It’s been a great start to the school year for me in my busy year-round world (which starts in July), but I am afraid I have ignored TSV nation in the hustle and bustle. This year, my county (finally) rolled out Google Accounts for the students. I thought I’d apologize for my absence by compiling and sharing the resources I’ve found helpful in making the most of Google in my Classroom.

First, if you aren’t already using Google Forms to create and then Flubaroo to grade your assessments, you owe it to your free time to do so. This second-grade teacher has created a pretty comprehensive video on using Google Forms. She’s creating a parent survey instead of a student assessment, but the principle is the same. I also like that she included instruction on how to use QR Stuff and the link shortener bitly to make sharing the Google Form with your students super simple. Once you know how to create forms and share them with your students for them to complete, your next step is Flubaroo:

I’ve had students complete homework questions on the bus on their phone by going to the Google Form link. I;ve had 17 different novels, and students scanned the correct QR code to get to the test for their novel, making handing out tests for that many different books simple. From assignments large to small, Google Forms + Flubaroo rules.

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Because of our student Google Accounts, I set up Google Classroom this year instead of continuing my use of Edmodo. Here’s a quick overview about its features:

I especially like the ability to create a frame for a written assignment and digitally “hand it out” to every student’s Google Drive. When reviewing, I like suggesting edits so they can see where to correct it, and commenting on text as well.

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I’ve started using Doctopus and Goobrics with Google Classroom. Doctopus pulls all your Google Classroom submitted assignments into one spreadsheet and Goobrics pulls in your rubric for easy assessment. I found this tutorial helpful:

The completed rubric pastes below the essay in the same google doc, so feedback is automatically and paperlessly “handed out”. I used roobrix.com to create a percentage for the gradebook.

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So…. here are the Five Google Tools at RULE at School. Did I mention they are all free?

• Google Forms + Flubaroo
• Google Classroom
• Doctopus + Goobrics.

Have love for one of these tools or another to add?

Please share in the comments!