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Elizabeth Davis-Everhart explains how she uses Google Classroom as a communication and assignment-delivery method in her independent studio.
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Items Mentioned and Other Related Content
Episode #085 – Tonara Transitions: A Special Teacher Talk
Episode #132 – Life After Tonara: A Teacher Talk Follow-Up
Transcript
*This transciption has been lightly edited for ease of reading and is not 100% word for word.
Have you ever heard of Google Classroom? I would imagine many of us have likely heard of Google Classroom, but I bet many of us haven’t heard much about teachers using it as their main tool for delivering assignments in an independent music lesson setting.
I’m one of those teachers, and as an all-things Google fan, my ears pricked up when I heard teacher friend Elizabeth Davis-Everhart share a little snippet about using Google Classroom in our “Life after Tonara” episodes. That was in episode #85 and #132.
I also had a follower recently reach out who was feeling overwhelmed trying to decide what method to use for delivering assignments. Google Classroom was something they were considering but unfortunately I couldn’t give any advice in that realm.
Their question did prompt me though to contact Elizabeth again to see if she would be willing to take a little deeper dive with me today.
In addition to over 16 years of teaching in universities, community music schools, K-12 music, and private studios, Elizabeth Davis-Everhart is fulfilling a dream of sharing her love for teaching with educators all over the world through the Creative Piano Pedagogy Blog, courses, and consulting.
Before you hear my chat with Elizabeth, I want to be sure and thank one of my newest Patreon supporters, Jeff Wille. This podcast is kept ad-free thanks to the support of listeners. While there is a silent partner option, the most popular Patreon level gives you access to all kinds of bonus content for just $7 a month PianoPantry.com/patreon to join.
And now, my conversation with Elizabeth.
Elizabeth, thank you so much for being here today. I’m really excited to have you talk about this topic, but would you just first start by introducing yourself to the audience?
[00:01:54] Elizabeth: Yes. Thank you so much for having me. I think fangirl is a little too strong of a phrase. I have followed your blog for so many years. So, it’s great to be on your podcast. I am Elizabeth Davis Everhart. I have a DMA in piano pedagogy and performance and master’s and undergraduate degrees in music education. I’ve been teaching; this is my 19th year of private teaching. Wow. It’s booking right along. My husband and I live in Savannah, Georgia, which has beautiful mossy trees. I also have a private studio and lots of online teaching. So it’s just a pretty great life.
[00:02:36] Amy: Awesome. I invited you today because you’re the only person I know who has told me that they use Google Classroom to communicate with student assignments. And I would love to hear a little bit more about it. You’ve shared a little bit with us before on previous podcast episodes like the Life After Tonara series. And my question is, though, you actually never ever used Tonara, though, right? Have you only used Google Classroom?
[00:03:01] Elizabeth: That’s correct. I did not. I did trials of several different practice apps and. management software for that. But I, to give you a little background, I’ve taught virtually since before COVID, the lockdown. And when that hit, everyone was like, Oh no, what will we do? And I was like, it’s an adjustment, but I’ve already been doing this. So, I had been used to trying different ways of communicating assignments to students.
And probably six. Going on seven years ago was when I first started. Just dabbled in Google Classroom. And I don’t even remember where I first heard of it. I know it’s mainly used in educational settings. I didn’t know of anyone who used it in their studio, but I was trying to find something that would be Easy for my parents and students to use. It didn’t require a lot of extra logins.
They didn’t require a lot of extra work for me. That’s what I was feeling heavy about at that time – just double work for myself, giving verbal assignments and all these written. So, I just started watching YouTube videos. I love Google, so any way I can use Google is a a win for me. So I just was like, hey, I wonder what this would be like.
[00:04:15] Amy: Yeah, I’m a big-time Google person too, okay, so did you actually try other program,s or did you just look into them? Did you spend a year using this and then a year using that and then eventually land on Google or did you just do some research and then just decide this is what I’m going to go with?
[00:04:29] Elizabeth: Good question. So what I did was I had some of my students who’d been with me a little longer do trials with me, for a month or two at a time. And I don’t even remember all the ones I tried. I know I did try Tanara, and I tried, I think, two others. But I just had some of my high school students who I knew would enjoy that experimentation and not.
