Organizing Google Classroom with Topics (2020 update)

Topics allow you to bundle your assignments into groups. For most teachers, topics are a way to organize their class into units. This helps keep the classwork page organized and easy to navigate.

Using topics with Google Classroom:
- Drag to re-order your topics
- New topics now appear at the bottom of your classwork page.
- Drag assignments in and out of topics to reorganize them
- Filter assignments by topic from the classwork page (left side of the screen)

BONUS: Add emoji to your topics to add some color and "flair" to Google Classroom!

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John R. Sowash is a former HS biology teacher and principal who helps teachers use technology to improve instruction. You can pick up a copy of his book, read his blog, or invite him to come and visit your school.

[elianejean-baptiste]

I see much better how to use the folders in my google classroom. Thank you!

[ShawnaDavey]

Hi! Thank you so much for your video. I am using this for the first time with Grade 3 and they are doing amazing :) I am wondering on my "teacher side" how do you organize your assignments after the week is done? Do you move them all in to a new tab? Say April 6-9th Assignments Tab - just to stay organized...Thanks for your help :)

[piggysaw]

I'm trying to add fun to my google classroom, like emoji etc and my google classroom tool bar doesn't look like that, where do I add that? I don't have that tool bar at the top of my screen--how do I add that or add the emoji to the tool bar.

[iamsimonee]

Hi. Thanks for his post. Can the marks/grades for assignments be arranged by topic as well?

[robindery]

If I have 5 sections of a class, is there a way I can mass-create the topics for all 5 sections at once, rather than having to do it period by period? The topics are the same, it's tedious to have to do this 5 times over creating the exact same topics each time.

[tamarawilson]

What would be some pros/cons to organizing by Units vs Weeks?

[yyxgd]

This was great, but what if it is another week and I want to change stuff to make less room. Where could I do?

[paulbushey]

Thanks!!! When I try to add emojiis to a New topic name, the flag Emojiis will not paste. I used the joypixels and other extensions too. Can anyone help?

[TeachersOnFire]

Super helpful, John. Thanks for sharing! 👊🔥

[breaksbad.]

I want to add the exact same Assignments/Material to 3 different classes. How do I add the Assignment/Material to all 3 classes at once from a Topic that was created in just one of the 3 classes. I can't seem to drag ot copy/paste from a Topic to another Topic in another class.

[michelleloftus]

Hi, where do you get the emojis to add? Is it an app? Thank you. :)

[juanamolina]

Help! Some of my "Topics" are gone!! Now all assignments or materials within the folders are scattered everywhere! What happened?

[davidcruz]

How did you change the font color to blue? thanks