Cleaning up your Digital Classroom

It's the end of the year and you're busy wrapping up the school year and preparing your classroom for the summer.  Keep in mind that there will be some digital classroom clean-up that you will also want to do at the end of the school year.  Starting with Google Classroom.

Cleaning up Google Classroom.
You will want to archive your classes at the end of the year.  This will make them disappear from student dashboards while also preserving them so you can re-use assignments next year. Here's how.

1. Login to Classroom.  classroom.google.com
2. Choose the meatballs on the classroom tile and select archive. 
3. Your class is now archived.

If you need to locate your archived classroom in the future it can be located by visiting the Google Classroom menu in the top left corner.  Scroll down to the bottom and you'll find a folder with all your archived classes. 

Cleaning Up Google Drive.

Your Hapara folders will automatically be archived for you during the summer. No action required from you. However, summer might be a time to create or refine your organizational structure. For many of my projects, I use folders that start off with 15-16 in their title. Over the summer, I will move these various project folders into a 2015-2016 School Year Folder and begin a 16-17 Folder naming convention. This is just one way to organize your Google Drive.

Color Code your Folders.

You can make your Google Drive resemble Spring and Summer by color-coding your Google Drive Folders. Within drive.google.com, right click on your desired color-coded folder and choose a color.

Star your Files or Folders.

If you have Google Drive Folders that are always in use, you might consider adding a star. The star acts as a filter and you'll be able to find your starred files and folders quickly by choosing the star.

To star a folder, right click the folder and choose Add star.  To star a file, you can do the same or if your file is open, you will notice next to the title a star that acts as a toggle.  

You can locate all your starred files, by clicking on the star filter in your Google Drive.

When the file is no longer important, just unstar it.

Place Files in Multiple Places.

Sometimes you may want the same file in several locations based on your organizational structure. You can do this in the Google environment and when you update the file in one location, it will automatically update it in all the locations.  Highlight the file and use the keyboard shortcut, SHIFT + Z, and choose the desired additional location for your file.

Upload Files into your Google Drive.

If you have files saved to your desktop on your teacher laptop, you will want to save those to your h:// drive or upload them to your Google Drive before your turn in your device at the end of the year for reimaging. The Google Drive Upload solution is simple. From your Google Drive, Choose New >  File or Folder Upload > navigate and select those desktop files or folders you wish to upload your drive > Open. Depending on the size and quantity of files you may have on your teacher desktop, this process may take several minutes. 

What are some of your favorite digital organization tips?