Google calendar is a great tool. My wife and I have been using it for over a year to keep track of our family activities. A new feature currently in calendar labs adds the ability to attach a Google Doc to a calendar event. This makes using Google Calendar for lesson planning a powerful tool. After create a lesson or unit, you can share your calendar and relevant documents with other teachers in your building or district, fostering collaboration.
Here's a quick tutorial on lesson planning with Google Calendar.
Note: one thing that I forgot to mention is that if you share a calendar that has attached documents, you must give those people permission to view/edit your shared documents. Sharing the calendar does NOT automatically give them permission to view/edit the attached documents.
Nice idea. Question, does your school/district have a specific lesson plan format? I am always looking for ideas and examples of lesson plan formats. Thanks
You could set each lesson as a repeating event scheduled to repeat on the same day every year. Personally, I don't use Calendar to do detailed planning, I just put in my units and tests days for quick reference. If I was team planning I might add more detail/attach documents.
Hi Becky, yes, any website that allows iframe code should accept a Google Calendar.
Open up the "details" of the calendar that you want to embed. Toward the bottom of the page there is a box with a HTML code. Simply copy the code and paste it into your blog and your calendar will appear!
I have been using Google Calendar for a couple years now to collaborate with my co-teacher and so I don't have to carry a bulky lesson plan book around. I write what we are doing in the Event Details section but find it cumbersome that I have to click the event and view details daily to see what I had planned. I would love to be able to be in the week view and see all of my details for each day. Is there a way to do that? Thanks
Your best bet is to use the "custom" view option. You can determine how many days you want to see at a time. This will give you an expanded view, but won't show all of the details. You can setup your custom view by accessing your calendar settings.
This is an awesome resource. Our school has gone 1:1 in grades 3 - 5 this year, and all of our teachers have an iPad. I'll definitely share this with them. I have also linked this blog post from my website: www.iteachteacherstech.com. Thanks so much for sharing!
Thanks for the comment, Alison. Here are a couple of elementary applications that I came up with:
ReplyDelete* Collaborative planning with grade level teachers.
* Class birthday calendar.
* General lesson calendar to share with parents.
I threw your question out to my Twitter PLN. I'll let you know what they say!
Nice idea.
ReplyDeleteQuestion, does your school/district have a specific lesson plan format? I am always looking for ideas and examples of lesson plan formats.
Thanks
No, teachers at my school are not required to turn in lesson plans. We're on our own!
ReplyDeleteHave you found a way to reschedule a lesson for future usage, or do you recreate each lesson every year/semester?
ReplyDeleteWhat you have shown so far is great! However, I'd like to be able to make comments on the lesson/unit and reuse/edit/add to it year after year.
I use OneNote to store all of my lesson plans. Whatever I want to teach, I just copy and past them in for that day.
DeleteChristopher,
ReplyDeleteYou could set each lesson as a repeating event scheduled to repeat on the same day every year. Personally, I don't use Calendar to do detailed planning, I just put in my units and tests days for quick reference. If I was team planning I might add more detail/attach documents.
ok, thank you.
ReplyDeleteI do not see the instructions, sorry if this is a user error, sorry ;)
ReplyDelete@creative chaos
ReplyDeleteWere you able to view the embedded YouTube video? If not, you can access it directly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH-6vM61LaI
I love this! Thank you. I'm wondering if I could embed a google calendar to my community Ed/preschool website. Can you help me with this?
ReplyDeleteHi Becky, yes, any website that allows iframe code should accept a Google Calendar.
ReplyDeleteOpen up the "details" of the calendar that you want to embed. Toward the bottom of the page there is a box with a HTML code. Simply copy the code and paste it into your blog and your calendar will appear!
I have been using Google Calendar for a couple years now to collaborate with my co-teacher and so I don't have to carry a bulky lesson plan book around. I write what we are doing in the Event Details section but find it cumbersome that I have to click the event and view details daily to see what I had planned. I would love to be able to be in the week view and see all of my details for each day. Is there a way to do that? Thanks
ReplyDeleteHi Cindy!
ReplyDeleteYour best bet is to use the "custom" view option. You can determine how many days you want to see at a time. This will give you an expanded view, but won't show all of the details. You can setup your custom view by accessing your calendar settings.
Great idea! I was able to create a calendar for my writing class but it is overlapping with my personal/family calendar. How do I separate them?
ReplyDeleteThank you.
I'm giving this a try - thanks for the idea.
ReplyDeleteI dont have an option to attach from google docs. Is that because I do not have a google docs account?
ReplyDeleteThis is an awesome resource. Our school has gone 1:1 in grades 3 - 5 this year, and all of our teachers have an iPad. I'll definitely share this with them. I have also linked this blog post from my website: www.iteachteacherstech.com. Thanks so much for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI feel like my life is going to be simplified.
ReplyDeleteVery useful information!
ReplyDelete