From a post at http://ditchthattextbook.com/2014/10/16/the-google-classroom-quick-start-guide-tips-and-tricks/
Google classroom has been out for a while, it is time to see what it can do and if it is something you could use.
The feature of Classroom I love is the ability to distribute documents - particularly Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and have students work on them and return them in a very neat way. If you have given students an assignment in Google Docs, sometimes the sharing becomes a bit messy. Google Classroom overcomes that problem. There is a lot more to it also so read on!
Set up your class in Classroom
Use the “+” button to create your first class.
1. Go to: classroom.google.com. You can use Classroom if you log in using your Google Apps for Education account
2. Click on the “+” button in the top right to create your first class. (It’s next to your e-mail address you used to logged in.) Then click “Create class.”
3. Add a class name and a section. The class name should be the title of the class
Add a class name and section.
(“Mrs. Johnson Yr 9 Maths,” “Italian Yr 7,” “Yr 8 S&E”). The section is a USA term, anything can go there. Then click “Create.”
4. Click “Change class theme” on the right side of the header. It will open a gallery of header images you can use to spice up your classroom.
Enter class details in the “About” tab.
5. Also before your students join your class, you can add details to your “About” tab. This provides some basic information, such as the name of the course, a description of the course, the room where it meets and the teacher e-mail. You can also add materials (like a syllabus, classroom management plan or anything else students might need to refer to during the year) by attaching them.
6. The time has arrived … your students are ready to sign up for Classroom! This is really one of the easiest parts.
Have them log in to Classroom with their school Google account and click the “+” just like you did. It will prompt them for a class code, which you can give them (write it on the board, show it on a projector, put it on Seqta etc.). Once they enter it, they’re in.
Give students the class code.
Using Classroom in everyday class
After your class is set up and students join, you have a fully functioning Google Classroom. Congratulations!
But you don’t want to stop there. Here are some things you can do in your Classroom:
Communicate with announcements.
ADD AN ANNOUNCEMENT: This is a good way to communicate with your class and give them up-to-date information. Click the “Announcement” button to display a message to your class. You can even attach files (from Google Drive and otherwise), add YouTube videos and provide links. Tip: If you assign an activity outside of Classroom (i.e. a blog post), you can link to it in an announcement so there’s a record of it in your class.
Add assignments with details.
ADD AN ASSIGNMENT: Creating a new assignment is almost the same as an announcement, but it has a due date. Write the title of the assignment, a description of it and attach files (if necessary). Then specify when it’s due. In student accounts, it will put extra notifications on assignments in your class to remind students when something is due — or when it’s late. The great thing here is the options if you are using Google docs/sheets/slides. You can assign the same document to all the class to add to or create a copy of the document for each student (great if you have a template you want them to start with). Classroom organises all of these documents neatly and you can see and give feedback on all of these documents in real-time.
CREATE A QUESTION: Creating a new question acts like a class discussion forum. When you create the question you get the option for students to see everyone's responses or make it just a private response. You can also choose if they can edit their answers.
MANAGE STUDENTS: From the “Students” tab, there are several actions you can take to interact with student accounts. You can manage permissions, giving students the ability to post and comment, only comment, or give only the teacher the ability to post and comment. The envelope icons let you send e-mails to individual students (via Gmail through their school Google account). By checking individual or multiple students, you can remove them from the class, e-mail them or mute them from commenting.
MANAGE STUDENTS: From the “Students” tab, there are several actions you can take to interact with student accounts. You can manage permissions, giving students the ability to post and comment, only comment, or give only the teacher the ability to post and comment. The envelope icons let you send e-mails to individual students (via Gmail through their school Google account). By checking individual or multiple students, you can remove them from the class, e-mail them or mute them from commenting.
MARK AN ASSIGNMENT: After you’ve added an assignment and students have turned work in, it’s time to mark it.
Grade and return work.
Click the title of the assignment to open it. Click on a student’s name to show any files attached that you need to view and to reveal a text field where you can type a comment to the student. Classroom flags every assignment as “not done,” “done,” “late” or “done late”. Classroom doesn’t change student grades if assignments are late, but you can.
Once you’ve viewed assignments, you can assign a grade by clicking where it says “No Grade.” If you want to change the number of points an assignment is worth, find the “Points” section at the top of the page and change it. Use the button at the top of the assignment screen to download student work to your Google Drive or to view the Google Drive folder where the student work is being stored. Be sure to click the blue “Return” button to finalize all of the grading you’ve just done.
Note: Once students turn work in using Classroom, they won’t be able to make changes to those files until you return them to the students after grading them.
Updates 2015
Check out the new features for 2015, including reusing posts, integration with Calendars etc.
Tips and tricks
1. There are lots of places to provide feedback (which is great!). You’ll want to think about where you want to provide it. It can be left in a comment in a file attached to an assignment. It can be left on each student’s assignment (only visible to that student). It can be left on the assignment when you click “Return” (visible to all students).
2. Adding descriptions to assignments is a good thing to do. The assignments in Classroom become good points of reference for absent students and kids that see their grades and wonder why they are as they are. Spelling out all of the details makes for easy reference later.
3. Student work lives in a Google Drive folder in your Google account while it’s turned in to you in Classroom. You have access to that folder, but it’s not a good idea to make many changes to those folders in Google Drive. Make all of your changes directly through Classroom.