With the distribution of the new chromebooks to freshmen and sophomores, many teachers have started turning to Google Classroom to post assignments and announcements for their classes. This program allows teachers to communicate with all of their classes in an easy and organized fashion.

By using Google Classroom, Amador is also helping the environment by using less paper.

 “I think it’s great for the environment because everything is online, which saves hundreds of sheets of paper. But, while it does reduce paper, it also affects the screen time for the average student, which may not be an environmental effect, but it’s still a huge impact,” said Trisha Khattar (‘21).

Google Classroom was released in 2014 and since then, has been used by teachers all over the country, but there are some teachers at Amador who are just trying it out for the first time. So far, they have found it to be easy to use amongst classes.

“[Google Classroom] is very simple in what it can do, but those few things it does do, it does well. It can work multiple classes simultaneously, as far as creating assignments and has some security. Right now, [I use it] for the occasional announcement, but mostly for homework,” said English Teacher, John Benbenek.

Other teachers have been using it as a resource for the past few years and have found some benefits as well as some drawbacks, which have led them to turn to other sites that are similar to Google Classroom.

“With a couple of my classes, I’ve switched to this [site] called Piazza, which does essentially the same thing, but it’s a little more organized. What I like about it is that there’s a way for students to ask questions and people can answer each other’s questions. In Google Classroom students can only comment on my post, but on Piazza they can create their own, they can create a poll, and they have an equation editor, so if they wanted to say, ‘I had a question on this problem,’ they can actually put the problem in there using the equation editor,” said Math Teacher, Charles Snyder.

Overall, students like how Google Classroom is easy to access and the ability to complete assignments and then turn them in online.

“I like that it’s online, that you can access it from anywhere, and that teachers can use it to effectively communicate with their students in a way that assures everyone receives it. However, I don’t think that teachers should use it as a substitute for themselves,” said Khattar (‘21).

Another concern that students have is that not all teachers use it, so it’s sometimes inconvenient to go between sites to check class information.

“I like how all teachers can be in one place, so that you can access them all, except some teachers don’t use it. If all teachers used it, then it would make things easier or more accessible,” said Sloane Frye (‘19).

It’s safe to say that Amador doesn’t exactly “love” Google Classroom, but as the year goes on and more teachers start to use it, opinions may change.