Tips about Zoom, Classroom, etc.

Zoom and Google Classroom are the most important websites we use nowadays for lessons and assignments. Because of this, it is important to understand how to uses services like these to their maximum efficiency. That being said, the purpose of this page is to provide general advice on how to most efficiently use these services for virtual learning.

Zoom

Zoom can be overwhelming and it's understandable if most people start to feel severely burnt out having to keep up with several meetings all in one day. Although I won't be able to completely erase the burnout, I can at least ease the fatigue with some tips. 

Bookmark your Zoom links

One of the oldest tools of the internet is still extremely useful. Bookmarking zoom links is the most efficient way of keeping track of all your Zoom links. Bookmarks can even be organized into folders and those folders can store other folders inside of them. You can even change the order of the bookmarks in the folder so it can match your school schedule, for example. 

*Make sure to bookmark other websites such as AP Classroom, eLearning, etc.

Screenshotting notes

It can be hard to keep up with Zoom meetings especially when notes are presented. Some teachers use presentations to teach new information that has to be written down or typed. It can be hard keeping up with the notes, one way I solve this issue is by simply screenshotting the notes. Saving notes like this allows you to keep up with the more involved Zoom meetings.

Google Classroom

This service should be familiar to a lot of students since it has been a part of most students' education for years. Before it was used semi-regularly with assignments popping up now and then but now it has been overloaded with assignments, announcements, files, etc. Struggling to keep track of assignments is to be expected since every class is now a part of Google Classroom. The advice I provide should help you keep track of your work more efficiently.

Check the "To-do" page regularly

The to-do page checks all that work that is assigned, missing, or done, and groups it based on when they are/were assigned. This feature is very useful on asynchronous days where teachers assign a lot of assignments all at once. On these days, I log in and go on the "to-do" page to see what work needs to get done. Sometimes teachers may forget to put a due date on an assignment and it may not show on the to-do page, the best way to solve this to add a private comment on that assignment to let the teacher know. Always advocate for yourself.

Google Drive

Here are some tips from Google Drive that might help with assignments:

• Files shared on Google Classroom are still accessible on Google Drive, find them with a simple search
• Pressing "File" on a Google Slides or Google Doc allows you to download it as a PowerPoint or Microsoft Word document
• On Google Docs: Ctrl + shift + c (Command + Shift + C on Mac) — Displays word count, you can choose to display the count while typing as well
  • Make sure to download Grammarly for spell checking!