Thing #12

Dear fellow teachers, 

Google Alerts are awesome!  Whatever type of teacher you end up becoming (i.e. a math teacher, a music teacher, a history teacher), you can set up Google Alerts that will send you all kinds of goodies on the web pertaining to the material you set up for your alert.  

For example, I want to be a middle school math teacher.  As you might be aware (or might not be) math teachers today are encouraged to be diverse enough to teach STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math).  So, a good idea for me is to set up a Google Alert (should all that be capitalized? There is a reason I did not pick to be an English teacher, but I digress) titled "Middle School STEM Projects."  So, what is going to happen after I set up my folder is Google is going to work it's magic and search the web high and low for me (DAILY!) for anything on the web that pertains to my Middle School STEM project alert and deliver everything to my email.  It is like doing a Google search daily only you don't do the Google search yourself, Google does it for you!  Pretty awesome, eh?  It really is cool.  

And the BEST part, you know how you Google something and if it's not on page 1 or if you are feeling frisky, page 2, you just click out of it and start a new search?  Well, if you have a Google Alert, you don't need to worry what is on page 2, 3 or even 210,789.  You will get everything published on the web pertaining to your alert right in your email! Piece of advice, t it's best to be as specific as you can so you don't get bombard with all kinds of emails. Trust me on this... I have made that mistake of setting up a Google Alert for "Reality TV" thinking I would get updates on some of my favorite Reality Shows. Well, I received emails about EVERYTHING Reality TV related and I do mean EVERYTHING!  I had to narrow my search down to my favorite shows and what I want to know about those favorite shows (i.e. "Emily Maynard as the next bachelorette", not just "The Next  Bachelorette"). 

As a side note, in my previous life as an office manager I would encourage the staff to set a Google Alert with their name.  A) It's fun to see if anyone out there as your name and B) it's just another way to keep tabs on anything that is being published on the web with your name.  Employers are going to Google you, it's best you know what they are going to find.  I thought I was the only person on earth with first and last name because it's not a common name. However, what I found was a girl with my same name who has a MySpace page, Facebook page and all kinds of other information. While she hasn't gone out and murdered a family of 10 or anything like that, I do want to keep tabs on her and more importantly, my name.  Plus, I'm not alone in this trend, even the infamous Kim Kardashian has a Google Alert with her name...

photo credit: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2091893/Kim-Kardashian-spotted-reading-Google-Alerts.html

Now, Google Calendar is a must have, especially if you have an iPhone or BlackBerry.  You can sync your phone's calendar with the Google calendar, plus you can send invites for meetings or birthday parties...whatever you need.   This can really come in handy as a teacher if you want to quickly schedule a meeting with other teachers after school.  You can, from your phone or computer, set up the meeting time and send out invites.  When your fellow teachers check their phones or emails during their lunch break or lesson planning period, they can respond by accepting or rejecting your invite.  That way you aren't taking time away from your classroom to try to schedule a meeting.  

Also, if you want to have open periods for parents to come in and talk to you or have a phone conference, you can have a public Google calendar set up with per-selected dates and times open where parents can just click on the date and set up a meeting with you as long as you give them permission via their email address to edit your calendar.  As long you have a public Google calendar and the parents email address (and the parents have a Google account, there should be no reason parents feel as if they have to wait until parent/teacher conference time to discuss their child's performance with you.  Also, with a public calendar where parents can go to and see when you are not busy, that might help them from calling you during your lesson planning periods and taking away from your planning time. 

Please note, it is my understanding that ALL parties involved in the Google calendar sharing thing have to have Google accounts.  Please let me know if I am wrong in the comments. 

Here is a link to my make believe teacher calendar
(be sure to click on the month view and not weekly) and my email for this calendar is jferrier2(at)my.apsu (dot)edu. 

 https://www.google.com/calendar/render?pli=1