Google Classroom: The central hub to manage, distribute, and grade classwork in one place.

🔍 What does it do?

Google Classroom is a free web-based platform that brings all your teaching materials together. It replaces the traditional “paper trail” by allowing you to post announcements, set assignments, and collect work digitally. It automatically organises your files into folders in Google Drive, making it impossible for students to “lose” their homework. In Falkirk Google Classroom is used as a Virtual Learning Environment which is a digital extension of the physical classroom.

🎓 Why is it useful?

• Centralised Communication: Use the Stream to post daily agendas, reminders, or discussion prompts. It keeps your class informed without cluttering their inbox.

• Paperless Workflow: When you create an assignment, you can choose to “Make a copy for each student.” This automatically gives every pupil their own Doc or Slide to work on – no more photocopying!

• Real-time Feedback: You can see student work as they are doing it. You don’t have to wait for them to “hand it in” to leave a helpful comment or nudge them in the right direction.

• Streamlined Grading: The Grades tab gives you a birds-eye view of who has submitted work, what is missing, and how the class is performing overall.

⚙️ How does it work?

1. Launch: Open the Google Classroom app on your iPad or login to Google Classroom on your internet browser.

2. Sign In: Use your Glow email (e.g., gw15smithjohn@fa.glow.scot) and use your normal Glow password.

3. Create a Class: Tap the ‘+’ icon and select ‘Create class.’ Give it a name like “P6 2025/2026” or “Mr F – S2 Science.”

4. Invite Students: Share the unique Class Code with your pupils. They enter this code on their iPads to join instantly.

5. Create Assignments: Tap the ‘Classwork’ tab and then the ‘+’ icon. Choose between Assignment, Quiz, Question, or Material.

 

🚀 Beyond the Basics

• Discussion Forums: Use the ‘Question’ tool to post a debate topic (e.g., “Should school uniforms be banned?”). Students can post their answers and – if you enable the setting – reply to their classmates’ points.

• Exit Tickets: At the end of a lesson, post a quick Google Form as a ‘Quiz Assignment.’ Classroom will automatically show you which pupils grasped the concept and who needs more help tomorrow.

• Multimedia Resources: Use the ‘Material’ type to post a “Choice Board.” You can attach a YouTube video, a website link, and a Google Doc, allowing pupils to choose how they want to research the topic.

• Private Check-ins: When students submit an assignment, they can add a ‘Private Comment.’ This is a safe space for them to tell you if they found the work hard or if they are proud of what they achieved.

• Individualised Assignments: You don’t have to send every assignment to the whole class. Use the ‘All Students’ dropdown to select specific pupils for differentiated tasks or extension work.

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💡 Top Tips for Google Classroom

• The Comment Bank: Save time when marking! You can create a “Bank” of your most common feedback (e.g., “Great use of adjectives!”) and pull them into any student’s work with just a few taps.

• Scheduled Posts: You don’t have to post your work in real time. Use the ‘Schedule’ feature to prepare your whole week’s lessons in advance; they will appear for students exactly when you want them to.

• Reuse Post: Don’t reinvent the wheel. If you have a great lesson from last year, use the ‘Reuse post’ feature to pull it into your new class, including all the attachments and instructions.

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🔗 Teacher Quick Links

Get Started with Google Classroom for Students – iPad

Get Started with Google Classroom for Students – Latop/PC

A Guide to Google Classroom on Your Connected Falkirk Device

Google Classroom 101 for Teachers

Google Sites: Pull your classroom resources, school event or project information together into one secure, professional website.

 

🔍 What does it do?

Google Sites is a drag-and-drop website builder. It allows teachers and pupils to create “internal” websites that can only be seen by people with a Glow login or external facing websites easily. 

 

🎓 Why is it useful for Glow users?

• Centralised Learning: Instead of pupils searching through Google Drive or Classroom for five different links, you can give them one “Site” URL that contains everything they need for a specific unit or project.

• Instant Embedding: You can “embed” a Google Doc or Slide directly onto the page. If you update the Doc in your Drive, it automatically updates on the website – no re-uploading required.

• Student Ownership: It is an incredible tool for Digital Portfolios. Pupils can create their own sites to showcase their best work across the year, choosing their own themes and layouts.

• Safe Publishing: By default, sites created in Glow are private. You choose whether to keep it visible only to you, your class, or the whole school community.

 

⚙️ How does it work?

