Calendar Sign Up short tutorial

We will now use our "Google Apps" calendar to sign up for Moblie Labs, LCD and more.

Where are the Calendars located:  
The calendars are on the left hand side of the page. You should find them under "Other Calendar". You should only find calendar's appropiate to what you teach, for example elementary teachers will not see the HS mobile lab.
* If you think you should be able to view/use a calendar that you are not currently able to view, please email me @ rburrow@ecsdcards.com to request to view a calendar. Since I am individually adding teachers to the calendar, I may have unintentionally neglected to add you to the list of people I am sharing the calendar with.

To View a Calendar:
Make sure the calendar is darkened in the color. If it is white with the name of the calendar in the color, you are not currently viewing the calendar.
* This is an advantage over the Outlook Calendar. You can easily only look at the LCD calendars and not have to look at the library and computers.
To Hide a Caledar:  Click on the caledar so that it goes pale/white. You will still be able to see the name of the calendars you are a part of, but it is live and you can view it when it is dark.

Signing up for/Create an Event: 

To get to the "add an event screen":
1. Click on "Create an event" in the upper left hand corner of the page.
2. You can double click on the calendar in the spot you want to add an event.
* This is set up to do events on 30 minute intervals. It also only automaticall gives you the "what" box. You will need to choose which calendar to sign up on through the drop down box. If you are wanting to add additional information, you can click on "edit details" and will see the regular " create an event sign up screen"

What: Please enter your Name, Class and period.
For example- Peterson US History 5th per. [For next year, having similar periods for MS and HS will make this especiall helpful].
When: You will need to select/enter the correct date. By clicking once in the date a drop down calendar will appear. You can eiter type the date or click on the date on the caledar.
* for the "when" please do not select the "all day" even if you are using it all day. This will appear at the top of the day, and is not as clear to see and with how the features of the calendar work could lead to double booking as google does not apper to to have a pop up to prevent you from signing up at the same time as someone else.
Where: At this time I would like to use this part of the calendar to put number of students (especially for computers) or identifying that you are only planning to use something for the 2nd half of the period. Also for the library this would be the appropiate place to note if you are planning to use tables or computers or both.
Calendar:  This is probably the MOST important part of the signup. You will need to select which calendar you are signing up on. Due to how the calendars are set up, the calendar is which item you are signing up for. Please be careful in checking what items you are signing up for.

Reminder: We will have to see how all of this works, but you can send an email reminder or choose pop up. Since I created the calendar, I am not sure if I will get all of the reminders or if the creator of the events will. This part may be a work in progress.

To view more details on an event:

If you click once on the dark "time bar" at the top of an event, it will bring up a details box with all of the information given on an event. It will show the where, and who added the event. This is an easy way to find out how many laptops someone else is using or if there are extra computers in the library.


WARNINGS:
1. It is easy to delete items that are not yours. Please be careful. We have not had malicious deleting of items in the notebook or on the online calendar, but it will be easy to accedently delete items that are not your own.

Using the bookmark feature in Google Docs

If you are using Google docs and would like the option to have multiple assignments in one Google doc you can. You can create bookmarks. By clicking on the link, it will take you directly to that part of the document.
How to create the bookmark:
1. Insert your cursor where you would like to create the book mark or highlight the text where the bookmark will start.
2. On the menu bar of the document go to “Insert” and go down to “Bookmark”
3. A new window will pop up in the doc. It will ask you about naming the book mark link. After you have named the bookmark (or used the name of what you have highlighted), you simply click insert.
4. To add this to the beginning of the document, you will create a link.
5. On the menu bar click on link. Make sure you click for the circle “bookmark”.
6. You will have a drop down menu of the bookmarks you have created with their names. (Point out to students their bookmarks if they use this should have different names).
7. Then in the “Text Display” box type what you want to appear for the document.
If you are using Google docs as a way for students to turn in assignments, using the “bookmark” tool could be a good tool to use for assignments that are reoccurring. Instead of getting 25 new documents shared with you every week, 25 documents will be updated that are already in your Google docs each week. For example if you ask students to turn in an article every week with a reflection, they can keep adding to the same Google doc and add the bookmark where this week’s article starts. You also could use this for journaling and reflections on a literature reading. When we do go to 1-to1 you also could encourage students when taking notes to book mark notes by date, or by subject at the top. It then is easy to add to the notes, or to find something you may be looking for.