I’m not going to freak out if I switched gears I had them test it with me and I got their feedback and we did it like an experiment together because to be honest, those students were the ones that was having trouble with them reading their assignments and doing the homework.
So I was like, let’s do this experiment together, and you’re going to give me your feedback every week on something you liked about this app or something you didn’t like. And so they just gave active feedback to me, their parents gave feedback to me, and when I suggested Google Classroom Three, the three kids I was having tested it with me, their eyes lit up.
They’re like, Oh, I already know how to use that. And I was like, what? And I was expecting, okay, I will have to do a tutorial video like I’ve been doing. They were like, Oh, I know how to use that. I use it in school. I was like, oh my goodness, this could be cool.
[00:05:36] Amy: Okay. Yeah. So that was one of my questions. And I think you also mentioned earlier what Google Classroom is normally used for. My assumption is it’s mostly in the schools and education circles.
[00:05:45] Elizabeth: Yes. From all the research I’ve done and the kids I’ve talked to, a lot of public and then a lot of charter schools, even private schools, will use Google Classroom to help communicate with parents and to give broad classroom assignments and announcements because when you post on Google Classroom, it sends an email to everyone, which is another cool feature, because, you know what parents don’t read?
Emails. Yes. And real quick, when you post on Google Classroom, you get an email saying, Dr. Elizabeth Piano Studio has an update for you, which is cool. So that’s how I understand it’s being used and all of my students, there is no learning curve for parents or students because It’s just what they’re used to using.
[00:06:27] Amy: Yeah, nice. Is there an app for it? Do each of your families log into an app on their devices? Can they access it on an iPad, iPhone, or Android? Do you know, or is it just Something you can get on the web?
[00:06:42] Elizabeth: So it’s any of those, which is another reason why it’s really nice. So, kids that have tablets for school, it’s already an app on there, and they can just add my classroom as another room that they’re in because I have. a little class code. Anybody can create a classroom on Google Classroom, and it gives you a six-digit alphanumeric, DC 1452, or whatever it is.
So you give that code to them, and they can join. You can also send email invites, but they can access it on their app. They can access it on the web, any device with a web browser or app store.
[00:07:17] Amy: Okay. And I assume it’s probably a little bit different. I shouldn’t say I assume, but for example, Vivid Practice and Tanara and some of those would have different apps or logins for a teacher versus the student. How does it look different on your teacher side versus the student side? Or what does that look like?
[00:07:34] Elizabeth: The cool thing about it is you can access it from Google Suites. So if you’re in your Gmail, you have the little set of boxes up on the right where you can access Google Docs so that’s exactly how you access it. So, as a teacher, when it logs me in, it shows me Dr. Elizabeth Piano, and I have my little classroom, and you can make multiple classrooms, and for my students, it very much looks the same. It just says, Dr. Elizabeth Piano. So we have very similar views, and I have made it fake – not fake – trial student accounts for me using other email addresses to make sure it was safe and all that. And there’s not a whole lot of difference. It’s pretty seamless.
[00:08:16] Amy: So do you create one classroom for each student for their assignments and then also create classrooms for group classes or something? How does that
[00:08:25] Elizabeth: So I have a big classroom that has That’s all of my students because remember, you can send, they have what’s called a stream and think of it like your Facebook feed where you post and everybody can see your update. So I can post the link to our spring recital, or don’t forget this week is fall break. When I post that, it sends an email to parents stating that I have posted that. Isn’t that so cool? They can.
[00:08:49] Amy: Okay. Yeah. I wasn’t even imagining that. Okay. Keep going.
[00:08:52] Elizabeth: Yes. Yes. Yes. And I can post like. Links are okay. This is such and such composer’s birthday. It embeds like YouTube links or links from my Google Drive. It is so cool, Amy. It is cool. So I use it for announcements and for sharing. Don’t forget that this week we don’t have private lessons; we have all group classes. Here’s the schedule. It’s just another way of integrating, and it’s so natural for parents.
