Google Calendar Time Insights

#1 View in the left-side navigation

As some of you may know, I'm a fanatic about Google Calendar and have been for many years. I started really getting into using it back in 2010. At the time, I was working as an EdTech Coach full-time and it was an excellent way to organize my time. It also became a way to "justify" my job, because some segments of the school community were wondering why positions like mine exist. My calendar became a form of evidence that I could share to explain how my time was being used. As I moved to my next role as a Head of School, it was a form of accountability for the Board, faculty, and parents. During the next several jobs that I held, I continued to use Google Calendar to organize my time and also as a method of explaining my work to others. Which brings us to my current role as Director of Technology at St. Johnsbury Academy Jeju, where I am actually starting to use the color coding in calendar to track how and where my time is being used. If you haven't gotten this granular with Google Calendar, I am going to recommend that you do. The
visual quality of the data alone is helpful. As you can see in screenshot #1, this is what you see in Google Calendar on your left-side navigation. Using the "More insights" button will provide a new view, which is the "Time breakdown" panel. I find the "By color" option to be more useful for me, but you should

definitely experiment and find a system that works for you. One thing that I found was that I need to be careful with the different colors so that each one actually has a true meaning and allows me an opportunity to really document where my time is being used. For example, rather than specifically mentioning something like PowerSchool, I have the division of the school ES, MS, HS. When I do something, regardless of the program or tool used, I'm tracking which division I was doing it for, not that tool was used. This is a decision based on who I'm showing this data to later. Based on the population of each division, I want principals to be able to see how much of my time their division is getting. When it comes to my regular view in Google Calendar, I find the weekly view (screenshot #3) is more helpful to my job overall. Again, you should play around with different options to find the view that works best for your situation.

#3 Week view in Google Calendar

After using Google Calendar for over 15 years, I really can't imagine my work life without it. I have shared my calendar to my IT Department and Leadership Team, so they can all completely see it. The rest of the faculty and staff have access to see the "Tech Bytes" which are appointment slots for them to request direct support. As Gemini begins to rollout across the various Workspace tools, I'm excited what new possibilities will become available for organizing and documenting data about my schedule.

Google Drive Notifications in Chat

 

Some of my teachers started complaining about a new feature in Google. Now you can receive notifications about Google Drive in your chat and some folks think this is a very unwanted thing. If you are someone who simply can't deal with receiving notifications about Google Drive through chat, you can mute or uninstall them. Go to the chat window and look for the Google Drive chat. By using the three dots on the right side of it, you can select mute or uninstall. Enjoy!

Google Sites — Custom Themes

 

Cool Features in the Chrome Omnibox

So the Chrome Omnibox has been pretty cool since the beginning, but every once in a while, I notice something that makes the thing even more amazing. Today, for the first time, I discovered the features that allow you to send a website to a device and to create a QR code for the website. No need for an extra program to create QR codes anymore. Just make one from the Omnibox and screenshot it or download it. So easy! To find the features, put your cursor inside the Omnibox and they will appear on the right-side of the box. Enjoy!

New My Meetings Button in Gmail

 

A new feature has been added to Gmail! Now you can check and manage your Meetings from your Gmail account. I have right-side chat enabled, so mine appears on the right-top corner of my screen. If you don't have right-side chat enabled, it will be on the left-hand side of your screen beneath your labels. This makes managing your Meetings even easier. Nice!

Google Forms: Import Questions

Forms now has an import questions function so you can import questions from a previous Form. This will be a huge time savings if you are re-using questions from an older Form, which happens quite often in my experience. You can find the option on the regular toolbar on the left side of your Form, second icon on the list. Once you hit the button, you will open the box to select the Form you want to import questions from to your new Form. Enjoy!

New Features in Gmail -- Confidential and Signature

You now have a Confidential mode in your Gmail account. On your toolbar it appears as a small padlock. It allows you to set and expiration date for an email and you can require a passcode to unlock it. Pretty cool! There is also a way to control your signature with the email interface. The pen on the toolbar allows you to turn your signature on or off for an email. But there is more! In the upper right-hand side of your email, you also have buttons to create or join a Meet within your email account. And finally, when you are in an email, there is a button to create a task directly from the email. Super cool new features. Thanks Google!

Desktop Notifications from Google Calendar

One of my teachers realized that her Google Calendar desktop notifications didn't exist anymore and asked me how to get them back. Well... You can't get them back... Or can you? This video shows a work-around to getting desktop notifications back.

Google Classroom in 7 Slides

Updated version of the Google Classroom presentation. Still good, but now in less Slides!

Sharing in Shared Drives

So you are using Team Drives and you decide that you want to share a file, but you don't want everyone to be able to edit -- how? This presentation will walk you through changing the share settings on an individual item in a Team Drive.

A Calendar Catalog for School

Google Calendars are great for a variety of reasons, but one thing I have noticed is that sometimes at the beginning of the school year (and even during) some people don't end up getting access to all of the calendars they need in an easy way. After thinking about the whole situation for a long time (and very annoyingly re-sharing links and changing sharing options), I came across the a Google solution -- use Sheets to share them.

The presentation will walk people through the process of sharing their calendars this way. The journey starts in the settings for the calendar you want to share with multiple people. First decide what level of permission is required. Is it a calendar that needs to be shared publicly? Is it a calendar that only needs to be shared within your domain? That will determine which option to pick. Then copy the sharable link. If you are using Team Drives, you can place the Sheet in a Team Drive where everyone will have access. If you are not using Team Drives, you can go old school and share it with a group email. My Sheet has three basic columns -- Title of Calendar, Brief Description, Direct Link to Calendar. I broke my Sheet down with four tabs, one for each of the following groups: Whole School, First Program, Middle School, and High School. Teachers/Admin add links to their calendars that need to be shared and teachers go and add the calendars they need. If someone somehow or someway lose access, they simply go back to the Sheet and get the link.

Pear Deck

Bummer News about Google

Unfortunate news about Google. The widgets will no longer work, the buttons will no longer work, and the comments will be lost.

Reminders in Google Calendar

One of my colleagues didn't have Reminders in his Google Calendar and we couldn't understand why it wasn't available, but I was able to figure it out finally. I figured I better share the knowledge because I'm sure other people are having the same problem.

Youtube

Google Slides & Drawing

Basics of Google Classroom in 13 Slides

Google Sheets Now Has Checkboxes!

Youtube Creator Studio: End Screen & Annotations

Using Bookmarks in Docs

This 51 second video will teach you how to make Bookmarks in Google Docs. Worth the time!