Students will 'paws' to check out Selma High School's newest mural. Student volunteers joined Boss Graphics staff in completing the work in a week. “They even worked in the rain,” said. The European Commission has fined Valve and five major publishers a combined €7.8 million for breaching EU antitrust rules. Blog: Understanding the types of game currencies in mobile free-to-play.

• 8 Student Blogs To Check Out People
• 8 Student Blogs To Check Outside
• 8 Student Blogs To Check Out Work
• 8 Student Blogs To Check Out Kids

A great way to learn about your students–who, where, and how they are; what they’re struggling to understand about navigating remote learning in general, your course in particular; what interests, connects, and challenges them–is to check in regularly and ask them to share their insights.

In a face-to-face setting, this can happen, for example, with a quick check-in at the beginning of class or a “minute paper” or “exit card” at the end. For you, the purpose of these check-ins is to gain insight into student learning, which can help you make important adjustments to your course or provide key clarifications. For students, check-ins provide them a moment of reflection and an opportunity to share with you and build rapport.

The same approach can be used in a remote teaching and learning context. Below are four question sets for checking in with students and one set of “sentence starter” prompts, along with sample instructions. These questions can be used weekly, biweekly or even as a midterm student survey. Students can answer anonymously, and they can be used as part of a participation grade (note: anonymous surveys in Canvas will tell you who completes the survey but won’t tell you who shares what). If you offer a student survey to “mark the midpoint” of your course, discuss the results and possible course changes with your students.

At the very bottom is a file you can upload to Canvas with all the question sets (alternately, you can build a survey from scratch in Canvas and copy and paste the questions you want; an editable Word file with the questions is found here). These are just a few possible ways to check in with students. If you have any additional ideas to share, please leave them in the comments!

Sample Instructions

Hello,

I’d like to check in about our class and hope you’ll take a minute or two to share some quick insights about your learning experience this past week. In writing your answers, please be as specific as possible–this helps me identify areas for possible change or more clarification. My goal is to make adjustments as we move along, based on our collective experience in this remote teaching and learning environment.

Your responses are anonymous; Canvas will only know if you completed the survey or not. However, if you would like a personal reply or need to share something specific that I should know about your learning experience, please email me directly through Canvas or at my email address.

Thank you for you sharing!

Learning Experience – Option 1

1. What is helping you engage with others and learn in this class?
2. What do you find challenging about engaging with others and learning in this class?
3. Do you have any suggestions for how we can improve engagement and learning in this class?

Learning Experience – Option 2

1. What is helping you to learn in this class?
2. What are you doing to improve your learning in the class?
3. What changes are needed in this class to improve learning?
4. What do you need to do to improve your learning in this class?
5. Do you have any additional thoughts about the class you want to share?

Learning Experience – Option 3

1. What should we keep doing in the class?
2. What should we quit doing in the class?
3. What should we start doing in the class?

Learning Experience – Option 4

1. What did you get from class this week that helped you learn?
2. What do you still need to help you learn?

Content Learning Option

1. The most significant thing I learned in class this week is…
2. The thing I found most confusing in class this week is…
3. The one thing we learned this week I would like to know more about is…
4. A question about this week’s material I have is…

Import a Weekly Check-In Survey to your course.

– First, download the question sets above using this link (download entire Zip file) and remember where you save the file.
– Next, upload to Canvas by going to Settings in your Canvas course and select “Import Course Content” (either on the right or bottom of your window)
– Under “Import Content,” choose as the Content Type “Canvas Course Export Package”
– Choose “Browse” and retrieve the file you downloaded above (“Student Check In Surveys.zip”)
– Select “All Content”
– There are no due dates yet so no need select “Adjust events and due dates”
– Click Import. The check in surveys will all load into your course under “Quizzes” as unpublished content (look for “Weekly Check In – Option 1,” “Weekly Check In – Option 2” and so forth)
– Open the survey you want and then edit as needed for your course (you can mix and match questions or change or add questions as you want)

By Shawn Beard

Digital Learning has revolutionized the way teachers do business in education. Teachers now have the ability to communicate, plan, and teach more efficiently than ever before. One advancement that has allowed this type of change is Google Classroom.

