Google shipped a pile of Google Classroom updates this summer, and most of them landed in the last two weeks of July and the first two weeks of August. Right when you were already back in a building, or about to be.

In episode 253, I gave you the headlines. I said that was your heads-up, not your how-to, and that I’d come back and go deeper. This is that episode. Here’s the thread running through it all: Google is moving Classroom from a place where you post things to a place where things happen.

Listen to this episode:

Want the hands-on version?

• The Gemini AI in Google Classroom masterclass walks through it all.
• Or grab the free Gemini AI in Google Classroom cheat sheet to keep on your desk.

*Related: 5 Google Classroom AI Secrets That Save Teachers HOURS Every Week! (FREE Workshop)

Google Classroom Deep Dive: The New Homepage, Notebooks, and Gems

In this post, I’m walking through the redesigned homepage, how to build and assign a Gemini Notebook or a Gem right from Classwork, the new AI rubric generation, and the learning goals tracking that quietly showed up in your gradebook. Plus the honest caveats: what your admin has to turn on, and what you can’t see about how your students are using AI.

1. The New Homepage

Announced July 21, rolled out at the end of the month to every edition, globally. No admin control, no settings. It just arrived.

Releasing a homepage redesign at the end of July, after every district has run summer training, is a choice somebody made. We go through this every year.

The homepage is contextual now, with tabs at the top for Teaching, Enrolled, and Admin. Here’s what’s on the Teaching tab:

• Recently Due. Work waiting on you. May be empty if you haven’t started school yet.
• Class Insights. Analytics without going into the gradebook. It’ll tell you things like two students have missed the last three assignments, how many students have a grade average below 70, or how many haven’t visited the class page in the last week. That last one is the kid who isn’t even logging in.
• Feature Spotlight. Google putting tools in front of you: Discover Gemini in Classroom, Use Gemini Notebook to create learning aids, and Set up a Gem for students.
• Check for Understanding. Video activities, practice tests, Read Along. Not on every account, so don’t panic if it’s missing.
• Your class cards. Still there, just further down. You have to scroll now, or use the sidebar.

These modules show up in a different order in different places, so yours may not match mine.

2. Assign a Gemini Notebook or Gem From Classwork

This is the piece I want you to try.

Go to Classwork, click Create, and scroll to the bottom. You’ll see Gemini Notebook and Gem.

Gemini Notebook

NotebookLM got renamed to Gemini Notebook. It’s an AI notebook that only knows what you feed it. It doesn’t go out to the open web, and that closed loop is why it fits a classroom better than a general chatbot.

Attach one you already have, or create a new one. When you create new, click choose class content to personalize the notebook. Google pulls up the materials you’ve already published to that class and brings them in as sources. You’re not re-uploading anything.

Notebooks hold 50 sources, and one notebook works across multiple classes. Edit it once and it updates everywhere.

What students can do: chat with it, and use the studio items you generated (audio overview, study guide, FAQ).

What they can’t: generate their own studio items, or add or edit sources. They get read-only access.

And they don’t need access to your original files. You can build a notebook off a doc you’ve never shared and never will. The notebook is what they get, not your file.

*Related: NotebookLM: Your New AI Teaching Assistant

Gems

A Gem is a custom version of Gemini you set up ahead of time. Same flow, and Google gives you four templates: Study Partner, Quiz Me, Brainstorm Partner, and Real-World Connector.

Start with Study Partner. It’s the narrowest of the four, it’s closest to what a kid actually needs at home at nine o’clock at night, and it’s least likely to wander somewhere you didn’t intend.

Gems hold 10 source documents. Unit-sized. Whole course, use a notebook.

Before you assign it, open the Gem and ask it three questions the way a struggling student would. Ask it something vague. Ask it something slightly wrong. If it’s confidently wrong about your content, you want to find that out, not thirty seventh graders.

