And then the rest depends on the day. Here I have a homework assignment (Delta Math), challenge activity, completed notes, and recording. Other days and classes have had links to Quizizz, Desmos exploration activities, Jamboards, Google Docs homework assignments, and Google Forms.
I saw a bunch of people on Twitter talking about using emoji to organize. I should ask my students, but I’m just assuming they are all seeing them. So here’s what I’m using for the different emoji:
- 💻 Attendance Question
- ⛺️ Virtual Name Tent
- 📝 Homework
- 📓 Completed Notes
- ⭕️ Recording
- 🔢 Office Hours
It’s funny because I’m noticing now how they come out different on WordPress as I’m typing here vs. what they look like on my Macbook Pro’s touch bar. My touch bar usually matches what I see on Google Classroom.
I had some students ask me about using emoji in the chat in our Google Meets and sent them to this page: https://coolsymbol.com/
I know there are many ways to make Google Classroom work for remote learning, but I’ve been mostly pleased with this so far. Anything else I can do to make life easier for everyone?
Pourquoi nous ne pouvons pas programmer les choses pour multiples cours à la fois?!