How To Avoid A Three Ring Circus!

3 Great Options For Class Flow Systems

Happy New School Year everyone! This is the time of year when anything is possible. Students have their shiny new school supplies and everyone is hopeful for a wonderful year of learning together. We all know that the hectic pace of the school year quickly diminishes those hopes and dreams. However, with carefully chosen digital systems you can hang on to those positive feelings and focus on student achievement instead of keeping track of papers and bookkeeping. 

For today's Free Tech Tool, I will briefly describe the three most popular options currently being used by our colleagues.

From Google.com/edu

Google Classroom

Google Classroom is Google's version of an LMS (learning management system). It has been around for about 2 years and it continues to change and grow based on feedback from teachers. Google classroom provides a hub for your class. You can send out documents (no more sharing and searching), post assignments, attach files, give feedback, give grades, and much much more. New features added this year include a way for parents and guardians to get automatic updates on their own student's progress including late or missing assignments. The mobile app is very easy to use which is important as more of our students are utilizing their phones to access school work. 

Alice Keeler is a middle school math teacher who is a Google Classroom guru.

If you want to learn more, check out her blog here. Teacher Tech by Alice Keeler

GClassroom can be set up in less than 5 minutes and it is very easy to get your students up a running.

Chances are very good that someone in your department is already using Google Classroom. Ask around or set up a time with me and I'm happy to give you a tour.

Hapara

Hapara is a tool that we have in our district on a license basis. You may not know it but you already have shared folders for your students in your Google drive that have been set up through Hapara.  Hapara is an organizing system for your Google apps. It allows you to push out docs to students without needing to "share" them. Students can also place assignments into their shared folder and you can easily see them all listed on your Hapara dashboard. It eliminates the need to go digging through your Google drive searching for assignments that students may or may not have sent. Hapara also continues to update and upgrade their system based on teacher feedback. In addition to sending documents, you can also quickly and easily send students email messages, see what is on their screens, and set up everyone's chromebooks to be on the same website. While we encourage good classroom management techniques and communication with students, Hapara can be a useful tool and the dashboard makes managing your whole class's docs and drives pretty seamless. 

                                                                                   Google Sites   

Or any other kind of website for that matter! Some teachers are using Weebly, Wixx, or even Wordpress or Blogger. Use what is most intuitive for you. I'm a fan of Google sites because I can log in with my school account and I know that it will play nicely with my other Google apps and drive.  In case you haven't heard, Township HS District 113 has been granted early access to the NEW version of Google Sites. It's still in beta and they are asking for our feedback. So far, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. The new layout is very easy and a lot less scary than the first iteration of Google Sites. You can check it out by going to Sites.Google.com/new
Using a website as your workflow tool is versatile and can be streamlined if you are clear with your students how it is to be used. In my classes, we post a warm-up everyday on the website. Students come in and open the warm-up question and that is how class begins. We also post in-class and homework assignments daily on the site which is greatly appreciated by case managers and parents. You can use a Google form to have students submit their work to your website. You can also embed videos, your class calendar, etc. and if you use it daily, your students will too.


I know that it can be overwhelming to think about, but choosing a consistent workflow method for your class is as important as the content and learning experiences you provide. Start off the year with a clear system and you will find yourself with students who are able to be more independent and confident in your classes.

Do you have a system  that you love?
Share it in the comments section below.