For Students: How to upload work to Classroom

Since there are still students who do not know how to do this (How is this possible?!), here is a tutorial.

Click on the assignment in your Due list

Under Your work, click on Add or Create

Attach your Google Doc and submit.

Uploading files from computer to Google Drive

A quick tutorial on how to upload files from a computer to your Google Drive.

Open Chrome and go to Google Drive (drive.google.com). Make sure you are signed in to your Google account. (Reminder - your school Google Drives are virtually (ha!) bottomless, so you'll probably never run out of room.)

Click on the "New" button in the upper left.

The click on either "File Upload" (if you just wish to upload a file, or a few select files) or "Folder Upload" (if you want to upload an entire folder, or several folders).

Then a Windows Explorer window (the thing that looks like a manila file folder) will open. Navigate to the folder(s) you want, and then click "Open."

QUICK REMINDER: You can choose multiple files by holding the Ctrl key as you click each one with your mouse. If you want to choose a group of files, you can hold the Shift key, click the first file, and while still holding the Shift key, click the last file in the group; all the files in between will now be highlighted / chosen.

Search within folders in Google Drive

Sometimes something new is right in front of you and you don't pick up on the difference. Once when I was a kid, my father shaved off his mustache and I didn't notice it.

Apparently, for the last year, there's been a new feature in Google Drive; one, in fact, that I always felt was a major missing feature that rendered Google Drive less than user-friendly. You can now (now being either January 2018, or this morning, when I finally noticed it) search within folders on Google Drive.

This is important. Although I keep my Drive fairly neat, with nested folders within folders, often I can't remember in which folder a crucial file is hiding.

Right click on the folder in Google Drive online. One of your options is "search within _____ "

First Day of School - Quick Access to Google Folders

As I have been transitioning from Dropbox to Google Drive to store my digital life, I've accumulated a lot of folders.

Besides my Google Classroom folders I have folders for each of my classes.*
So I don't have to scroll constantly to find each class, each year I rename my class folders by adding numbers at the beginning of the file name. I also give them distinctive colors to help distinguish between two sections of the same class.

Just open Google Drive, find your class-materials folder and right-click .

Click Rename and add a number. I start with 01 and go up from there.

Click OK and you're all set.

While you're there, why don't you give them each a different color.

Right click the folder name again and click Change color.

This is what it looks like.

Isn't that nicer? 😃


*NB - (I am NOT talking about the specific class folders within your [Google] Classroom folder - don't mess with that. GC won't know where to send files.)

I'm just talking about a folder where I store pdfs, documents, readings, SMARTBoard files, etc.

Saving in Google Drive - Folders

By default, when you create a Google Doc, it just saves it to your Google Drive. Multiply that by all your files (and everything shared with you), and you're not going to be able to find anything pretty soon.

I'll detail two ways to create folders and move files into them - the on-the-fly method for those of us who forget to set up the folder before we make the file, and the from-scratch method for those people who plan ahead. (I do not include myself in that group, but I know they exist.)

Method One - From Google Docs

Once you've created the Google Doc, it will be automatically saved in Google Drive.

To create a new folder and move the file there, click on the Folder icon (Move to...) next to the file name in the upper left corner. It will bring up your Google Drive. Click on the Folder icon with the Plus sign.

Name the Folder (1) and click on the Check sign.

This creates the new folder. Finally, click on Move here and your file will be relocated into the newly-created folder.

Of course, you can maneuver to a previous folder and create a sub-folder (a folder within a folder) ad infinitum.

Method Two - From Google Drive

1. For those Plan Ahead people, go to Google Drive and click NEW (1) and then  click on the Folder icon with the Plus sign (2).

2. Name (1) and then create (2) the new folder.

3. After you create your new Google Doc,  to move it to the destined folder, click on the Folder icon (Move to...) next to the file name in the upper left corner. It will bring up your Google Drive. 

 4. Scroll down to your newly-created folder, click on it and then hit Move.

5. And you will see a briefly displayed message confirming that your file has been moved.

Of course, once you have already created a folder, you can just use steps 4 & 5 over and over to move files to their proper place.

Force a copy in Google Docs link

When I share worksheets with my students in Google Classroom, I don't want to post it as an Assignment, because I don't want the students submitting it back to me. I want them to hold on to it to study from.

If I post it as an announcement - if they can edit it, it will become one shared document with everyone working on it. Sometimes I want that, like when they are reviewing as a group.

