Digital Organization Tips for Students with Gmail, Tasks and Calendar

Time management is something students need to learn to be successful the modern classroom and workforce. As more teachers rely on digital tools for distributing and collecting materials and student work, there are many simple ways in Google Workspace for students to manage time and organize themselves digitally. Take a look at a few of my favorite tips and tricks.

Google Classroom, Google Calendar and Google Tasks

When teachers assign assignments in Google Classroom, students receive an email notification. Keeping track of Google Classroom notifications for multiple classes can be tricky. To help to remember to work on an assignment, when the student opens the email, they can click the Add to Tasks button on the top toolbar. 

When they click the Add to Tasks button, Google Tasks will open on the right side panel. The subject of the email will be added as a task. Below the task, students will see a button that will give them one click access directly back to this email if they choose to address the assignment later. Next to the task, there is also an edit button.

When they click the edit button, they can add a time reminder that will alert them when they are ready to work on this assignment. 

Another simple tip for students is to create a task independently that will remind them to check Google Classroom for new assignments and announcements. When they click edit, they can not only set a time reminder, but make it recur daily.

When students use Google Tasks, their tasks can appear in Google Calendar. If they have the Google Calendar app, they can receive push notifications on their phones for each task just like a calendar event. To enable Tasks in Google Calendar, on the left side, below My Calendars, click the checkbox for Tasks. In addition, students can view Google Classroom assignments in Google Calendar. They can enable this the same way as Tasks.

My recommendation for easily viewing tasks and Google Classroom assignments in Google Calendar, as seen above, is to use the Schedule view. You can change the view by clicking the button at the top next to the waffle. Enabling this view shows a list, in chronological order of all calendar events and tasks for one day at a time.

Organize Gmail Inbox with Labels

As an edtech coach, I have seen countless students' Gmail inboxes. More often than not, their inboxes are an unorganized mess with thousands of emails. A good practice for students is to organize their inboxes with labels. Think of labels in Gmail like folders in Google Drive. Have students create labels for each subject or teacher and move messages that need to be saved into the respective folders. Remind students to delete messages they know they don't need anymore.

For example, if there are a bunch of messages from science class, have students move them into a science label. Get started by check marking the messages you want to move. At the top, click the Move To button. 

If you don't have a label created yet, click Create new. If one is already created, click the label in the list that appears in the dropdown menu.

When you create a new label, a pop up will appear. Name the label and click Create.

Your labels will appear in alphabetical order on the left side of Gmail below Drafts. Click on your labels to view the messages in each label.

Feel free to use these tips to streamline your workflow and organize your digital workload, and don't forget to share with your students. If you have any questions and would like a follow up, contact me via Gmail or Chat at ajuarez@techcoachjuarez.com. 

My book, The Complete EdTech Coach: An Organic Approach to Digital Learning, co-authored with my wife Katherine Goyette is now available on Amazon. Click here to purchase. It is published by Dave Burgess Publishing. Be sure to follow the hashtag #OrganicEdTech and #CVTechTalk for updates.

Google Classroom "Upcoming & To Review/To Do": What is it??

Perhaps you haven't paid it any attention, but there is a relatively new feature visible in the Google Classroom Stream. Off to the left, you will see a small section that says "Upcoming." At a glance, it shows you what assignments are due soon. It appears the same from both teacher and student perspective, but it will operate differently in each. 

I use this feature weekly when I attempt to keep up with student work. This saves me time of having to look through and open each assignment in Classwork. In addition, I can categorize assignments as "reviewed" and only see ones that still need my attention. On the student side, they are able to see their assignments as Assigned, Missing or Done. This simple tool can be very valuable for both teachers and students when managing time and workflow.

Below is a series of screenshots that shows you how to get started using Google Classroom's "Upcoming & To Review" features.

Teacher

When you open a Google Classroom, on the Stream tab, you will see small box titled Upcoming. In this box, there will be displayed some assignments that are due soon. If you click on any of the assignments in the box, it will take directly to the assignment to evaluate student work. If you click "View all", you'll be taken to the "To Review" page for that particular Google Classroom.

On the To review page, you will see your assignments with how many have turned it in, still assigned and graded. At the top, it shows which class you are viewing. If you click that button, you can switch to other classes.

Next to each assignment, on the right, click the three dots and you can mark an assignment as reviewed. This is a great tool for organizing assignments, on the teacher end. When you mark an assignment as reviewed, It will "disappear" from To review and placed in the Reviewed tab at the top. This is a great tool for categorizing assignments for which you are no longer accepting late work. This will not show up on the student end though. That feature is yet to come from Google. 

Student

On the student side of Google Classroom, when they click Upcoming, they will see three categories: Assigned, Missing, Done. Assigned are assignments in which they have not completed, but the due date has not yet passed. Missing are assignments in which have not completed and the due date has already passed. Done refers to assignments in which they have already submitted. This is a great tool for students to monitor their work.

If you have any questions and would like a follow up, contact me via Gmail or Hangouts at ajuarez@techcoachjuarez.com. 

My book, The Complete EdTech Coach: An Organic Approach to Digital Learning, co-authored with my wife Katherine Goyette is now available on Amazon. Click here to purchase. It is published by Dave Burgess Publishing. Be sure to follow the hashtag #OrganicEdTech and #CVTechTalk for updates.

Use Google Classroom to Create Class Period Email Groups

 

In my experience with distance learning, I have come to realize that students vary on their preferred method of communication. Google Classroom is my main platform. In addition to assignments posted, I use the Stream daily to send messages and reminders. Since we started distance learning last spring, I have noticed many students ignore the alerts from Google Classroom Stream announcements. Many of these students tend to respond better to emails. 