1. Launch: Open Safari on your iPad and go to sites.google.com.

2. Request Desktop View: Tap the ‘AA’ icon in the Safari address bar and select ‘Request Desktop Website’ to unlock the full editor.

3. Create: Tap the ‘+’ icon to start a new site. Choose a Theme from the right-hand menu to set your colors and fonts.

4. Add Content: Use the ‘Insert’ menu to drag in text boxes, images, or “Layouts” (which are pre-made grids for photos and text).

5. Publish: Tap the blue ‘Publish’ button. Give your site a name (e.g., “Room4-Vikings”) and check your privacy settings to check who can see it.

 

🚀 Beyond the Basics

• Class News Site: Set up a “Class Newspaper” site. Assign different pupils to be “Editors” for different pages (e.g., Sports, Book Reviews, School News). They can type their articles directly into the site.

• Maths Help Hub: Create a site filled with “How-to” videos and links to interactive maths games. Embed a Google Form at the bottom of the page where pupils can submit “Question of the Day” answers.

• Unit Dashboard: For a topic like “Space,” create a page for each planet. Embed your class Slides presentation on the first page and a Shared Drive folder on the last page for pupils to download experiment templates.

• Virtual Classroom: Create a “Calm Zone” site. Embed a Spotify or YouTube playlist of relaxing music, a Google Doc with mindful colouring templates, and a “Check-in” Form for pupils to share their feelings.

• Visual Choice Boards: Use large, clear images as “Buttons.” Link each image to a different activity or website. This helps pupils who struggle with heavy text to navigate their learning independently.

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💡 Top Tips for Google Sites

• Data Protection: Remember you should not use any personal sensitive information or non-public data in Glow, including in Google Sites! 

• Layouts are your friend: Don’t struggle with moving text boxes manually. Use the pre-set ‘Content Blocks’ in the Insert menu to keep your site looking neat and professional on both iPads and phones.

• Version History: If a pupil accidentally deletes a whole page of work, don’t panic! Tap the ‘three dots’ menu at the top and select ‘Version History’ to restore the site to how it looked yesterday.

• Preview Mode: Before you publish, tap the ‘Preview’ icon (it looks like a laptop and phone). This lets you see exactly how the site will look to a pupil using a mobile phone versus a tablet.

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🔗 Teacher Quick Links

How to Use Google Sites

Google Drive, your digital filing cabinet: store, organise, and share your learning from any device.

🔍 What does it do?

Google Drive is a cloud-based storage service. It is where all your Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets are automatically saved. It also allows you to upload photos, videos, and PDFs. Because it is part of Glow, everything is saved “in the cloud,” meaning you can start a project on a school iPad and finish it on any other device.

🎓 Why is it useful?

• Automatic Backup: There is no “Save” button in Google apps. Everything you do is instantly backed up to Google Drive. You never have to worry about losing work if an iPad runs out of battery or your computer shuts down unexpectedly.

• Paperless Scanning: Use the iPad camera to scan physical worksheets or hand-drawn posters directly into Drive as high-quality PDFs.

• Search Mastery: Drive has a powerful search bar. You can search for a keyword (like “Vikings”) and it will find that word even if it’s buried inside a PDF or a handwritten note you scanned.

⚙️ How does it work?

1. Launch: Open the Google Drive app on your iPad or login to Google Drive on your internet browser.

2. Sign In: Use your Glow email (e.g., gw15smithjohn@fa.glow.scot) and use your normal Glow password.

3. The ‘+’ Button: Tap the colorful ‘+’ icon to create new folders, upload photos from your library, or start a new Google Doc/Slide.

4. Organising: Tap and hold a file to move it into a folder. Use the ‘Star’ icon for files you need to find quickly every day.

5. Sharing: Tap the ‘three dots’ next to a file and select ‘Share.’ to share files and folders with other Glow Google Workspace users

 

🚀 Beyond the Basics

• Digital Portfolios: Create a folder named “Writing Portfolio.” At the end of every unit, upload your best piece of work. By the end of the year, you have a visual record of how much your writing has improved.

• Observation Logs: If you are doing an experiment, take a photo or short video each day. Save them in a specific Drive folder to create a “Time-lapse” record of your results. Once you have all the images, you can use Slides, Docs or Sheets to create a report.

• Scanning Sketches: Use the ‘Scan’ feature (tap + in the bottom right hand corner of the iPad add then choose Scan document) to digitise your physical drawings. This makes it easy to put your artwork into a Google Slide later.