But sometimes I want each student to do their own work. If I share as view only, then they can view the document, but they can't edit (i.e. write on) it. That's okay for in-class reading, but obviously inappropriate for worksheets.

If I ask them to make a copy of the document, there will always (and I means always) be a few who do not and then can't figure out why they can't write on it.

The trick is to force them to make a copy.

When you have completed the Google Doc, click SHARE, then click Get shareable link.

Click Copy Link.

Now, in Google Classroom, create an announcement, and on the description line, paste the link (Ctrl+V) where it says Share with your class.

The link will be a long string of gibberish; focus on the end.

https://docs.google.com/.../edit?usp=sharing

Position your cursor and delete the word edit and replace it with copy.

When they click on that link, they will be confronted with this:

Their only choice is to to click Make a copy.

Save a file in 2 different folders in Google Drive

For Capstone research I have Google folders with material for over 70 topics which I happily share with students if they need some help.

Not surprisingly, there's a great deal of overlap, and some articles are appropriate for several different topics.

If you'd like to share the files among several folders without having to make multiple copies, here's how to do it.

Navigate to the file you wish to share in Google Drive; highlight it and click Shift + Z

Click on the arrow at the end of My Drive.

Navigate to the folder in which you also wish to save the file.

Click Add.

Done!

Color code your Google Drive files

Google Drive makes all folders a uniform, drab gray.

Boring, eh? Not to mention difficult to distinguish.

Did you know you could color-code your folders?

Just right-click and choose "Change color."

Et, voila!

Isn't that easier on the eyes?

Training for Google Apps

Don't walk, RUN! Run to the Chrome store and install the extension for Training for Google Apps.

Have you ever been stymied, wondering how to do something in Gmail, or Google Classroom, or Docs, or Slides, or Sheets or Forms, to name a few? Did you know you can have a built-in tutorial that doesn't even require you to leave the browser window in which you are working?

Whenever you go into various Google Apps for Education, you will see this little symbol in the right-hand corner:

Click on it and a searchable menu will pop up.

There are lots of items to choose from, or you can search for help on a specific topic. When you choose an item, either a video window will overlay on the screen with a tutorial, or you will get actual prompts (like CLICK HERE) that walk you through the steps.

I've already learned how to do several things that I never thought possible in Google Docs! Give it a try today!

Binary files and How to Avoid Them in Google Classroom

Hit my first snag before my first classes started. I uploaded a Google doc to Google Classroom and it appeared with the words "Binary File" instead of Google Doc.

The result was that although I could open it, my students could not.

Turns out, it was my fault.

When you upload a Google Doc, you can choose the paperclip (upload from your computer) or the Google Drive symbol (upload from Google Drive).

If you have Google Drive installed on your computer, either one should be able to work, but that's where I messed up.

You have to upload Google Docs from Google Drive; do not use the paperclip!

The binary file is actually a link to to the URL of the Google Doc. Since both reside on your computer, it will work for you. But it won't work for your students.

Archive Last Year's Google Classroom Classes

Miriam reminded me of this piece of housekeeping.

Clear out last year's classes from Google Classroom.

Go to your main page, click on the old classes at the three dots in the upper right-hand corner.

Choose archive. The class and all its postings will be retained in your Google Drive in the folder "Classroom," but won't clutter your main page.

ADDENDUM: If, like me, you teach the same sections each year, naming the class in Google Classroom can get confusing - in your Google Drive Classroom folder, you'll have several folders labeled "9^th Grade Biology" or whatever.

You can go into your Google Drive Classroom folder and rename the old classes to avoid confusion. (Right-click > Rename) I just place an "X" at the beginning of the inactive folders.

ADDENDUM 2: Sometimes I just don't think. 

Go into your classroom folder, make a new folder (NEW > Folder) and name it with last year's date (e.g. "2015-16").

Move all of last year's folders into this folder. SO much neater. 

And while you're at it, color-code your folders to keep them straight.

Kami - Fill out pdfs online

Several teachers have asked me about making the switch to Google Docs. They are concerned about converting their documents from Word or other text editors (especially some of the Judaics teachers who cling tenaciously to Davka Writer).
 They are also concerned with the problem of formatting - when you start typing on a Google doc, it pushes the blank space between questions forward.

Kami is a Chrome app and extension that opens in your browser and allows you (or the students) to write in blank space in a pdf. (And remember, you can use Share to Classroom to shoot Kami out to your students on the first day of class!)