If you’ve never used Classroom, here are eight things you probably didn’t know about this powerhouse tool.

More:20 Best Google Classroom Tips From Google Pros

1. Parent Notifications

Not only can you assign work, and provide feedback to your students through Google Classroom, but you can also keep parents in the loop. Just go to the Students menu on Google Classroom, and click the “Invite Guardians” link next to any student’s name to add their parent/guardian. Any email address will do—a Gmail account is not required.

Once added, parents/guardians will begin receiving email summaries outlining class activity, including missing work for their student, as well as upcoming work. Parents can choose to receive Daily or Weekly summaries. See a sample of an email summary here.

Once a parent/guardian email address is linked to a student, it is linked for the entire domain/district. Don’t want your class included in email summaries? You can opt out by turning the “Include this Class” switch off.

8 Student Blogs To Check Out People

See more info about how I use this feature in my Google Classroom blog post.

2. Schedule Posts Ahead of Time

Cybersmart education no vidseffective curriculum ideas. Google Classroom gives teachers the advantage of assigning work at any time. However, if you want to plan ahead, you can schedule posts (assignments, announcements, questions) to be released at specific times. This is great if you want to make sure students don’t take a quiz ahead of time.

To schedule ahead, set up your post the way you want it, then click the drop down menu next to the Assign button and choose Schedule. You can select the date and time you want your post to appear in the stream. So sit back, relax and set up your entire week of assignments on Sunday afternoon, or whenever you’d like!

3. Tag Your Posts by Adding Topics

Want to keep your semester or year on Google Classroom organized? Try adding topics to your posts. When creating a post, click the Add Topic button. You can create topics of your choice. Once created, they can be re-used. So you can organize posts by Chapter, Units, Themes, Topics, or by Assignment Type. The sky’s the limit!

More:10 Personalized Learning Apps for the Classroom

4. Manage Your Stream

Sometimes the stream can get too flooded, and it becomes difficult to scroll through everything to find the assignment you need. This can not only become frustrating for the teacher, but for the student as well. Google Classroom has a solution to help you manage the Stream.

Once you begin using Topics for posts in the stream, they’ll appear in a menu at the top left. Click on any topic to view only the items related to that topic. This makes it easier for students to quickly review what work they have completed, as well as any outstanding work.

Learn more in my blog post, Taming the Stream.

5. Individualize Instruction

Want to differentiate instruction for students by learning ability? Google Classroom gives you the ability to assign work to individuals. When creating a post, click the All Students drop down menu, and place a check next to each student you’d like to assign work to.

So if you need to differentiate by readiness, reading level, or if you’d like to create a learning mastery course allowing students to move at different paces, you can!

6. Ask a Question

Whether you’re looking for a bell-ringer activity, an exit ticket, or you’d just like to generate classroom discussion, Google Classroom has your solution. Just use the Create Question option when posting to the stream. If creating a discussion forum, choose Short Answer and apply settings to allow students to reply to each other. Want to poll the class? Choose multiple choice. When finished setting up your question, just click Ask!

8 Student Blogs To Check Outside

More: 6 Simple Ways to Use Google Classroom Questions Feature

7. Add a Co-Teacher

Do you have a Teacher Aide? Do you work in a cohort where you share students with another teacher? Add a Co-Teacher to your Google Classroom course. Just go to the About menu, and click Invite Teachers. Add your co-teacher and click Invite. The recipient will see a invitation the next time they login go Google Classroom.

Co-Teachers can do anything the teacher can do, except delete a class. Need to remove a Co-Teacher? Just click the menu in their profile box and click Remove. It’s that easy.

8 Student Blogs To Check Out Work

8. Reuse a Post

8 Student Blogs To Check Out Kids

Have you ever thrown something away and regretted it later? Maybe it was a lesson plan or project rubric that you needed next year. Never fear with Google Classroom. At the end of the school year, you can Archive courses and start fresh at the beginning of the next school year without worry.

Just choose the Reuse Post option. This post to the Stream allows you to Reuse any post from any class – current or archived – at any time. Just choose the class, choose the post, and then update the post to fit the needs of your current class!

Learn more here in my post, Back to School With Google Classroom.