Tech Tool Tuesday: Emerson Google Docs Naming System

Student: "I know I turned it in."

Teacher: "I don't have it."

Student: "But I know I turned it in."

Teacher: "Did you write your name on it?"

Student: "Ahhh...."

We have all this conversation countless times with students in our paper classroom.  One of the things that teachers struggle with is finding papers coming in from 100+ kids, whether by hand or electronically.  It turns out the solution is all in the Name.

As I have worked with teachers using Google Docs with their students, we have come up with a simple naming system that helps you, as the teacher, find documents that students have shared with you through Google Drive.  This EMERSON NAMING PROTOCOL looks like this:

Per#   AssignmentTitle  LastName

Per# is the two-digit period number (i.e. 02, 10).

AssignmentTitle* is the exact title assigned by the teacher, with no spaces. 

(i.e. IntroPaper).

LastName is your last name (i.e. Smith).

Assignment Example: 02  IntroPaper  Smith

Remember, Google is built around the search.  Whether images on the internet or documents in your drive, searching is what Google does best.  Once students create documents using the Emerson Naming Protocol, you can use the document's name to search inside your Google Drive.

-If you search "AssignmentTitle" (ie "IntroPaper"), all assignments from any class/student will appear.
      *For easy access later on, you could organize them in the folder by selecting them all and clicking the Folder Icon. For more on organizing Google Docs, see Monday's post.

-If you search "Per# AssignmentTitle" (ie "02 IntroPaper"), all assignments from that period will appear.

-If you search Last Name (ie Smith), any assignment from that student will appear.

Disclaimer: In order to make this work, the AssignmentTitle needs to be unique to that assignment.  Also, every student needs to spell things correctly and share the document with you when they create it.  I usually pull up the Per# AssignmentTitle search up on the smartboard so kids can check that their document was named and shared correctly.

Here are some Google Classroom Poster to help getting your students started.  If we can create some consistency across all Emerson classes, creating/naming a Google Document becomes as natural to students as putting their names on the paper.  It may not end the age-old question "Did you put your name on it?" but it may help Emerson students and teachers know how to answer it.