That’s one thing I have learned. So I have a big classroom with everybody, and then I have a separate one for my group classes. Or like my adult students, where they don’t need to see all the reminders for my younger students or whatever. I’ve even had where I have taught several siblings in one family, and I have made one classroom for that family. But I love having everybody all in one, so I can send those announcements. It’s so easy.
[00:09:47] Amy: Okay, I love this. Okay, interesting. So you use it a lot for studio communication. So you use I do. So, do you email at all, then?
[00:09:55] Elizabeth: I still do email, but the big things. And I still text if there are schedule changes or things that I immediately want to make sure they know. And there are different preferences parents and students can set like they can get text updates if they choose to. So they could sign up for text updates, which is pretty cool. And they can choose their notification settings, if you will, for how they receive that. But I mainly use it for, yes, communicating, but for my assignments. That’s the main thing, but communicating is a huge plus that I didn’t even know about until, probably a year into using it, I discovered what this thing is. I’m just going to try it out. So, it was a cool discovery.
[00:10:37] Amy: Okay, so you use it for communication. And then, How does it look to give assignments to students? Is it more of just a document page? Is it still a feed? Like an individual post? Do you post one item per assignment? Is it one item per week? How does that look?
[00:10:53] Elizabeth: You can do all of those things. I don’t mean to make this sound like it’s the cure to all things teaching, but the more I use it, and I’m like almost six years into using it. I keep discovering more and more features. So, when I make a student assignment, I have several options. You can just create an assignment, and this is like a Google doc format. You can do formatting and different levels like bold, italics, and bullet point lists; you can just type it.
I can copy and paste it from something I’ve typed on my computer. I can attach a photo of an assignment that I’ve given them. I can attach a Google document that already exists, like a video. I do that a lot for all of my rote pieces because they just seamlessly connect. So you can do any of those things.
You can even use a cute template for lesson notes and just. Upload it, to them. Then, you select who that assignment will go to. If you want it to go just to that student. Most of my students have them and their parents. So if one of the parents is out of town or they’re with somebody else, it just goes to that account.
[00:12:03] Amy: I can’t wait to look at your screen. So Elizabeth, we’re going to do a separate recording after this podcast episode recording. She’s going to give me a tour, which will be available as bonus content in my Patreon community. So yeah, I’m excited to see it now. All right. So, I have a few more questions here. Do you pay any fee? That’s an important question.
[00:12:25] Elizabeth: That’s a great question. This was not the main motivator, but it is now ongoing. So, it’s completely free to use Google Classroom. I do pay for Google storage. I think it’s 19 a year because that is where I keep all of my lessons recordings, videos of all of my rote pieces or technical skills my students are learning.
That’s where all of those live. So my computer can function. So I do pay 20 a year basically for Google storage, but you could use Google Classroom with no fees whatsoever.
[00:13:00] Amy: What are any drawbacks or learning curves that you’ve encountered when using this tool?
[00:13:05] Elizabeth: Just like any platform, it does take a little bit to get used to it. There are features that I still do not fully use. There are these rubric options, which could make it more like a practice app if you wanted to assign certain points for when they play. Their scales are when they do. So there are things I haven’t used just because I feel like it’s too many details for me.
If anything, it’s just another thing to keep track of because, just like technology with any other technology, it’s great when it works, but when Google is doing updates, there might be glitches. So you just have to approach it with patients like any other app. But aside from just my own time,
Doing the assignments. I haven’t found a whole lot that hasn’t worked well for what I’ve needed.
[00:13:52] Amy: If you had to give one piece of advice to someone just getting started with Google Classroom, what would it be?
[00:13:59] Elizabeth: Have fun! It’s so much fun to realize that all of the work you’ve put into storing things in Google Drive can now be usable with just two clicks.
And watch YouTube videos. There are so many great tutorials out there on just how to use it from different people’s perspectives. So have fun with it.
[00:14:19] Amy: So do you use Google Classroom both for your in-person and virtual students?
[00:14:24] Elizabeth: I do. And this is the beauty of the QR code. So, because I have Google Classroom and because some of my in-person kiddos still leave with printed assignments, and because that’s just what works best for them, they have a QR code on their assignment that leads them to their Google Classroom page.
