Google Classroom released an updated version this week just as many teachers head back into their own classrooms. The new updates are not a complete overhaul, but provide many new outstanding features for teachers, students, and now guardians!

For Teachers:

When creating a class, teachers can now designate a subject as well as a course name and subject. This will help teachers and students to better organize the Google Classroom home screen. Additionally, teachers can now designate posts with topics.  When a teacher creates a post in their stream and associates it with a topic, the posts can be organized and filtered.  This will allow for easy grouping and searching of posts in Classroom.

For Students:

When teachers ask polling questions with multiple choice options, students can now to see a summary of the results. This allows teachers to create quick response polls and then provide students with a chance to comment on the feedback. If a teacher does not want the results shared, then they can de-select the option while creating the question.

When using the Google Classroom iPad app, students now have the ability open files and annotate directly on them! As an example, a teacher could assign a primary source document to their students. The students would open the assignment on their iPad, select the annotate option, and then use the available pen features to markup the document. After the students finish their annotations, the file automatically converts to a PDF and attaches to the assignment in Classroom.

For Parents and Guardians:

Perhaps the largest update involves the summary of work notifications that parents and guardians can now receive. Teachers can invite guardians to join their class in Google Classroom by sending an email invitation to their Google account. It is important to note that the guardian must have a Google account to sign up. Once signed up, guardians will choose to receive either daily or weekly summaries of their student’s work. This will include, missing work, upcoming assigned work, and recent announcements.  Teachers will also have the ability to email all of their guardians directly from Google Classroom. The video below highlights many of these features.

These new updates allow for a more streamlined and integrated classroom workflow for teachers and students while providing parents and guardians with a view into what their students are doing in class!

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