Every year is a new opportunity to be better than you were last year. This is one of the advantages to teaching, unlike any other profession we get a fresh start every year. The kids from last year are not the same as the kids from this year. The technology possibilities are different. New research has emerged to help us to teach students better. We’ve interacted with other educators and stolen new ideas. We’ve reflected on our own practices and have new ideas. Do not just reuse a class, REVISE!
I’ve created an Add-on script to allow you to review all of your assignments from a class in a single list. This is super handy for helping you plan for next year. What do you want to keep? What do you want to redo? Update? Ditch? Do you want to teach it in a different order? See below for directions on the Add-on.
Note: I have a newer template version alicekeeler.com/reusegc that you might like better.
My teacher credential program warned us not to be “filing cabinet guy” who has all their work photocopied and ready to go before the kids even walk in the door. Are we distributing information or teaching and interacting with kids? The new group of kids we will see in the Fall SHOULD influence changes in our lesson plans.
[tweet]Don’t be filing cabinet guy[/tweet]
Dr. Fred Nelson at California State University Fresno teaches in Kremen School of Education. One thing he emphasizes is the importance of getting to know your students first thing so you can use that information to design and guide your lessons for the year.
[tweet]WARNING: Copying classes in Google Classroom will make a giant mess of your Google Drive and turn you into Filing Cabinet Guy![/tweet]
On the class tiles page of Google Classroom is the ability to click on the 3 dots of a class and choose “Copy.” What it does not come with is a warning that it will not only copy all of your assignments, it will copy all of the “attachments.” “Attachments” are links from Google Drive. Copying “attachments” will copy your screenshots, copy your directions documents, copy your videos, copy your collaborative documents that are typed on by last years students, copy your templates…. YIKES!
Copies kill collaboration!
When you search Google Drive for a file from last year, how many copies of the directions document do you want? NONE! You only want the original. If you make edits to the document from 1st period you want 2nd, 3rd, 4th periods to also get the edits. This is the beauty of Google Apps! ONE VERSION, everyone on the same page.
While it can seem tedious to reuse your assignments from last year one at a time, it makes you a better teacher. In the new class, on the Classwork page, click on “Create” and choose “Reuse post.” 
Select an assignment from last year’s class, even if it’s archived, and remember NO COPIES! 
When the reused post comes up you it opens up in edit mode! THIS IS AMAZING! With other online platforms I always had the intention of updating the assignments but push comes to shove I often did not. With Google Classroom I have to at least for a moment consider… is this assignment designed for THIS year’s students? Could it be better? (Trick question, the answer to that is DUH. No matter how awesome it was it can always be better.) 
When planning for the new class it can be helpful to reflect on what you assigned last time. Think through how you want to reorder and what you want to change. Of course you would want a spreadsheet for this! The Add-on script will allow you to create a list of all the assignments from last years class and you can add a column to make notes. Review the assignment. Think through the redesign.
Create a copy of the spreadsheet template. Wait for the “List Classes” menu to load. This can take up to a minute depending on internet speed.
Choose “List” from the drop down menu. You will need to authorize the Add-on to give YOURSELF permission to access your Classroom classes and Google Drive documents. It is possible you will see a screen of doom asking you to return to safety. Google is covering their behind to let you know that zero people from Google have reviewed my code. Instead, click on the tiny words “Advanced” and below that click on “Unsafe” (it’s safe, I coded it myself.)
This will create a list of all your current and archived Google Classroom classes.
I initially wrote this Add-on script to allow me to delete classes I no longer use and do not need to reuse posts from. To make it challenging to accidentally delete a class I force you to single click on the Course ID of the class you want to select.
Use the “List Classes” menu to “List Assignments.” This will create a new tab for the class whose Course ID you selected. All of your published assignments will be visible. A live link to the assignment is in column A to allow you to review the entire assignment.
You can reuse this same spreadsheet indefinitely. Find the tab with the list of classes and single click on the Course ID. Go to the “List Classes” menu and choose “List Assignments” again. A NEW tab will be created with the assignments for that class.
Since every year is a different set of students and I do different things I find it helpful to find multiple years of the same class and list out the assignments. Sometimes I did not do something last year that I did 2 years ago but want to revisit. It’s just nice to see the evolution of the class in lists.
