Digital calendars are wonderful tools – until you try to make them work with school bell schedules.
With most of my Together Leaders going digital, we needed to find a way to make the standard time scales in Outlook and Google work for school folks. Enter this awesome manipulation by Zach S., a school leader in Brooklyn.
Let’s get in there. Go ahead, zoom in!
Did you catch how Zach uses the space on Sunday to actually map out his school’s bell schedule? Then he can hold it up against the rest of his week.
A school leader’s time is so dependent upon other happenings in the building. This little trick enables Zach to get a sense of what else is going on without having to a) cross-reference with another paper schedule nor 2) enter all of these bells as daily recurring appointments, which would seriously clutter up his calendar.
Zach says this about his hack: “I used to spend nearly an hour each Sunday flipping back and forth between our school schedule and my Outlook calendar– which is separated out by grade—trying to decide when plan observations. . I now can do the same task in less than 20 minutes and build my overall calendar for the week in nearly half the time it once took me.”
The lesson here: If you have a tool you love (like Zach does!), and it is working well, don’t get rid of it. Instead, look for ways to enhance it!
PS – For more digital goodies, check out our Together Tech Tips!
