How to Google Classroom
Google Classroom is a powerful free tool available to all Gmail account holders. Go up the the “waffle” (the nine dots in the upper righthand corner by your Gmail login) and scroll down until you find Google Classroom.
How to Set up a Google Classroom
A google classroom can be set up for just one student. I mention that because due to FERPA and HIPAA some educators have to protect the privacy of their students. In a regular Google Classroom all the students are able to see all the work of their peers. However, students with special needs may require their work to be private. Plus if you have private clients you could set up a Google Classroom just for one client.
Multiple Google Classroom Classes
You can have many different Google Classroom classes and assign similar homework or deliver the same announcements across classrooms, which is a time saver. If you have one student only in your Google Classroom, you can invite the parent to join. Google Classroom can be a way to communicate with the parents and assign homework. In fact, each Google Classroom has its own Google Drive folder. Any PDF or worksheet could be placed in the folder for easy assignment to the students.
Google Classroom for Teachers
I filmed a new instructional video Google Classroom Tutorial for Speech Paths. In the video, I walk you through how to set everything up and it was surprisingly easy, even though you do have to have a classroom for each student on your caseload (to keep it private). The tools are easy to use and integrate seamlessly with Google Drive and other Google stuff. In my demo I set up Google Classroom under my personal gmail account, which I did because of confidentially reasons for a public tutorial, but what is interesting is that if you work in EI or in a private practice and have a gmail you could also have access to Google Classroom. How great is that!?
marilyn says
Thank you for this, just what I needed to help with the overwhelming feeling.
Really wanted the connections to be private for each student so this was great!
Sarah Wu says
Thank you for letting me know! ๐ I’m happy it helped.