Category: Google Classroom

Google Classroom: How to Reply to Private Comments from Gmail.

Private comments in Google Classroom are a wonderful thing. If a student has a question about a particular assignment they are able to send a comment privately to their teacher. Awesome. When teacher sees the questions they can type a comment back. It’s cool to be able to see all the questions or comments a student has for a particular assignment in one place. It’s even cooler that teachers get a notification by Gmail when a student add a private comment to an assignment. What’s not to love?

Well, you might feel differently if you tried to reply to the notification just like your other Gmail messages. To respond to a private comment within Gmail you need to click the REPLY button within the message. If you use the regular reply arrow your response will never get to your student because the message sent to you was not from the student’s Gmail. A closer look will tell you that the message is from a no reply Google Classroom address.

Email screen shot showing the automated Gmail and REPLY button users should click.
You can’t reply to this Gmail the way you usually do.
Your student will never get your comment.

So, to use the Google awesomeness you need to click the blue REPLY button rather than the reply arrow in regular email.

Don't use the reply arrow in Gmail.

Where in the World Can You Find Over 100 Historical Maps? Google Earth, Of Course.

I enjoy maps, always have. Maps tell us where to go and where we’ve been. I also enjoy history, it’s kind of hard to teach 20 years of social studies without developing an affinity. Now comes the good part, Google Earth Voyager is now showcasing a new interactive tour with over 100 historical maps and overlays hand-selected by David Rumsey from his private collection of over 150,000 maps. Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

Maps are organized by time, place and scale. When selected, the maps appear as an overlay on Google’s 3D globe.

Like a growing number of Google Voyager offerings, this one has embedded information and multimedia. Be sure not to miss the excellent embedded video on the origins of David Rumsey’s map collection and the importance of maps. This entire tour has something for nearly every grade level which makes it a reference worth bookmarking.

Let me know what you think of this collection.

EdPuzzle and Google Classroom

I wanted to share with you an exciting discovery of mine regarding EdPuzzle and Google Classroom.

EdPuzzle is a tool that lets you assign videos to your students. Not just any videos but videos that you can trim and add your own questions and comments to. If you are not yet using it, it’s worth a look.

Google Drive is part of Google Apps for Education that allows for smooth communication between teacher and student as well as streamlining the distribution of assignments and activities.

Recently I found that EdPuzzle makes creating a classroom a snap if you already have students in Google Classroom. That magic happens with the “Import from Google Classroom” button. Select an existing class or Add class and then “Import”. Sweet.