Square One: Logging in to Google

Several students and teachers are having problems navigating through the new world of Google Apps for Education - Classroom, Docs, etc.

The cause of many frustrations is that they are not logged in to Google when they try to access these apps.

So let's start at the very beginning.

I strongly recommend that you use Chrome as your internet browser, regardless of whether you are using a PC, a Mac, an iPad, an iPhone or an Android. It has many features that put it head and shoulders above others. But that's a subject for a later post.

But regardless of which browser you are using (Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, etc.) head over to www.google.com.

Click on Sign In in the upper right-hand corner. (If you're already signed in under your school account, you'll see your school e-mail address where the blue "Sign In" box is; you're all set. But if you see either the blue box or another e-mail address (either yours or someone else's) continue with the directions)

Sign in to Google using your school e-mail address and password, and then click "Sign in."

You're now signed in. Proceed to use your e-mail, Google Classroom, or whatever you like.

If you have another Gmail account that you use regularly:

You can manage multiple Gmail accounts in Google, one at a time. (Remember that your school e-mail is technically a Gmail account even if it says @mjbha.org instead of @gmail.com.)

The way it works with Google is that whichever account you use to sign in to Google first becomes your default Google account. When you open a new tab in Chrome, that's the account you'll see. You can then switch between accounts as follows:

Click on your e-mail address in the upper right-hand corner.

Click on "Add account" and sign into Google with your second Gmail account as you did earlier.
Now when you wish to switch to your other Gmail account, you can just click on your e-mail address on Google, and choose your other account.