Organize Google Classroom Visually

 Three suggestions for keeping Google Classroom manageable.

1. Keep the Announcements page free of assignments.

I heard an Ed Tech guru describe the Announcement page of Classroom as the cyberspace equivalent of the first minutes before class starts, where conversations take place; the Classwork page is where the class takes place.

Click of the Settings gear in the upper right corner of your Classroom page.

Scroll down to Classwork on the Stream and change the setting to Hide Notifications

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If you'd like to use the Stream for comments, student questions, and teacher announcements, on the Stream setting, choose Students can post and comment.

2. Always Use Topics

Whenever you add anything to your Classwork, ALWAYS assign a topic. Come up with a system that is logical and consistent and use it, consistently. For some classes, I chunk topics by units (Chapter or Subject units), or by type of work (Classwork/Homework/Reviews).

The student can find grouped assignments by topic on the left side of the page.

Don't go overboard with Topics. Keep them manageable, logical, and consistent.

3. Add simple emoji icons to the title of your post for visual cues

I have a stable of about 15 emojis that I use consistently, especially for my weaker classes with learning issues, to help them visually organize what is posted. I keep them in a Bookmarks folder in Chrome labeled Emojis. Whenever I am posting anything, I keep an open tab for emojis.

My source is the Emojipedia.

Here is my collection:

These are all bookmarks in the Emojipedia. After I search through it and find one that I think is appropriate,  I bookmark it and change its name to whatever function I intend for it.

Here are some in use in last year's class:

If you've never edited the name of a bookmark, it's very simple.

Let's say I want to add a symbol for an assignment while I'm out sick.

I search Emojipedia and find this.

I decide on the Face emoji, click it, and am brought to its page. I click the little star in the Address Bar.

Before clicking Done, delete the name of the Emoji and rename it whatever you want to use it for.

And then click Done.

When you open the bookmark in a separate tab, click on the Copy button and the emoji will be copied to your clipboard.

 Then paste it in the title of your Classroom post.