Organizing your Google Drive

First, to keep things organized:

Google Drive is a great tool for staying organized, but with lots and lots and lots of content, sometimes things get misplaced. Here are some tips for using Google Drive to its utmost.

1. Use folders
Try to house your files in folders, rather than just “My Drive”. You can make folder structures that are very deep to stay organized. If you want your files to be in a specific order, add a number prefix or a symbol to move them to the top of your list. You can select multiple files with the “ctrl” key or drag and drop files.

2. Name your files carefully
Be detailed and specific with your file names, especially files you expect to share. You can use special characters to draw attention to special files, or use [template] for documents you copy frequently. *Add a star to documents you use all the time.

3. Color code your folders. 
Right-clicking on your folders in Google Drive gives you the option to change a folder's color. That visual cue can make it much easier to find a folder within a list.

4. Share folders instead of just documents
For shared work, try shared folders instead of just shared documents. Then there’s no need to remember everyone in the group, or add new members to a number of documents -- the folder does the work for you.
It’s also possible to share folders as "view only." You can make any file within the folder editable, but sharing as “view only” keeps everything from being editable by default.

5. Use shift + z to add files to a folder
If you want to add a file to the shared folder AND keep it in your files, use "shift + z." Use this shortcut to ADD a file in multiple folders (not copies of a document, the actual document). Now you can keep files organized using your personal system AND put it in a shared folder (sadly, this doesn't work in a Team Drive).

6. Don't ever look at Shared With Me
If someone shares something with you that you plan to use again, choose the "Add to My Drive" option and then organize it in a way that makes sense to you. Especially for Google Classroom users, Shared with Me is overflowing with documents that you may or may not ever need. If you need it, keep it in My Drive and don't ever look for things in Shared with Me.


** If you are doing a lot of sharing, think about a Team Drive. With Team Drive, the team owns the files, not a person (important when team members leave) and it's another way to keep specific documents and folders organized for a specific purpose. **


When you are trying to find something specific, use Recent or Starred to help. Although a deep file structure is great for understanding where things are, there's no need to click through ten folders to find a document you use frequently, or just edited. Recent and Starred help with that.

If you are trying to find a non-Google doc through Backup & Sync, or File Stream, you can also search using the browser version (and then use Locate in My Drive).

Finally, right-clicking on any folder in Google Drive gives you the option to search within just that folder.

You can do it!

Changes to Google Classroom

Google Classroom has made some updates! There are a few things to get used to, but overall these are functional improvements that make Classroom even easier. 

New CLASSWORK tab
Here's where most of the action happens. From the Classwork tab you can create an Assignment or a Question, make a new Topic or add Material, or reuse a Post from a different class. You can also now use a "move up" or "move down" feature for topics and assignments. 

NOTE: When you assign something to a topic, it will appear with that topic; uncategorized posts appear at the top. If you want to see the most recent posts, go to the STREAM tab.

The STREAM tab is just that -- a stream of announcements, student posts (if possible) and replies. There aren't any topics, just posts in chronological order. CLASSWORK is the place for organization, but STREAM can make sure you don't miss anything.


The PEOPLE tab is also more logical. Here's where to add teachers, invite parents, and manage individual students (contact, mute, etc.). The only thing that feels missing from here is the class code, which can be found under SETTINGS.



The SETTINGS feature makes better sense too. By clicking the gear icon in the upper right corner, you can see the class code, the details of the class, the permissions for the class stream and for viewing deleted items, and how parent/guardian summaries are structured. 



Sadly, the ABOUT page has gone away, but in its place we got the Material option on the Classword tab! So if you want to post your syllabus or other kind of resource, you can post it as Material either in the topic where it belongs or with a topic like "Class Resources". Another option is to post a link to a shared folder full of documents, or a document with links to those same resources. All different ways to get to the same end. 


One last BIG update is to the grading features. You are now much more easily able to:

• switch between students
• switch between multiple files submitted by one student
• re-use commonly-needed comments through the comment bank
• add a private comment to a student while you are grading

Everything can now be done in the window where you are doing the actual grading -- a much more streamlined process. 

 

Finally, Google has recognized all the work you've put into your Google Classrooms of the past and given us the ability to copy an entire Classroom! From the three-dots menu, COPY is now an option, which will duplicate everything you've done in a prior class, but in draft format, so you can modify and publish as needed.