What do you do when you’d like to announce something to your class when you’re using one of the reliable online platforms today – Google Classroom?
In this digital age, knowledge sharing and communication have become easier than ever. This statement is true whether you are discussing the newest ways to teach your students effectively, communicating with other school personnel, or how to support your students in their online learning achievement.
Online learning provides various ways to keep students notified of important announcements. As teachers, it is our responsibility to keep our students informed on anything that concerns them, especially their education.
Interestingly, I’d like to share practical ways to use announcements in Google Classroom to further increase student engagement and performance in online learning.
This is a compelling feature of Google Classroom to encourage students to take action, participate, and interact.
Reaching your students through a platform they’re already using may seem like the easiest route, but sometimes it pays to keep them informed through other means as well.
Using Google Classroom as a reliable online learning platform gives us more advantages in facilitating remote learning.
That is why even though I’m not quite experienced with online teaching yet as I am used to face-to-face instruction in the classroom, I really set time to explore Google Classroom. It’s really worth the while.
Additionally, the announcement feature of Google Classroom really makes sense to me. It makes disseminating information easier and more fun.
I just love designing my announcements to catch the attention of my young learners. Furthermore, it’s one of the most enjoyable things to do other than my instructional delivery.
How Do I Create An Announcement?
Use the stream tab to connect with your classes quickly. Interestingly, this is a great aspect of Google Classroom where you can share updates easily with all your students.
In this feature, you can post announcements or ask questions to which students can respond in the comment section. It promises interaction and real communication with your students.
Note: Since students are allowed to make comments, you can remind them that everyone is able to read their comments and so they should use appropriate language. In other words, to really achieve your purpose, it’s necessary to establish rules and norms on how students should make comments and use Stream.
Basic steps:
- When you open Google Classroom, click on the class you want to share the announcement with. Automatically, you’re on stream. Just tap on the wall “Announce something for your class”.
- Then, choose your audience. Which class would you like to share the announcement with? It also gives you the best option of sharing updates with all your students or with selected students with whom you’d like to share the important piece.
- Moreover, to create informative and interactive announcements, you can also add resources from Google Drive, web links, and computer files. To get the best resources online, you can also grab relevant educational videos from YouTube. It’s super easy to do. And this is real announcing and sharing.
Essential tips:
Google Classroom stream gives you a couple of options to post your announcement immediately or schedule it for later or save the draft. One more thing that you’d like to do with Stream in Google Classroom is to highlight an important announcement by bringing it to the top. Just click the 3 little dots beside it and it will give you the options you need.
Also, to help you establish healthy conversations on the Stream, navigate to Google Classroom settings for great customization options. Go to General settings and change the settings of the Stream just like as shown in the image below.
Best of all, Google Classroom offers the opportunity to de-clutter the Stream section and make it more organized. Choose your most desired option under “Classwork on the Stream”. Click on the drop-down menu and choose the option that will only post major announcements. Doing this will make it easier for your students to navigate the Stream and read the main posts.
- Essentially, you can determine the settings you want so you can make announcements effectively. Don’t forget to click the “save” button at the topmost part of the screen.
- Above all, you can share your digital bulletin board in the Announcement or you can design simple ones on the Stream Wall. It’s also a creative way of greeting the seasons of the year to keep students excited and motivated.
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<<<Are you excited to usher in the fantastic spring? Here are our top 21 best spring bulletin ideas for teachers in 2021. Add them to your collection in the lovely springtime! Get fantastic ideas below.
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8 Best Ways to Use Announcements in Google Classroom
One of the best ways to reach your students during distance learning is to use the Stream on Google Classroom where you can build a community in online education.
Here are 8 practical ways to use Announcement in Google Classroom to increase student interaction and to help students to be at their best.
I hope through this piece you’ll notice how incredible this feature of Google Classroom is and how to maximize its use.
1. Introducing oneself
The beginning of the school year usually welcomes new faces and new personalities. As there can be a lot of “Getting to Know You” activities online but we can’t deny how useful the Stream page is in Google Classroom for this purpose.
First, post the announcement for self-introduction by including a bulleted list of instructions as to how it should be done. Moreover, you can also add a YouTube video about meeting new friends to best support this activity.
In this way, your students can enjoy commenting on the announcement by enumerating at least 3 of their likes and dislikes. It’s fun and exciting.
2. Welcoming students
One of the best ways to make students feel comfortable in class is by welcoming them nicely through an announcement. This can somehow lessen the feeling of anxiety during the first day of classes.
Set the right tone by including an inspiring quote in your announcement. Give your welcome thoughts and allow your students to welcome one another too by commenting on their welcome wishes.