To best meet the needs of students, I have been sending reminders and announcements on both the Google Classroom Stream and email. Is it a little bit of extra work for me? Yes, but it's not too much work and it's what students need. Any way we can streamline this process and shave off some clicks, seconds and minutes is valuable.

One way to streamline this process is to create a label in Gmail for all students in a particular class. With a label like this set, when in Gmail, start typing the label name and quickly enter all students' names. This will save you time of having to manually enter names or go to the Google Classroom People tab to select students and email from the Actions button. Setting up labels for your classes also saves time when sending messages to multiple classes.

Below is a series of screenshots for getting started creating a label for each class without having to manually enter each student's name one by one.

Step 1: Go to People tab in one of your Google Classrooms. Check the box below Students to select all students.

Step 2: Click the Actions button. In the dropdown menu, select Email.                                  

   

Step 3: A new tab will open in Chrome. This tab will be a message to be composed in Gmail. All student names will be placed automatically into the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy row). This means each student will receive the message without seeing who else is also receiving the same message. This will help you manage replies as there will be no reply all's.

Click BCC.

              

Step 4: After clicking BCC, a small window will pop up. All student names will appear checked. Click Manage labels.

Step 5: In the dropdown that appears, go to the bottom and click Create label. If you have already created a label beforehand, click the label for where you want to place these students. 

Step 6: If you are creating the label for the first time, give the label a name and click Save.

If you want to check your label and see who is in it, go to contacts.google.com. On the left side, you will see a list of labels. Click on the label and it will display all the names saved to that label. 

Step 7: Now that you have created the label, the next time you want to email the whole class, don't go to Classroom. Start composing your email in Gmail. In the recipient row, start typing the name of the label. The label will show as a suggestion. Click the label.

Step 8: After clicking on the label, all the names will appear. To message multiple classes, you can type other class labels and those names will be added to the message. My advice is to use BCC to manage replies from students.

The labels you create are private to your account only. In Google districts, email groups are set up for all users to use to send messages to teachers, admin, departments, etc. Nobody will be able to type your label and email your students. 

If you have any questions and would like a follow up, contact me via Gmail or Hangouts at ajuarez@techcoachjuarez.com. 

My book, The Complete EdTech Coach: An Organic Approach to Digital Learning, co-authored with my wife Katherine Goyette is now available on Amazon. Click here to purchase. It is published by Dave Burgess Publishing. Be sure to follow the hashtag #OrganicEdTech and #CVTechTalk for updates.

Workflow: Remind Yourself to Schedule Student Reminders

 

Reminders for both students and teachers are extremely important in distance learning. For teachers, any way we can automate our workflow is welcomed. A big part of that workflow is to remind students of due dates. As flustered as teachers are with the rigors of distance learning, students are in the same boat. A simple way to help students is to schedule reminders for assignments, due dates and more. Sending reminders to students is no easy task, but using Google Workspace tools, formerly GSuite, can automate this process for you.

Below is a series of screenshots that shows you how I use a combination of Google Tasks, Google Classroom and Gmail to automate my workflow for sending reminders to students.

As I assign activities in Google Classroom, I like to remind students of due dates the night before or the morning of. When the assignment due dates are a few days away, I go into Google Tasks (on the side panel of Gmail) and Add a task to remind me to schedule a reminder.  

For the reminder in Tasks, I copy the link from the Google Classroom assignment for which I want to remind students. When the schedule student reminder goes out, they will be able to click this link and be taken right to the assignment in Google Classroom.

In the task, I paste the link in the Task where it says Add details. This is accessed by clicking the "Pencil Edit Button" on the right of the Task. In addition, I click Add date/time to set a time and date to remind me to send the reminder to students. 

When setting date/time, there is a button to make the reminder repeat. The screenshot below shows you how to set it to be daily, weekly or monthly.

When you've set your reminder, repeating or not, what you see below is what it will look like in Google Tasks.

When you open Google Tasks in the side panel, you will see the task and the link to the assignment for which you want to remind students. When you get the alert, copy the link.

With the link copied to your clipboard, head over to the People Tab in Google Classroom. Scroll down to your Students list and click the top checkbox to select all students.

With all students selected, click Actions. In the dropdown menu that appears, select Email.

A new window will open where all students will be entered into the BCC line. This will make it appear to the students as if you sent a personal email to each. Type your subject, a short message and paste the link. If the due date is days away, instead of clicking Send, click the "little arrow" next to Send to Schedule the message/reminder to go out in the near future.

When you click Schedule send, you are able to choose from some preset dates and times or choose your own. 

Any scheduled email reminders in Gmail will appear in the Scheduled label on the left side of Gmail.

For me, these tools have been a lifesaver during distance learning. Now that I have a weekly routine set, I have repeating reminders in Google Tasks for sending or scheduling reminders to students. When I open Gmail in the morning, a fresh list of Tasks awaits me with the links I need to send reminders for my students. Once I send or schedule the reminder, I check it off my list in Tasks. If this is a repeating Task, it will appear the next week or day depending on how I set it to repeat.

My book, The Complete EdTech Coach: An Organic Approach to Digital Learning, co-authored with my wife Katherine Goyette is now available on Amazon. Click here to purchase. It is published by Dave Burgess Publishing. Be sure to follow the hashtag #OrganicEdTech and #CVTechTalk for updates.

If you have any questions and would like a follow up, contact me via Gmail or Hangouts at ajuarez@techcoachjuarez.com. If you would like to unsubscribe from this blog, go to bit.ly/tcjinbox.