Co-Teaching in Google Classroom

That blows my mind to think about.

I’ve learned so much over the years, through experience spent in the classroom, but year thirteen was unlike any other. Never did I think I would be finishing out the school year teaching from my living room – during a global pandemic.  No amount of teaching experience could have prepared me for that – haha, and I think most others would agree.

The end of this school year also marks over ten years of being a special education co-teacher. Once again – MIND BLOWING. I can still remember how nervous I was entering the first classroom I’d be co-teaching in. Looking back, SO much has changed in the way I co-teach. 

During the 2017-2018, I began co-teaching with a teacher who used Google Classroom. I was familiar with Google Classroom – I used it in my classroom. However, I wasn’t familiar with it as a co-teacher. Here I was, nervous all over again, being added as the co-teacher to an already established Google Classroom.

It took some getting used to, like anything does, but I’m excited to share with you all that I’ve learned then – and all that I’m continuing to learn now!:) This is a lengthy post – I want to make sure I cover ALL THE THINGS that overwhelmed me at first as a co-teacher on Google Classroom. However, I will break it up into sections so you can scroll to find my help/advice on what might also be overwhelming you. 

Just like co-teaching in the physical classroom, the teacher I was co-teaching with and I talked about how we would handle Google Classroom.  Like I said, I was nervous and didn’t want to over step – but the general education teacher wanted me to be active on Google Classroom as much as she was. 

It was this year I became comfortable with the planning aspect of Google Classroom. It was nice to see assignments and announcements for the class in front of me on my computer. It also gave me time to e-mail any of my special education students and adapt their work if necessary. I could also easily check to see if my students submitted their assignments. It was a great tool to use – especially because I wasn’t in that teacher’s classroom all day. I could easily check-in on the class I was co-teaching in, from my desk! It was especially nice when I had my students coming to my classroom, during my Testing/Resource period, for help in this particular class.  We could both pull up Google Classroom on our computers and work through the assignments together. 

This remained the same the following 2017-2018 year. Everything was being taught in the physical classroom, but Google Classroom was still being used for assignments, projects, and daily notes were even uploaded. At the beginning of this school year I created a documentation sheet I could use to keep track of assignments, announcements, due dates, accommodations/modifications I made, questions asked, teacher responses, etc. This was really nice to have for parent/IEP meetings to show how students were doing in an inclusion setting, but it was also nice on the teachers end to just have in all documented. 

During the 2018-2019 school year, I took on the role as the special education co-teacher that would be included in my school district’s cyber school program. I had three special education students from my caseload roster, enrolled in this cyber program. I never saw this students unless they came in for meetings. They worked entirely from their homes. I went from being the co-teacher in one Google Classroom, to being the co-teacher in OVER TEN classes… while I was also still the co-teacher in the physical class I co-taught in… AND while I was still in charge of my seven Google Classroom for the classes I taught in my classroom. OVERWHELMED was an understatement. I was getting what felt like hundreds of e-mails (from Google Classroom) a day – teacher’s uploading assignments, teacher’s sharing announcements, student’s asking questions, student’s submitting assignments, etc. I NEEDED to tackle this first because I was missing important school related e-mails. 

Now, in Google Classroom settings I can control what e-mail notifications I get – but I found all of the notifications to be useful and I didn’t want to turn any off. I decided to make each Google Classroom a label in my school e-mail, and each of my caseload students enrolled in my school district’s cyber school program a label in my school e-mail. I’m not sure if those are the technical terms – haha – but it’s what I call it. All “label” means is that each time I received an e-mail from the teacher of that Google Classroom or the student on my caseload, it would automatically send to a different folder in my e-mail. I was still getting a few Google Classroom e-mails here and there in my regular inbox, but not nearly like I was before! It also made checking in on my students and different classrooms a lot easier, because I could just click on their labels in my school e-mail and see it all in front of me. 

Here’s an example of what I mean. I created a “Charley’s Classroom” label in my personal e-mail inbox:

1. First, I created the labels I needed. 

2. Then, as the e-mails rolled in I would check the box next to them and click on “More” (three dots) and then click on “Filter Messages Like These.”

