Bite-sized PD: Google Calendar

I know, I know. We all use Google Calendars already! But this is a core tool that all of use in the district and there may be some ways to make things a lot easier for yourself, your students and their families, your staff or work teams, and others you interact with.

Creating Multiple Calendars

By creating calendars that are separate from the default calendar, you can distinguish between your personal, work, class, extracurricular, and other activities while keeping them in one calendar space.

• Add a new calendar 

Making Calendars Public

You can also make certain calendars – such as those for classes, extracurricular activities, public meetings, and community groups – public so anyone who needs to can view them. This allows you to keep your private calendar private while sharing important information with those who need it. Once you make a calendar public, you can embed it in your class website, send the link to students/guardians/community members/colleagues, and more.

• Make a calendar public 

Allowing People to Subscribe

Once you make your calendar public, you can even allow people to subscribe. This actually adds your public calendar to their Google Calendar. This is really useful for students and families to keep track of assignments and events, for example. To do this:

1. Open the Sharing and Settings menu for the calendar you want people to be able to subscribe to.
2. Scroll down to the section labeled “Access permissions” and click “Get shareable link.”
3. This will open a pop-up with a link in it. Copy this link and send it to anyone you want or post it on a website — when they click it, they’ll subscribe to your Google Calendar.

This week, see how you can use these or other features to improve how you use calendars for yourself, with your students and their families, or with your work teams!