So if you have a worksheet that in the past was printed out and filled in by hand in class, you can convert them to pdfs (just 'Save As... pdf' in most word processors) and then you can upload them to Google Classroom as Assignments (not Announcements) and have the students fill them out on the Chromebooks. Imagine - no more reading difficult handwriting! Reminder: Make sure to choose 'Make a copy for each student' before assigning.

Installing Kami

Just have the students install the Kami app as well as the extension (which allows for offline work) and when they open the assigned document in Chrome, they should select Open ... Kami.

The first time you (or your students) open a document in Kami, it will ask for access to your Google Drive. 

IT IS CRUCIAL THAT YOU ALLOW THIS ACCESS! Otherwise it will not work with Google Classroom properly, and work will get messed up or lost. (I know, I have a few "tinfoil hat" kids who are paranoid about granting access online, but trust Google and Kami. I've met the designer. He's cool.)

Using Kami

Most features of Kami work without paying for the Pro account. (There's one important exception, as we shall see.) Click on the T to add text anywhere within the blank space.  Kami gives a pretty bright choice of colors for text, but you can click the Settings gear and choose a more subdued, darker, legible color for text.

Begin typing

You just click on the Text button (the T in the circle) and then you can then begin typing normally in whichever language you choose. 

(English has spell-check; Hebrew does not.) And you can go back to your answer later and edit it, which is a feature missing from similar programs.

Saving and Google Classroom

Assuming you have signed in to Kami, the program will automatically save your work as you type.  However, it will not automatically save back to Google Drive unless you are running the Pro version. (Currently $99/teacher/year.)

  This is very important, because if you are assigning the document through Google Classroom the work needs to be saved there as well.

When you click the Sync button on the top right, you can MANUALLY save the file in Google Drive as well. (I say 'as well' because Kami will also keep a copy of it. Which is all the good, because things sometimes get lost.)

 

However, for this to work properly, the student will have to re-direct Kami to save the document in its Google Classroom folder. (They could move it after they're done and before they're ready to submit their assignment, but I think in the long run it's easier to train them to do it from the start every time.) 

In each student's Google Drive, there is a folder called "Classroom." Within that folder are folders for each of their classes. Within those folders are the files (Google Docs, pdfs, etc.) for each GC Assignment.

The student must first click >→ Move, and then maneuver to the appropriate folder.

 This only needs to be done once per document. But it is crucial for submitting the finished work to the teacher in Google Classroom. If they do not, they will end up returning the original blank document instead of the copy with all their answers in it.

When the student is finished working in the pdf document, they should save it one more time, and then they can head back to Google Classroom. The document in their folder is now the filled-in pdf. Like any other Google Classroom assignment, when they're ready, they can just click TURN IN.

That's it. The teacher gets the completed pdf the same way s/he gets any document through Google Classroom.  And if the teacher uses Kami, s/he can grade and comment on the pdf as well. Postscript: Just in case you were worried, once the pdf is submitted to the teacher, Kami will not allow it to be edited directly by the student.

Why I dropped Dropbox for iPad

Don't get me wrong - I love Dropbox and use it for all my classes and my repository of thousands of journal articles downloaded over the years.

But the iPad app stinks. The display window of the document names is impossibly narrow. If I have 5 articles by the same author, I can't  see past his/her name to the title of the article itself.

That's why I switched to Documents by Readdle.

It's a free app. It works in conjunction with all your online depositories like Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, etc. It displays all file types clearly, allows previews, and has many more features that I have still yet to explore.

Dropbox screenshot vs. Readdle

Get Readdle HERE

Checker Plus for Google Drive

Checker Plus for Google Drive is an incredibly useful Chrome extension for anyone sharing large numbers of Folders or Files in Google Drive (like Capstone Supervisors).

This only works with the Chrome browser.

Go to the Chrome Web Store and search for Checker Plus. There are several extensions available for Google apps - Gmail, Google Calendar, and for our purposes, Google Drive.

Click the blue "+ FREE" button




Agree to the permissions. The extension will install.

To enable the extension, click on the icon that will now appear in the upper right corner of your Chrome browser. Agree to give the extension access.

 When you click on the icon now, you will get a small window view of your Google Drive. You can click on "Shared with Me" (That's the same as the new "Incoming")

If you click on "Recent," you can see the most recently shared or updated documents.







And if you click on the little gear in the upper right-hand corner, and open Options, you can choose to get pop up message that will appear in the lower right-hand corner of your computer screen, telling you that an item has been added or edited.