3. Once I clicked “Create the Filter,” on the next page I would check the box “Apply the Label” and choose the label (that I already created) for these e-mails to filter to. 

4. Lastly, click “Create Filter” and repeat this process for the other e-mails you want to filter! 

Did I end up with a lot of labels in my school e-mail? Yes. However, I much rather have a list of classes and students to check going down the side of my inbox rather than being mixed all through my other important school emails. 

At first keeping it all organized was difficult for me. I was going from worrying about work in one co-taught Google Classroom to worrying about work in over ten co-taught Google Classrooms. I didn’t want to miss posted assignments, I didn’t want to miss due dates, I didn’t want to miss student questions, and I didn’t want 50,000 post-its all over my desk as reminders – haha. 

There are three ways I kept my Google Classrooms organized:

1.  In Google Classroom (on my computer) I moved the 10+ class squares around in an order that made sense to me. My caseload students enrolled in my district’s cyber school were in different grade levels, so I organized the classrooms by grade level. 

2. I still had Google Classrooms created for my students I taught in my physical classroom. I moved these class squares all to the bottom of my Google Classroom page, and made their headers match each other. I also moved the Google Classroom I physically co-taught in, to the bottom of my Google Classroom page.

3.  I made myself a binder for cyber school Google Classrooms. I needed all the information in one spot. I didn’t want it to get accidentally mixed in with work that was being completed in my physical classroom – because let’s be real, my desk can be a mess most days. Plus, I already had a Google Classroom documentation sheet I was using in my co-teaching binder, for the physical classroom, so I knew I needed something strictly for organizing my cyber school Google Classroom information. 

Here’s what I keep in my cyber school Google Classroom binder:

– Monthly Monitoring (keeping track of assignments/announcements posted, due dates, etc.)

– all Google Classroom cyber classes I was the co-teacher in (the title of the class & my students enrolled)

– Week at a Glance pages (a more detailed list of what needed to get done for the week)

– Assignment Tracking sheets (keeping track of assignments, due dates, accommodations made, etc.)

– Contact Log

– Google Classroom Student Info pages (enrollment date, list of all Google Classrooms, etc.)

– Progress Monitoring (math & ELA probes e-mailed home and completed probes I have printed)

Over the past few years, I’ve had to get a little creative on how I help my students succeed on Google Classroom. I just can’t walk over to their desk and offer help. But – just because I’m co-teaching through Google Classroom doesn’t mean I can’t meet the needs of my special education students. This is also why I keep a binder. I keep track of every modification and accommodation I make for my students. I take note of what works and what doesn’t. 

I take advantage of the private comments, to my special education students, on Google Classroom. In these comments I rephrase the directions, I will shorten assignments (or I might change the assignment completely), I will ask if further assistance is needed, I offer hints or suggestions, I leave positive feedback, etc. The other students in the class can’t see the comments I make. It’s been a great to use.

Private comments are also nice because I can make sure I address each student’s individual need. For example: Let’s say in ELA one of my students has a hard time answering comprehension questions. For this student I can privately comment and shorten the amount of questions to be answered from 20 to maybe 10. Another student in this same ELA class has a difficult time typing a two paragraph written response. For this student I can privately comment to only type a one paragraph response. The work still gets submitted to the teacher like all of the other students’ work. 

Something I have also found to work is commenting (to all the students on the Google Classroom roster) links to videos on YouTube, or other helpful sites. I know especially for novels my students love having the option of having it read to them – and to be honest sometimes I like having books read to me, too. That’s why I will post the link for all students. The same goes for math and science classes. If I can post a helpful video or website to help students succeed, I will. 

With all of the being said, I want to also say that me and the teacher I am co-teaching with do discuss how we modify and accommodate for my special education students. I don’t just change an assignment without mentioning it first. The teacher I am co-teaching with can see my private comments to students, and I can see the private comments the teacher I am co-teaching with makes to the student also. Honestly, there have been times that the teacher I am co-teaching with modifies an assignment before I do. Just like in the classroom, we work together as a team online. 

I keep track of all comments I make, assignments that are posted and any modifications/accommodations in my binder that I keep. This information is already time stamped within Google Classroom, I just like to also have this information at my finger tips. There have been quite a few times I have had to use this information during parent and teacher meetings. 