Task feature on the Google Apps Calendar

This is a great way to keep a running to do list for your self. It is easy to add to the list items to do. There are no sticky notes stuck to your monitor that might fall off. Besides the basic “Task” List, you can create an unlimited amount of to do lists. (Like everything else with Google Apps this can be accessed at home or here at school).

To create the to do list (if you have not opened up “Tasks” or if you have closed it previously) click on “Tasks”. This will add a task box to the right of the calendar. Under you default list you can simply click and start typing. If you are wanting to add additional information or a due date so that your task will appear on the calendar, you can go into “edit details”. To edit details in a task click on the task, and you can go down to “Actions” or click on the small “>” arrow to the right of the task. You can enter a due date. By doing this it will appear on your calendar. It will appear different than other calendar items. It will appear in the all day area and will have a check box by it. Also you can enter notes to give your self additional information or reminder about the task.

If you want to create multiple Task lists and you are wanting items to appear on the calendar, note that they will not appear on the calendar unless you have selected that task list.
At this point I do not see a way to share task lists, so if you are wanting students who are working on a project to share a list, or for coaches or departments to share lists of things to do, at this time, other than to have everyone enter it into their own calendar, I don’t see a way to do this.

Using the calendar feture in google apps

As teacher’s many of us wish that students would write down assignment, tests, project and other events in a planner or a calendar. You can use the calendar feature to do this with the students in your class. When you go to the “Calendar” feature on the left hand side it list the calendars that you can view. To create a calendar click on the “create” link below the calendars you are currently viewing. All you then have to do is create a calendar for each class. Those of you that are coaches or group sponsors could also make calendars for your groups. You can then share the calendar with all of the school district or specific people (like just the students in a class- or grade or part of a group). Like google docs and the email, all you have to do is start tying names of students and it will add them. You can manage if they can view the calendar or if they can also edit the calendar. This is a great way to communicate assignments, especially long term assignments and tests. For groups and sports teams it is a great way to easily have them have the calendar of games or other events. If you are consistent about adding or updating the calendar, it can be a great communication tool. Even if you don’t use this for your classes, it is a great feature to point out to students to teach them to use to be more organized.

** FYI** For a future note, I am probably planning to use the google calendar feature next year, especially if we will be moving to this as our main or only email. While I still need to play around with things, what will most likely happen- each item that can be signed up on the current calendar, will be a separate calendar (i.e. LCD 1, Mobile Lab, multimedia cart). So for those of you that are a little unsure of technology, this is the time to ask questions, learn, and try things. Please don’t freak out about this yet, I will give trainings not this at the beginning of next school year.

Taking notes from an article in a google doc

If you decide not to email an article you also can copy and paste an article into a Google document. This can allow you are students to use a highlighter and comment feature. This can be an additional way to take notes, practice study techniques and note taking- students can share articles they are looking at and their comments can be what use to be “note cards”

Using this highlighter technique can be a great way to demonstrate, use and check for understanding for learning strategies like selective highlighting. By doing this in a document, students have the option to do multiple colors in their highlighting. For example they can do big topic in once color and supporting details in a second or third color.  

Additionally, instead of handing in current event article in print as an email attachment they can copy and paste and have it all in the shared google doc and write their summary at the top. You also could ask them to high light important information from the article that would help them write their summary. The teacher can then use the comment feature when grading.

I copied and pasted an article in from EBSCO. I have highlighted information and added a comment to demonstrate this. This type of document could also be shared with students from teachers. Teachers could add comments about pictures or additional items in an article that could help supplement a lecture or activity.

Emailing articles to google apps email

After learning about Google Apps during our all day professional development, I thought it would be helpful to remind everyone that you can email many articles that you read to an email account. Now that all students 6-12 will have an email account, this is a great way for them to have access to articles that they are using for research. It is a great way for them to have access to them regardless if they print it off or send it as an email.

If you are able to email through the resource there will be an icon. Typically this is on the top of the screen or at the top or bottom of the article. For many of the databases, this simply involves clicking on the icon or the link. This will bring students to a screen asking them to type in the email address, subject and message. Some of the databases will have additional options with regards to how you send it and the format in which you send it.