Here are more organizational tips and tricks to stay sane.

Notifications
In general, it’s not a bad idea to turn off all notifications, all the time, for everything. Then, turn on only what you need, like Calendar event reminders, etc. One helpful notification is “late” work. I don’t take off any points for late work because #1…pandemic…and #2 that’s stupid anyway, but I definitely don’t need to be checking responses every hour, either. If a student gets around to something, I want to be notified, not go tracking them down…

My one assignment per week plan is due on Fridays, but some students will do it Sunday night, or Monday morning. Instead, I check again Monday afternoon, marking any missing assignments in the gradebook, then change the Form setting to be notified of new responses. Before the next Friday, I change the setting back again, unchecking notifications. Why switch back? Well, *most* students will do it by the Friday due date when I check the first time and I don’t need a hundred emails up front.

Google Classroom also has the same feature, which came in handy last week. During class, I was updating the gradebook in real time as students turned in a random class Read & Draw activity assignment. However, I could see that some students needed more time. So, I edited the assignment, setting the due date as the end of class, then changed the setting to get a notification when students got around to finishing it. I had other things to do, but could check in the work as students completed throughout the rest of the school day.