Two years ago, collecting progress monitoring for my special education students (in our cyber school program) on Google Classroom was no easy feat. It took a lot of frustrating trials and errors. However, after a few months, I found a system that worked best for me and my students. 

For these students I didn’t collect data/monitor their goals directly through Google Classroom. I tried, but it was hard collecting “weekly progress” or “bi-weekly progress,” when my students were sometimes working ahead on assignments or finishing assignments later than their due dates. 

After talking this over with my school’s LEA, as well as with my students’ parents, we decided I would collect data/progress via e-mail.  I was skeptical at first, but this honestly worked out very well.  I was able to monitor the weekly and bi-weekly goals much easier.  I chose Friday to be the day I did all of my e-mail/progress monitoring. For writing goals, I created a separate Google Doc each week, for each student with a writing goal. On the Google Doc I typed a writing prompt I wanted each of them to respond to. I shared each Google Doc with each student. Some students would re-share it with me once they completed it and some would e-mail me they completed it. Both ways worked. For the ones who never got in touch with me, I would check the shared Doc to see if it was completed.  If it wasn’t completed I simply documented this. I did the same method for collecting math progress and reading comprehension progress. However, instead of creating the probes/worksheets as a Google Doc, I created the probes/worksheets as Google Slides. I did this so my students could insert text boxes for their answers or even add circles to circle their answers. 

Using my binder I created, I kept track of each student’s goals I needed to monitor, when I needed to e-mail each student the probes/worksheets that needed to be complete, documentation of work not completed, and student progress. 

Once, the government shutdown happened and I was informed we’d be finishing the school year online, I had A LOT more student goals to monitor online. I ended up creating an interactive PDF to help me monitor their goals a lot more easier – from my living room. The first few weeks I had papers and sticky notes everywhere. I couldn’t continue like that – haha. 

What I’m about to share with you is nothing I have used before until just three short months ago. It was something I felt my students needed once March of 2020 came and everything about teaching changed. 

Once I became a co-teacher and regular teacher full-time via Google Classroom, during the government shutdown, I realized how much my non-cyber special education students relied on the help and materials they were provided with in my classroom and the co-taught classroom. I am happy they had the extra support school, but I felt almost defeated at first knowing I couldn’t give them the same support while they were learning from home. 

I thought about the materials/resources we use most in my classroom and the co-taught classroom that provided them with the extra support they need. I decided to turn the resources that I could into digital resources my students could use for online learning. I also decided to make an “Extra Help!” Google Classroom, to share all of these digital resources with them. I invited all of my caseload students to join this class, as well as any student who was not on my caseload roster but was in one of my classes. While in my classroom, my students love using my mini anchor charts. These were the first resource I made sure to turn digital for them.  Joining this class was not mandatory, but it did end up helping quite a few of my students.

Once the government shutdown happened, all special education teachers were added as co-teachers to their caseload students’ classes. So for this “Extra Help!” Google Classroom I created material to post that I felt would help my students best with what they were doing in my classes, and for what I could see they were doing in their other classes. I would post the material I shared under topics my students could easily find. Most times student would e-mail me directly for help on assignments, but sometimes students would leave a comment in the “Extra Help!” Google Classroom. I actually really liked they did this, because often times other students had the same questions – so it turned into discussions. 

For confidentiality reasons I can’t share a screen shot of my actual “Extra Help!” Google Classroom, so I created this example classroom below to give you all an idea. By the end of May I definitely felt like I was giving my students as much help as I possibly could be – given our situation. 

I hope I was able to provide some help/advice/in-sight when it comes to co-teaching in Google Classroom. I’ve linked below the products I use (and some that I even mentioned above) that have helped me co-teach in this way. Feel free to take a further look at them. I also want to add that my cyber Google Classroom binder is FULLY editable.

If you still have questions about co-teaching in Google Classroom, send me an e-mail! I DEFINITELY don’t know it all, but I’m always more than willing to help.  charleys.classroom13@gmail.com

Do you have any advice on co-teaching via Google Classroom that I (and other teacher’s reading this) should know about? Please, leave it in the comments below! I love learning and getting advice from other teachers!