I love using Google Classroom. In English class it is ideal for creating project templates with links to various resources; students refer to Classroom whenever they need a certain resource; and, essays are easy to grade with a student list of assignments for me to easily comment on and return with a grade. Since I’ve started using Classroom, in 2015 when my classroom went completely paperless (an upgrade from the half paperless the year before) I’ve been impressed with the continuous Classroom updates. One of my favourites being the schedule assignments feature. I feel like a bad ass teacher when work appears for my students even when I’m away at a conference or other school related event.
However, it’s not perfect.
Today, I was very grateful for my ongoing mindfulness training when I went to check my students’ assignments and found very few completed annotations for an article on ambition (we’re reading Macbeth). Even my honour roll students didn’t have their work completed. Isn’t February a bit too early for checking out? Even for seniors!? When I arrived in class, there was an uproar. Accusations started flying at me: “You changed the due date!” “No, look in Classroom”. “You just changed it!” Sigh.
After a deep breath I pulled up my empirical evidence. I’m not ashamed to admit to an error. But I wasn’t wrong this time! I had e-mails regarding my scheduled assignments (I had been away at a conference) and the due date showed up as Monday. And yet. My students showed me their e-mails. Their due date showed up as Tuesday! Furthermore, the Google Calendar connected to the Google Classroom sections showed (for some sections, not all) that the due date was Tuesday. WHY? While conceding to the technological gods that they had won this time around, I gave the students the extra day and started the search: why the discrepancy?
I soon discovered that there was no way to e-mail Google. Seems like an oxymoron. So I posted in a forum and I’m awaiting answers!
