Friday, September 25, 2015

Calendar Integration Comes to Google Classroom!

Calendar Integration Comes to Google Classroom!

In this post you will learn how to:
1. Set up Calendar Integration
2. Give parents access
3. Expand your use
4. Import your original class calendar into your newly made Google Classroom calendar.


1. Setting Up Google Classroom Calendar Integration.
There are two ways to have your Google Calendar integrated with your Google Classroom.
1. From now on, where you create a new Classroom, a Google Calendar will be created for you. This calendar will also be automatically shared with your students in your Classroom.
2. If you already have an existing Classroom, all you need to do is create a new post (announcement or assignment) in the stream. At this point, This calendar will also be automatically shared with your students in your Classroom.
You'll receive this notification in Google Classroom
when you receive the new calendar feature.


Once the calendar has been generated, you and your students will have easy access to it from the About tab.

Easy access to the calendar from the About tab.

View in Classroom will open up the built in calendar in Google Classroom. This is another really nice feature of calendar integration. Teachers and students can access a built in calendar from the side menu. This calendar will include assignments from all classes (and you can filter classes as well).

Check out the new built in calendar in Google Classroom!


Open in Google Calendar will open up the teacher and students' Google Calendar where they can access their class assignments (and other calendars).

The Google Calendar will show all Assignments with due dates.


2. Give Parents Access
Many teachers are still waiting for parent access to Google Classroom. I'm not sure if it will ever truly have parent access, but this new calendar integration offers an easy way for teachers to share information with families at home.

Find the "Share this Calendar" setting in the menu.

Once your calendar has been generated, go visit calendar.google.com. Look for your Classroom calendar in the list of "My Calendars" on the left of the screen. Next to the name of the calendar is a drop down arrow. Click it to access the"Share this Calendar" option.


In order for parents to access the calendar, you need to "Make this calendar public". Check the two boxes at the top (as seen in the above screenshot). The click the SAVE button at the bottom of the page.


Now you need to give parents a way to access the calendar online. You have two options:

1. You can embed the Google Calendar on your webpage and then instruct the parents to access your class website. 

2. You can also give parents the direct URL to the calendar. To do this, click the drop down arrow next to your calendar again. This time choose "Calendar settings".

Find the "Calendar settings" in the menu.

In the settings menu, look for "Calendar Address:" and click the blue "HTML" button. This will give you the direct URL which you can then copy/paste into an email or share with parents.


With either method, you can also instruct the parents to click the "+ Google Calendar" button in the bottom right corner of the calendar. This will allow them to add the calendar to their own list of Google Calendars so they always have easy access to it.



3. Expand the Use of the Google Calendar

The Google Calendar generated by Google Classroom will only include Assignments that have due dates. However, as the teacher, you can add other events to the Google Calendar, such as upcoming field trips, reminders, project deadlines, etc. Just remember to choose the Classroom calendar when you create the event.

Add other class events to the same Google Calendar!

4. Import your originals class calendar into your newly made Google Classroom calendar.
Use the following tutorial like to learn how to migrate two calendars together https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh0Rgy7XUcQ) 






This blog post is courtesy of: http://technocation.blogspot.com/2015/09/calendar-integration-comes-to-google.html 

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