That’s where they can find all of their listening, all of the YouTube playlists for listening for all of my students, and all of their rote videos. It is a cool integration.
[00:14:54] Amy: And do you have any kind of a database that you’ve built for yourself of assignments, like where you can store frequently used assignments at all, to be able to easily just like with one or two clicks send to someone? Or do you find yourself having to recreate similar assignments frequently?
[00:15:09] Elizabeth: I would say both of those. So I probably tend to hit and use the reuse button. That’s an interesting feature in Google Classroom, but I don’t know if it’s still there. Available in other practice apps. But let’s say my student has three or four pieces last week, and I know she will continue working on two of those this week.
I just hit the reuse button, and it copies that same assignment with this week’s date, and I can just edit the information to keep this assignment. That’s something I use very frequently.
[00:15:40] Amy: Can you copy it to another student? So maybe you wanted to give that same assignment to another student. Can you duplicate it and send it to that student then as well?
[00:15:46] Elizabeth: Yes. Yes. There are a lot of different ways of doing that. And to be honest, I just discovered a new one a couple of weeks ago that has to do with how you can reuse it. That’s their term: reuse for a different student or store them differently. So that’s something new I’m experimenting with.
[00:16:03] Amy: That’s good to know because I know that’s something that a lot of teachers desire and the practice apps space is being able to have your repertoire storage area when you have all these frequently used materials, so you’re not recreating things over and over.
[00:16:15] Elizabeth: So I think the thing that helps me the most with Google Classroom is the ability to reuse the videos because that’s something that I heavily use for all the rope pieces and things. So that’s something that just recycled for every kid. It’s awesome to not have to link that for every single one.
[00:16:31] Amy: So before we sign off today, Elizabeth, is there anything you haven’t talked about or told me about with Google Classroom that you’d like to share?
[00:16:37] Elizabeth: It has a lot of potential. Even if you use it for communicating and sharing updates, you might find that a really helpful thing for parents who are not looking at your emails because it can go to the parents and the students at the same time. However, many. Google addresses the ad. If you want to experiment, that might be a way to dip your toe into Google Classroom without fully committing because that’s a unique feature.
[00:17:02] Amy: Do the parents have to download an app to be able to do that? Or create an account? How do you connect them to it if they’re not already using it in schools?
[00:17:11] Elizabeth: You can send them an invite a couple of different ways. Similar to how you share a folder on Google Drive. You can send a link, or you can send a little, like an email template that Google designs for you.
And you also have a class code through Google Classroom. You can do it through QR code or just give them that six, seven digits and they, I’ll see you Go to their Gmail and, click on Google Classroom and they realize, oh my goodness, I already have a Google Classroom account that I didn’t know about.
[00:17:44] Amy: Yeah. All right, what’s just one fun fact about yourself, Elizabeth, that you can share with us today? It can be totally non-Piano related if you want.
[00:17:51] Elizabeth: I love baking. I love cooking and baking, and this year, I learned how to bake sourdough, which seems to be a very popular thing, but it’s really tricky. So, I have really enjoyed the challenge of doing that this year, so that’s something new I’m into.
[00:18:08] Amy: That’s fun. We frequently message on different things on Instagram when we see each other posting food pictures and other stuff. Thank you so much for being on today, Elizabeth. I’m really excited to get a tour of your actual account now.
If people want to join us for that, you can find Piano Pantry on Patreon. You can join for one month if you want and cancel at any time, or you can just join and support the podcast as well. So, thanks for being here today.
[00:18:32] Elizabeth: Thanks for having me.
Yes, as you heard it, a video tour of Elizabeth’s Google Classroom account will be posted to my Patreon community. You’ll get to connect the dots and see visuals of some of the things Elizabeth has been showing us today.
You’ll also get access to regular tips from me, weekly power hours, quarterly special presentations, and more. While Patreon is set up as a monthly membership, you are welcome to join and cancel anytime. Visit PianoPantry.com/patreon for details.
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Until next week, everyone. Have a great start to October!
