A few days ago, my colleague, Ann Feldmann shared on our community a gClassFolder Tutorial created by @mickie_mueller. I was anxious to watch the video, but a little hesitant on what I was going to discover. Google Drive with my students has always been a love, hate relationship. The organization piece has always been a struggle. I had no idea that by watching this tutorial I was going to hit the JACKPOT!
I currently work in a GAFE district and have 1:1 iPads in my classroom. My students are continually creating and sharing their learning through a variety of apps. They then take these creations and save them to their Drive. I love the accessibility Drive gives them especially the fact that they can open their Drive at school or at home. Their learning is always at their fingertips because of Google Drive.
In a perfect world, my students would be able to manage their Drive without any difficulty; but this isn't a perfect world, and my students aren't quite there yet. One of the bumps in the road I often face is helping my students organize their Drive so they can share their work in a seemingly flawless way. It seems like every few month,s I have to go through the headache of taking my students into the computer lab and helping them re-organize, re-label, and re-share a variety of folders and docs in their Drive.
The headache usually starts to form when I have 19 different 4th graders asking how to spell something or what button to push or claiming they accidentally deleted something or that they forgot my email address. At this point I begin to ask myself if my somewhat paperless classroom is worth it. But then we head back into the classroom with our organized Drives and the workflow on the iPads are flawless. So I think to myself, if only there was a way for me organize their Drives with a few clicks.
Well, my "if only" has been answered! gClassFolders literally made my jaw drop when I realized what it would do for my students and I. Seriously, where has this been all of my GAFE life. Within 10 minutes I had folders created for every subject that included shared with me, edit and view. All of the folder were organized in my Drive according to subject and on a spreadsheet that had a link for each student's individual folder. And the best parts, (keep in mind I am a 4th grade teacher) everything is spelled correctly and put in alphabetical order! So yes, my nerdy, organization freak self has been having a day of celebration. For those of you who already know about gClassFolders, share the love of knowledge with others. For those organization crazies like myself, gClassFolders might just be your new best friend. Thanks Ann for sharing!
Hey Sharae! Thanks for the shoutout. Glad you liked my gClassFolders tutorial. I think that script probably is one of the coolest things ever developed for GAFE. Makes everything so easy. And while I think older students (JH, HS) should probably create their own folders, this is perfect for your students. I'm with you--it would make me crazy if one kid didn't spell something right!
ReplyDeleteHi Sharae! So glad you used gClassFolders scipt! Makes you feel like you have a full days work completed, in only a few clicks! I know what a challenge it is for students to get everything typed correctly. What a time and head ache saver. I also love how it stores everything so neat and tidy in your Google Drive! I love how scripts save time and automate tedious tasks! Great post! Thanks for sharing!
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