Four Things That Will Trip You Up

1. Your admin has to turn this on, twice. Once for you, separately for students. You can build the whole thing, post it, and have every kid hit a wall. Test it first.
2. Students on a different domain may not get in, even a trusted one. Check this if you co-teach across districts or your school runs staff and students on separate domains.
3. Personal Google accounts get nothing. A personal Gmail can open Classroom, but not the Education tools.
4. Deleting the post does not revoke access. The post is gone, the access isn’t. Go into the sharing settings inside the notebook or Gemini to actually take it back.

Good news: Class Copy carries these forward to a new class and they still work, and Class Link Sharing gives other teachers access. One person on your team builds a good Gem, everybody teaches with it.

3. Generate a Rubric From the Assignment Page

Google dropped this on August 5, while I was putting the episode together. They love to drop stuff a few days before school starts.

You’re creating an assignment, you scroll to the Rubrics section, and Gemini drafts a rubric from scratch based on what your assignment actually says. It’s already reading your assignment, so you’re not retyping context somewhere else. Review and edit the criteria before you attach it.

That’s on top of converting an existing rubric, which I covered in 253, and building one in the Gemini tab and exporting it.

Teachers only, since it’s 18 and over. Available on Fundamentals, Standard, and Plus, so no paid tier needed.

4. Learning Goals in the Gradebook

There’s now a learning goals tab in your gradebook. If you’ve wanted mastery tracking instead of just grades, that’s where it lives.

In 253, I mentioned a May update that let you tag coursework with standards and skills, and I said it was underrated. This is the other half. It rolled out gradually with no admin control and no settings, which is why it appeared out of nowhere.

Tag an assignment, quiz, question, or material with learning goals. Search for what you want, or let Google suggest them based on your assignment and course content. Then you get analytics by individual student, by class, or by learning area.

So instead of a gradebook that says a kid got a 78, you get a view that tells you which standard the 78 came from and whether it’s a pattern. That shows a parent exactly which standards a kid has mastered, without building a spreadsheet on the side.

I went and looked at what’s actually in there. The US has national standards, and every state is listed separately. You’ll also find standards for Australia, Brazil, Canada, Italy, Japan, Mexico, and the UK. And an International section that turned out to be the ISTE Standards for Educators, so you can tag those if you run PD in Classroom. You can also submit additional standards to be added.

Here’s the part I didn’t expect: students and guardians can see the learning goals tagged on an assignment. A kid can see what the work is actually for. So can a parent.

Available in all Google Workspace for Education tiers.

5. The Student Gemini Tab, and What You Can’t See

On August 10, Google opened the Gemini tab to students of all ages on the web, with mobile following on August 17. Students get starter prompts that already know what class they’re in, plus a picker for their current assignment.

Here’s the line every teacher should know. If a student creates their own notebook in their Gemini tab, that notebook is private to their account. You cannot see it through Classroom’s grading tools. You cannot monitor it. They can share it with you, but that’s their choice, not your access.

There’s AI you assigned, and there’s AI they opened. Your visibility covers only the first one.

I’m not saying that to scare you. I keep running into teachers who assume that if it’s inside Classroom, they can see it. That assumption is wrong, and building an academic honesty plan on it is how you end up in a bad conversation with a parent in November. The answer isn’t more surveillance. It’s designing work where the thinking shows up somewhere you can see it. That’s another episode.

Send Your Admin These Three Questions

1. Is Gemini in Classroom enabled for students, and for which grades?
2. Is Gemini Notebook enabled for students, not just staff?
3. Is Gem sharing turned on?

“Is AI turned on?” is too vague to get you anything useful. Ask specifically.

5 Quick Tips

1. Test student access before you build a lesson around any of this.
2. Start with a unit doc you already have. You’re giving old work a second job, not making new work.
3. Break your own Gem before students see it.
4. Tag learning goals now so the analytics mean something by October.
5. Scroll to find your class cards, or use the sidebar.

Ready to Try This?

Build one Study Partner Gem from a doc you already have. One document, four clicks, and your students have something to use. That’s your fastest win.

Then send your admin the three questions, because everything else depends on those answers. Then go poke at the homepage so you’re not hunting for something in the middle of a passing period.

And leave the student Gemini tab alone until you know it’s enabled. No point planning around a door that might be locked.

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