• Offline Mode: If you don’t have Wi-Fi at home, tap the ‘three dots’ on your important files and select ‘Available offline.’ You can keep working on the bus or at home, and it will sync when you get back to an internet connection.

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💡 Top Tips for Google Drive

• Shared with me: This tab can get messy! If someone shares a file with you, don’t just leave it there. Tap the ‘three dots’ and select ‘Add shortcut to Drive’ to put it in one of your own organised folders.

• Naming Files: Always name your files clearly (e.g., “Maths_Fractions_Jan19”). If you leave them as “Untitled,” you may have trouble finding them again.

• Trash: If you delete a file by mistake, it stays in the ‘Trash’ for 30 days. Tap the menu (three lines) in the top left to find it and restore your work.

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🔗 Teacher Quick Links

How to Use Google Drive – iPad

How to User Google Drive – Laptop/PC

Google Forms: Create surveys, self-marking quizzes, and exit tickets in minutes.

 

🔍 What does it do?

Google Forms is a web-based tool used to create digital forms. Whether you need to collect evidence of learning, create a quick “Exit Ticket” at the end of a lesson, or build a complex end-of-topic test, Forms handles the collection and organisation of that data automatically.

 

🎓 Why is it useful?

• Instant Data Visualisation: As soon as a pupil submits a form, their response is added to a “Summary” tab. Forms automatically creates bar charts and pie charts, allowing you to see class-wide trends at a glance.

• Self-Marking Quizzes: You can set “Correct Answers” and “Point Values.” Once a pupil finishes, they can see their score immediately, and you get a pre-marked gradebook.

• Seamless Integration with Sheets: With one tap, you can export every single response into a Google Sheet for more detailed analysis or to use as a class register.

• Secure and Controlled: You can restrict your form so that only users with a Glow account can respond, ensuring the data you collect stays within your school community.

 

⚙️ How does it work?

1. Launch: Open Safari on your iPad and go to forms.google.com.

2. Sign In: Use your Glow email (e.g., gw15smithjohn@fa.glow.scot) and use your normal Glow password.

3. Create: Tap the ‘Blank form’ icon or use the ‘+’ button. Give your form a title and description.

4. Add Questions: Tap the ‘+’ icon in the floating sidebar to add a question. Use the dropdown to choose from Multiple Choice, Short Answer, Checkboxes, or Linear Scales. Add other types of content to your Google Form using the floating sidebar, including video – pssst, if you use a video from YouTube there will be no adverts!

5. Classroom: If using Forms with Google Classroom you can directly create an assignment that is based in Forms by going to ‘classwork’ > ‘+create’ >  ‘quiz assignment’. From there a blank form will be added, click on the Form within the post to add to/change your Form. You can use an existing Form by deleting the blank Form and using the ‘upload’ button to upload a pre-made Form instead. 

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🚀 Beyond the Basics

• Reading Comprehension: Create a quiz based on a class novel. Use ‘Section Breaks’ to separate different chapters, and add an image of a specific page for pupils to analyse.

• Daily Mental Maths: Build a 10-question multiple-choice quiz. Enable the ‘Shuffle question order’ setting in the ‘Settings’ tab so that pupils sitting next to each other have their questions in a different order.

• Observation Logs: If pupils are doing a long-term experiment (like growing a plant), they can use a Form as a daily log. They can enter the date, height, and a brief observation, creating a perfect data set for Google Sheets later.

• Mood Check-ins: Start the day with a 1-question “How are you feeling?” form. Use the ‘Linear Scale’ (1-5) to let pupils discreetly share their wellbeing with you.

• Adding Media: Use the ‘Add Video’ icon to embed a YouTube clip (e.g., a short historical documentary). Pupils watch the video and then answer questions below it, supporting those who find heavy text challenging.

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💡 Top Tips for the Google Forms

• Make it a Quiz: Go to the ‘Settings’ tab and toggle on ‘Make this a quiz.’ This unlocks the “Answer Key” feature where you can assign points and provide instant feedback for correct/incorrect answers.

• Required Questions: Use the ‘Required’ toggle at the bottom of a question to ensure pupils don’t accidentally skip a task before submitting.

• Response Validation: For “Short Answer” questions, you can set rules (e.g., “The answer must be a number”). This prevents pupils from typing text where you need a numeric value for your data.

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🔗 Teacher Quick Links

How to Use Google Forms