Teaching in the classroom has proven to be difficult for teachers, especially when everything is being done manually. Going through so much stress can be very discouraging and could slow down the teaching process.
The technological world has made everything more accessible, and this world has come to stay. With the help and convenience of Google Classroom, you don’t have to go through stressful teaching moments.
Google Classroom is a free online tool that enables you to organize class events and materials, keep records, and communicate with students. All these are done in a digital process, with no paper involved. It involved using Google Docs, Google Meet, Google Slides, etc.
To make Google classroom more interesting, you need Chrome extensions. You can install these programs in the Chrome browser on your laptop/desktop. These extensions can be added to Google classroom to make it more effective.
This article has summarized the most suitable extensions for Google Classroom.
Before that, let’s get started with some important details.
5 Benefits of Using Google Classroom
Ensures collaboration and engagement
Google Classroom has made it easier for you to work smoothly with your students and engage them as well.
You could create an online group to facilitate discussions between you and your students. On Google docs, students can collaborate and make contributions to given projects.
An interactive and collaborative class ensures maximum productivity. As a teacher, you can share educative and creative videos with your students.
Including web pages in lessons and assigning work to your class is possible and easy on google classroom.
Saves time and energy
Working on a lot of students’ books and papers could exhaust both your time and energy.
Google Classroom provides you with an automatic and easy way of getting your work done without having to waste much of your time.
You won’t have to deal with excessive amounts of paper that consume time since everything is done digitally.
Necessary resources that could help you save more time and energy are made available on Google classroom. With more available time at hand, you could attend to another important task.
Moving from one place to another to get work done could be time-consuming too. Google Classroom made it possible for you to access your class anywhere and anytime.
Easy to access
Google Classroom is accessible to both students and teachers. You can easily access the classroom on your mobile devices or computer at any given time or place.
Your uploaded data or information is stored on Google Drive and will be made available to you anytime you need it.
You don’t have to worry about not having a digital device of your own; you can access the classroom on any other digital device at any location. Just make sure you have your account information.
Makes communication easy
Easy communication with students and parents is made possible by Google Classroom. You don’t have to go through the stress of arranging a physical meeting with parents. You could just pass any important message to them via email.
You can have a thorough discussion or share information with students without having to be physically present with them.
Provides exposure
Since Google classroom is an online platform, students will be exposed to the online system of education.
They could learn and understand better with this system. students can also be introduced to tools that can be used to improve their learning ability.
Importance of Using Chrome Extensions in Google Classroom
Google Classroom would be very effective with the integration of Chrome extensions. You can easily manage your student learning experience with the Classroom chrome extension.
These extensions help you to keep track of time, and it allows quick sharing of assignments, websites, and other resources with students.
The integration of Chrome extensions on Google classroom makes your life as a teacher and student much easier.
These extensions have free and paid versions. The paid version has more advanced features than the free one and they don’t cost much.
Now let’s get started with the excellent chrome extension for Google classroom
6 Best Chrome Extensions for Google Classroom
1. Mote
Mote is a chrome extension that enables you to add voice notes and vocal feedback to students’ documents, assignments, and notes.
Sending vocal feedback to students ensures more understanding than written feedback. When you do voice notes, you tend to explain better than when you type.
Mote could be integrated into Google docs, slides, and Google Classroom. Students can also make use of Mote to communicate with the teacher. They could reply to teachers’ notes and inform them that they understood or needed more help.
2. Grammarly
Grammarly is another wonderful chrome extension. It enables both teachers and students to correct any grammatical errors that occurred in their work.
When a word is wrongly spelled, Grammarly underlines it and makes corrections. It detects any grammatical errors that occur in your sentences and provides suitable suggestions to it.
With the Grammarly extension, you don’t have to worry about typing errors in your classroom. It simplifies and shortens complicated sentences and makes them easier to read and understand.
Grammarly has free and paid versions. The paid version has more advanced features.
3. Screencastify
This extension allows you to record your screen. You could record the data or information on your computer or smartphone screen for about five minutes at a time.
Your records will be automatically saved on your Google Drive, and they could be sent to your students as videos.
This is a great way to guide your student on a task—recording and showing them how it is done so they can refer to it when needed. Students can also share their screens with you so you can know if they are doing it right.
Try out Screencastify and quickly screen record lessons on the go.
4. Kami
This extension is best suitable for teachers who don’t want to make use of any paper. Kami extension allows you to upload PDFs from your desktop or Google Drive.
You could digitally edit the PDFs with the use of a virtual pen before saving them. These PDFs could be shared with your students.
This extension also allows you to set up a blank PDF which could be used as a virtual whiteboard for remote learning. It is a very useful system for Google classroom.
Try out Kami for free.
5. Random Student Generator
This extension is purposely built for Google classroom, and it enables teachers to randomly pick a student to answer questions.
When a question is posed in the virtual classroom, kami randomly picks any student to answer.
It is an unbiased way of getting answers from students. You don’t have to input any information as kami will work to pick out students at random.
It is unlike the physical class where you have to call or point out a student to answer a question.
6. Reactions for Google Meet
Reactions for Google Meet is one of the best extensions for remote learning instructions on Google Meet. It allows you to mute students and still get replies in the form of emojis.
Students use emojis such as thumbs up to show they are following and understanding you. You could get feedback from them during the lessons. This enables you to know how you are doing in your lessons.
Both you and your student need to have this extension installed for effective use. Using this extension is a very good way of eliminating unnecessary noise or chorus from your students. And you would still get feedback from them through reactions.
Final Thoughts
Google Classroom has made learning and teaching easy for both students and teachers. You don’t need to go through unnecessary stress to get schoolwork done. There is a lot to gain from using Google classroom.
And most importantly, with the integration of specific Chrome extensions, Google classroom can work more efficiently.
These Chrome extensions make the classroom work perfectly, enabling you and your students to work more efficiently and effectively.
If you are not making use of Google Classroom, it is not too late to start now and put an end to all your worries and stressful days. You could also check out our more extensive article on the best Chrome extensions for teachers.
And don’t forget that integrating the best Chrome extension in your Google classroom is important.