I know I'm not the only one to use this method, but here's how I create highlighted answer blanks in Google Docs. This makes it easy to see their answers when you assign it as "Make a copy for each student" in Google Classroom.
Here's how it looks when they type in the box:
To create that box, I just insert a 1x1 table and then fill it with a light color. The animated GIF below shows the process.
Once you make one answer blank like this, you can select it, copy it and then paste it in each question in your Doc.
I've been running a virtual club about game design for some middle school students. The first post in the series is here.
Below I have the video I created for the third step in the game design process. In it I show students how to use my Game Idea Template to develop their ideas.
This week we started the virtual club
through Google Classroom!
I recently got the idea to run a virtual club at our middle school. I posted a survey on our website and let the students choose between three topics. Game design won out over a media production club and computer programming. We started the club this week.
Since most of my experience with game design has been with the non-digital variety, that has been our focus. The goal is to have them make a print-and-play game by the end of the school year.
I run the club through Google Classroom. In case anyone else would be interested in a similar venture, here is some of the content I have been sharing with the students.
I started out with my intro video below. As the it indicates, I think the first step in making games is to learn about as many games as possible. Normally we'd accomplish that by playing them together and discussing them.
Since we only meet online, I have been using videos from Tom Vasel's vast archive of game reviews to introduce them to new types of games. Tom does a great job of explaining the rules quickly and I very much appreciate that I can always trust his content to be appropriate for students.
Along with my video and Tom's reviews, I have posted some discussion questions in Classroom to get them thinking about what makes a good game. Soon I will get them started on generating ideas for their own games.
I also have contacted some game designer friends, all of whom have had more success than I have. I asked if they'd record a brief video answering questions that the students have. Some already got back with me, so I am excited to see how that works out. I know the students will appreciate their involvement.
Here's the intro video that I created. (As I mention in the video, it was early in the morning when I recorded it!) I'll also list the videos I posted to show the students new games.
Dice Tower Reviews from Tom Vasel that I have used so far:
In preparation for some training, I recorded this video showing what the teacher and student sees in Google Classroom*. It's really easy to adjust to Google's latest updates, but it especially helps to know what the students will see.
I like the changes on the students' side of the Assignment page. Now it's all one page (no more Instructions and Your Work). It also has only one button to Add any attachments now. It's quite streamlined and intuitive.
Here are the main parts of the video by time in case you want to jump to something in particular:
Setting up your Class 0:20
Adding yourself to a Class as a student 2:15
Adding an Assignment to a Class (including information on different types of attachments) 3:09
Opening the Assignment and completing it as a student 5:40
Accessing and grading the Assignment 9:25
How a returned assignment looks to the student 10:38
An overview of the other items a teacher can add to the Stream 11:20
*I also updated these tipsheets because of the recent changes:
These four tipsheets are about the most important pages in Google Classroom, each from the teacher's side of things. The most common tasks I'm asked about and the most overlooked options are marked with stars.
I am sharing them as Google Drawings so you can copy and modify them as necessary. You can easily download them as PDFs or image files if necessary.
I made this one-page tipsheet for a training session I'm doing next week. (Luckily it had nothing to do with the changes Google rolled out this week. Gotta love surprise updates when preparing training!)
Classroom gives teachers three ways to share documents from Drive. This tipsheet answers a few questions about each method. For example:
Which method is best for your particular assignment?
If the teacher changes their copy of the document will the changes show up for students?
Where do students find the document?
You can find the tipsheet here. Feel free to copy and edit it, but please keep the link to my blog that's included on the bottom of the page.
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