Tech for Admin

Time management and organization are two important aspects of teaching. In my classroom, each student has a complete different schedule and goals they are working on. I find it hard to keep track of what everyone is doing and the times where I need to check in or work with a student. Sometimes meetings are also scheduled for the students that I need to be a part of. I needed something to help keep me organized and manage my time during the day better. Google Calendar has been a tremendous help in keeping my teaching schedule organized. I have been able to color code everything based on student which allows me to look quickly and know who I should be with. I can also share events and reminders with other students or teachers. This has come in handy when scheduling meetings with other staff members. I have also been able to schedule reminders and goals into my calendar as well. I get text as well as email reminders about projects or lesson plans I need to work on. I can also send reminders to my students about assignments or things they need to be working on. I also love the idea of being able to have my personal and work accounts on my calendar. I can have both accounts in one place. Lastly, you can easily change the views on the calendar to be a day, 3 days, week or month. I love this feature because I can easily switch between them all to whatever fits my needs at that moment.

The one problem I found with Google Calendar is when you go into creating an event, it defaults to the current day and account I am on (personal/work). Sometimes I forget to change the date to the one I was originally on or the account so it goes into the wrong place. It’s not complicated to change but more of an annoyance. 

My older students all have chromebooks, I think this app would be really helpful to them in keeping them on track with the reminders and events scheduled. It will allow them to know what is expected of them and when without any surprises.

You can add reminders and events easily into your calendar, with a date, time and if it repeats. You can also change the color or share it with other users.

       

You can change the layout of your calendar to show a day, a few days or the whole month.

 
                                                                                                                                                                                   

Lastly, you can add different goals into your calendar. You can select from a number of different categories (exercise, self-care, work, etc). Google Calendar will ask you how many times a week you would like to try to accomplish this goal and find time in your schedule for it. This is great for both personal and work goals. For me, I use it for both. Work wise, I need to work with students so many times a week. Google Calendar will help me schedule the time and keep track of how many times I do so during the week. It will also remind me when I don’t check it off as complete for the day.