How do I Grok it? A Teacher Guide to Grok
Are you a teacher that's recently signed up to Grok? A massive Grok welcome to you!
You're probably wondering where to start. Never fear! Here is our ultimate Guide to Grokking like a pro.
GROK STEPS TO TEACHER SUCCESS |
1. Verify yourself β
Teacher verification is the very first thing you should do as a new Grok teacher!
Verification gives you access to sign up students and manage student accounts at your school. Youβll also receive FREE access to all of our materials, including problem solutions and teacher notes!
It's best if you add your full (legal) name and school email address to your account. This makes it easier for us to verify you. Follow the links below to find out more about Teacher Verification and how to request it. Once you've requested verification, it should only take a short time to process - keep an eye on your emails in case we need any extra information from you.
2. Check out our courses π
Before you dive headfirst into teaching Grok, you'll want to familiarise yourself with our courses. You'll not only see the range of content we offer, you'll also try out our Learning Interface before your students do, so you can master it and show them how it's done.
You can access and browse our course by selecting "View Courses" on the Teacher Dashboard page, or by selecting "Courses" in the "For Educators" drop down menu at the top of the page. From here you can filter or search for courses, then when you select a course, you'll see the course outline, and a red button to enter the course. Now you're in the Learning Interface!
Our Learning Interface has been designed to be intuitive for students of all ages, but here are some quick tips to help you get the most out of it:
- Most Grok courses have slides, containing notes and examples, and problems, where you need to write some code.
- As a verified Grok teacher, on each problem you'll have access to a Teachers Notes tab, which contains suggestion of how to help your students if they need help with this problem.
- The Solutions tab is usually only available after you've correctly solved a problem (this goes for your students too!).
- Don't forget to Run your code before you Mark it! The Mark button is only available if you run your code after making changes, to encourage students to test their code themselves first.
- When you mark, our auto-marker will give you feedback about your program. Read this feedback carefully, as it gives you hints about what to do next!
As for which courses to try out, here are our top 3 picks for new Grok teachers. Or you can use the filters on the Courses page to find a course that suits you!
Course |
Description |
Why we like it |
|---|---|---|
|
Create your own colourful critters with code! Use drag-and-drop blocks to write a program, learn about sequence and ordering, and create fun monster characters. | If you or your students are completely new to programming, this is the course for you. You don't even need to write code, just drag and drop code blocks to make a code recipe ("algorithm") which tells the computer what to do. Plus the monsters are super cute (even if we do say so ourselves)! |
|
This course is designed for students with no prior experience with text programming, and is perfect for beginners of all ages. Python for Beginners is aligned with the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies for students in Grades 7 and above. |
Python is our favourite general purpose programming language for students, because you can cover almost all areas of Digital Technologies with it, and it's easy to learn! This course covers the basics of writing code in Python. |
|
A fast-paced introduction to programming with the BBC micro:bit. Learn how to program a micro:bit with our full micro:bit simulator. No experience (or wires!) required. | Using micro:bits are a great way to try out a different kind of programming but using the same Python language, so you're solidifying your knowledge. Plus it's always fun to play with something physical! |
π‘"Cyber Security Challenges"
Australian school teachers and students can access the Cyber Security Challenges for free - check them out here.
Aotearoa New Zealand teachers have free access to the Cyber Skills Aotearoa programme. All learning resources are available in English and te reo MΔori. - check them out here.
Sequence of Learning
We have a handy guide to help you get started with your class. This guide has a recommended sequence of learning by year stage, with a variety of options so you can tailor your program to your class:
3. Check out our Resources
Grok isn't just about our online courses - we also have a wide range of other resources. We have:
- Unplugged activities for use in the classroom or at home,
- Teaching Resources - including recordings of PD webinars, classroom posters, and guides to getting started in Digital Technologies
You can see all our resources here, where you can filter by year group, activity, and style.
Unpack the Curriculum
For Australian teachers, we have an in-depth guide to help you delve into the expectations of the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies, and what it could look like in the classroom. Explore the guide here.
4. Register your students π
Now that you've seen the Learning Interface and had a go at some of our courses, it's time to get your students onboard!
Registration is an easy process. Each student will need their own account, which is associated with their email address (just like yours). This means that students can use Grok inside the classroom and out, continuing their learning and keeping track of their own progress, wherever they go and for as long as they like.