3. Creating class jobs
One way to build community in the classroom is to make students responsible and encourage cooperation. Assigning class jobs in a virtual classroom are made more convenient by using different apps and online platforms.
Particularly, creating class jobs through announcements on the Stream page in Google Classroom makes the task handier for the teachers and more accessible for the students.
Incorporating classroom jobs in your virtual class is one way to make students feel that they matter and their help is needed for the overall success of the virtual classroom. For example, assigning an attendance monitor, fitness enthusiast, timekeeper, energizer manager, and many more tasks can make your virtual classroom more organized.
Most importantly, it always makes sense to teach students about responsibility and reliability. Let your students share some work to be done. Offer them opportunities to help you. It’s one great strategy for behavior management too.
4. Disseminating information and events
Regardless of teaching at a distance, it’s your responsibility to always disseminate important information and events to your students.
Although the process could be a lot different from in-person learning, giving announcements virtually is made easier through reliable online platforms. And, the Google Classroom is fully equipped for this aim.
The Stream Page of the Google Classroom can serve literally as your assistant in informing students of the week’s events or significant news.
Simply, just click Announcement on the Stream and type the information you want to share with your entire class or selected audience. You can also attach a file to your announcement to make it more comprehensive.
5. Celebrating birthdays
Aside from making announcements on the Stream Page, you can also make it as a greeting wall for celebrating birthdays.
Automatically, you can make it into a birthday wall where students can also present their birthday wishes. It’s an opportunity for them to express warm thoughts of love to their classmate who is celebrating his or her birthday.
Then, as their teacher, to make their days extra memorable, you can personally design a birthday card on Canva.
It’s very simple yet very meaningful to your students. Then, upload the Card in Portable Graphics format. Moreover, celebrating your student’s birthday even when you are in online learning strengthens your bond and fosters good relationships.
6. Announcing tasks, reminders, and learning goals
Another impressive use of Announcement in Google Classroom is sharing tasks, reminders, and learning goals with your students.
I know this may seem ordinary but at times we need to remind our students of their tasks and the things. This can keep them on track.
Usually, when I begin a new lesson, I would share the learning objectives following the KSA category (Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes) on the Announcement the day before the lesson is introduced.
In a way, my students are prepared to receive new concepts and content. Perhaps, they can make advanced research so they become more participative in the discussion.
7. Sharing food for thought
We need to establish good vibes and a proper mindset in the virtual classroom. Using the Announcement is my way of sharing food for thought or inspiring quotable quotes with my students.
Then, I ask them to express their thoughts and insights about meaningful lines by commenting. Thereby, my students are not only motivated and inspired but are also taught how to express their thoughts with confidence.
This most practical tip also helps to build communication in the virtual classroom. Moreover, students are given the best opportunity to interact. Indeed, this can make your class more engaging and exciting.
8. Classroom Routines
Here’s another impressive role of the announcement feature of Google Classroom. Aside from its perfect use in the learning process, it can also be a tool to disseminate job charts or routines.
Assign virtual jobs and at the same time teach responsibility. Also, by imposing job charts on the stream, you are building a classroom community which is extremely important for the success of online learning.
Just be creative in the digital space!
Being one of the productivity apps in education, especially in distance learning, Google Classroom can be used to post classroom routines on the class stream.
Job charts are imperative to encourage responsibility among students. The classroom routines serve as notices and reminders that all students are involved in different classroom activities.
To be more effective, require the students to turn on notifications, to be sure that they will be notified on time.
You can set a display image to your classroom routines so the students will appreciate their respective assignments even more. Just keep your Google classroom organized so you and your students won’t be confused especially on the stream page.
Just be concise with the job charts by assigning students specific roles. Keep it fair. If you’d want your students to just comment, then adjust the general settings so it is easy to navigate.
What’s with Google Classroom?
Google Classroom is designed to provide educators with a simple, effective way to keep students informed and engaged in the classroom. If a school uses Google Apps for Education, teachers can quickly post announcements and keep all of their students informed through announcements.
The messages will appear in all students’ personalized Classroom news feeds, allowing you to instantly inform your students about upcoming events, share important information, or remind them about an important due date or assignment. You can also choose to make your announcement visible or private.
To come to the point
Creating interactive digital presentations in the Googe Classroom makes your virtual class more engaging and attractive. The winsome tips mentioned above are perfect ideas to make your students more active in online learning.
I know that there are other reliable options of online platforms that can build a strong foundation for student communication. However, we can’t deny the dependability of Google Classroom being one.
Making use of Announcements in Google Classroom is one great way to increase student engagement in virtual learning. This is one of our best teaching tools to make the most of online education and create quality learning opportunities for our students.
Do you have additional ideas or ways to use Announcements in Google Classroom? Share them below.
