How to Create Your First Google Classroom

Wouldn’t it be great if you could organize assignments, resources, and grades for your students in a single location? Fortunately, Google for EDU listened intently to teacher needs and designed Google Classroom to do just that. It’s what I like to describe as the anti-LMS (learning management system) because it’s both simple and effective. Students have a single source of information for assignments, parents can see missing assignments and student progress, and educators are more easily able to manage digital assignments and communication.

Google Classroom makes teaching more efficient and meaningful by giving educators a hub for student assignments, boosting student collaboration, and fostering communication. Educators can create classes, distribute assignments, send individual feedback, and see everything in one place. Classroom also seamlessly integrates with other Google tools like Calendar, Google Docs, Slides, and Drive.

Signing into Classroom

Since we are talking about using Classroom with students, I am going to assume you are in a school or district that is using G Suite for Education. I am also going to assume you know your login information for Google that has been provided to you by your school or IT department. And finally, I am going to assume you will be logging into Classroom from an internet-connected desktop or computer. I recommend doing this before trying it on mobile or tablet. 

To sign into Classroom, go to classroom.google.com

Create a Class

As a teacher, one of the first things you’ll do in Classroom is create a class. In a class, you can assign work and post announcements to students. If you teach multiple classes (at the secondary level), then you would create a class for each section you teach. For this exercise, I’ll only have you create one class. 

To create your first class, follow the steps below:

1. Go to classroom.google.com and sign in.
   
2. Select the Teacher role
   
3. On the Classroom Home page, click the + symbol and then choose Create class
   
   
4. Give the class a title that is meaningful to you and your students

   

5. The following are optional, but may be relevant to your personal teaching situation:
   1. To enter a short description of your class, grade level, or class time, click Section and enter the details.
   2. To add a subject such as Algebra I, click Subject and enter a name or click one from the list that appears when you enter text.
   3. To enter the room location for the class, click Room and enter the details.
6. Click Create.

You will now see a class code displayed, but you won’t need that right now. We’ll come back to that at a later time when you are ready to invite students to your class. If you ever need to see the code, you can view it on the Stream page.

Congratulations! You have now created your first Google Classroom. You’re well on your way to using Google Classroom to support student learning. In the next post, you’ll learn how to add assignments and resources to your class before inviting students.

The video below walks you through this as well.