If you have your class list handy, you can register your students for free accounts from your Teacher Dashboard, or by following our instructions in the links below. We have arrangements with certain education departments across Australia, so check our FAQs below first to see if you need to register your students - you might be surprised to find that they already have accounts!
Depending on what courses you want your students to use, you might need to purchase paid access. An invoice will be generated for your school to pay once the paid access is purchased. Some schools choose to fund this out of existing budget, and some choose to include Grok on their booklist for parents. It's up to you!
Register free accounts
Free accounts are designed to give your students a taste of Grok! Your students will have full access to the Grok short activities, and sample access to the Grok courses, but no access to the Grok NCSS Challenge Python and Web.Comp competitions. For Australian and New Zealand students, free accounts will include access to any subsidised programmes. Our short activities are perfect for an hour of code, a code club activity, or for testing our platform in your classroom.
Upgrade with paid access
Anyone who has paid for Grok gets access to all our courses, competitions and short activities, plus all future content. You can see all our pricing information here. Whole school paid access lasts for up to 12 months.
5. Assign students to courses π
You can assign students to courses via your Teacher Dashboard by scrolling to the end of the page and where you can select to see students by grade or group, or as a list of all students. If you find that there's too many students, you can put them into groups! Most teachers make class groups or project groups, but you can organise your students however you like. The link below explains how to set up groups on your Dashboard.
From the Dashboard, you can assign students to a particular Grok course, which means it will show up in their enrolment list.
On their My Learning page, students will see their assigned and recently accessed courses by default, along with any current or upcoming competitions. This makes it easy for your students to find what they should be working on. All other courses are hidden by default and can be viewed or hidden using the Show More / Less button.
- Setting up class groups
- How do I assign a course to my students?
- Why can't I assign a course to a student?
π‘Student access to courses and competitions
Keep in mind that students can only access courses that their account allows. To participate in the NCSS Challenge or Web.Comp, students need sponsored or paid access.
6. View student progress on your dashboard π
Now you've got your students assigned to courses and happily absorbed in this new world of coding. Gold star for you π!
The last and final step to complete Grok mastery is monitoring your students' progress in their courses. Again, you can do this from the Teacher Dashboard. To see a live updating log of your students' current and recent activity, find your grade or class group on the main page of the Teacher Dashboard and click "View Live".
You can also see an overview of student progress in all assigned courses. From the main page of the Teacher Dashboard, click on a grade or group name or select "All Students", and then click "Assigned progress". You will see all the courses you have assigned to each student, and their progress as a series of coloured bars. You can filter by grade and group in this view, or use the search box to find a particular student. You can even click on the progress bars to see exactly what that student is working on!
If you want to see student progress in just one course, you can! Choose a course from the "Course Progress" drop down menu. You can also download student marks for a specific course, by selecting students using the checkboxes and then clicking "Marks". You might use the exported results for assigning grades, writing reports, or discussing student progress with other teachers. For courses or competitions that offer certificates, you can download those too.
- What is Live Classroom?
- How can I sort by student progress?
- What do the different colours mean on the course progress bars?
- How can I see my students' work?
- How can I download student marks?
- How do I download certificates for my students?
Now it's up to you....teach away! ππ
This is the part where you shine! We've given you all the resources and tools you need to teach Digital Technologies like a pro. How you deliver that in your classroom is ultimately up to you. You can assign your students a course to work through at their own pace, go through worked examples in class, register students for competitions to challenge them against students around the world, and much more.
Connect with us and other teachers:
We have many teachers doing awesome work using Grok. You can connect with them via our Facebook group - Teaching Tech with Grok. Join this group to chat with other teachers and Grok staff, and stay up to date on the latest news - we often also give members of the group sneak peaks into new announcements or give aways we are running.
Follow our blog for more ideas on how to get the most out of Grok. If you have any topics you would like to see us cover, or if you would like to write for the blog, let us know!
Periodically we will send you a email newsletter or other updates. This includes upcoming competitions, new courses, FAQs, blog posts, and much more. Make sure your communication preferences are up-to-date so you receive this email.
Before you go...
At any time if you have questions or suggestions, you can email our fabulous team at support@groklearning.com and we'll get back to you asap with an answer! We want our wonderful teachers to get the most out of Grok Academy, so don't be shy in letting us know how we're doing.
You can also follow what we're up to on Twitter (@grokacademy), Facebook or LinkedIn.
Happy Grokking!
