Productivity and Organization

Learning outcomes

Content

Students will...

1. become familiar with using Calendar to see class homework and organize themselves.
2. learn to use Drive to turn in homework to teachers.

Technology skill(s)

Students will...

1. subscribe to class homework calendars.
2. learn to use Drop folder to turn in documents to teachers.
3. create an SAS YouTube channel.
4. use Quicktime to make a screen recording.
5. upload a video to YouTube.
6. make a blog post.

Google Calendar

Open Google Chrome and log in to your SAS Google account.

Click on the link below and follow the instructions to add your teachers' homework calendars to your own Google Calendar. Don't forget to add the MS Events and MS Days calendars as well as your elective (encore) class calendars.

MS Homework Calendars

Google Drive

You can use Google Drive to organize and save all of your work in the cloud. You can turn in homework using your class Drop folders in Drive and some teachers may also use Drive to share documents with you.

How to use your class Drop folders

If you are working on homework in a Google Doc and your teacher asks you to turn it in using the Drop folder, follow these instructions. The following video will show you how to create a new document, rename it, and organize it into multiple locations including your class drop folder so that your teacher can see it. (You can also see a step by step guide here.)

Now you try!

1. Create a new Google Doc.
2. Name your file - "Practice with Google Drive - G6 Math"
3. (Use this naming convention throughout middle school. Naming your files well is good practice for keeping your files organized and easily searchable. You will also be able to easily tell which documents are for which class.)
4. If your teacher wants you to add anything in the Google Doc, add it now.
5. Move your document into your Math Drop folder.
6. Teachers: Go to Teacher Dashboard and show students how their documents appear for you.

For more help organizing your Google Drive, watch this YouTube video on your own time for help. Remember, you can put files in multiple folders by holding down the command key when in the Organize area.

Set up a YouTube Channel

Follow these steps to set up a YouTube Channel. This only needs to be done once.

Read the last thing on the instructions page regarding the privacy settings for the videos you upload. All videos you upload to your SAS YouTube channel should be set as "Unlisted". This will ensure that others can see your videos but they won't be searchable.

Exploration Time

Your turn

Explore some of the features of Google Drive and Google Calendar. See the list below for ideas.

Calendar and Drive Exploration

Explore Google Calendar and Google Drive. See how many of the following things you can figure out how to do. When you find something interesting or useful, please share with a neighbor.

First try these in Google Calendar

1. Explore the different views on your calendar (Day, Week, Month, 4 Days, Agenda). Think about how each view is useful. Which will you look at for big events? Which will you look at to help manage homework?
2. Explore setting up tasks in the calendar. (Check out this site and this video for help.) Tasks are a GREAT way for you to keep track of your homework.

More things to try in Google Calendar

1. Turn calendars on and off so you can see just the ones you want to see.
2. Change calendar colors to customize how it looks.
3. Add a calendar event to your personal calendar.
4. Add a pop-up or email reminder to an event...one of your own or a homework you don't want to forget about.
5. Add a pop-up or email reminder to an entire calendar.
6. Unsubscribe from a calendar you don't want listed anymore.

Google Drive

1. Create your own personal folder.
2. Create a document, spreadsheet, presentation and drawing and see what you can do in each of them.
3. Put a file in two different folders.
4. Add a new font in a Google document.
5. Use "Insert Image" and add a Stock photo to a Google Doc or Presentation.
6. Share a Google Doc with someone in the class.
7. Challenging: Use the headings and then create a table of contents.
8. Challenging: Create your own Google Presentation theme.

Pick something useful that you want to share with others. It can be something that isn't on the list above.

If you need help, try the Google Calendar Help Site or Calendar Basics or Calendar Set Up and the Google Drive Help Site.

At Home

Do you have a mobile phone and want to sync your SAS Gmail and Calendars to your phone? Follow the instructions located here.

Share your Learning

The activity for this lesson is to share what you've learned with others! Create a short (60 seconds) screencast showing something useful you want to share with others about Google Calendar or Drive.

1. Make a quick screencast using QuickTime. (The two help videos below are good examples of a screencast/screen recording.)
   • Not sure how? Watch this.
   • Having audio problems? Watch this.
2. Upload your video to your SAS YouTube account.
3. Make sure you are logged in to your SAS Google account and then go to blogger.com.
4. Create a new blog post.

Blog post title - Productivity and Organization

Labels - Copy and paste ALL of the following core labels into the label area of your blog post.

gr6, homebase, bootcamp, math, pe, rla, science, ss

Now copy and paste YOUR elective class labels separated with a comma. Don't copy them all.

art, band, chinese, choir, cooking, dance, drama, french, it, japanese, spanish, strings, support, teched, video, learning

Blog body - Embed your YouTube video and a short description of your video and why it is useful for others.

(Not sure how to embed your YouTube video? Look here.)

Publish!