Problem:
Problem:
"During lockdown we conducted our Parents' Evening online using Google Meet, which worked really well but each teacher had to manually create an event for each student in their calendar to make a Meet link. Is there an easier way to do this?"
"During lockdown we conducted our Parents' Evening online using Google Meet, which worked really well but each teacher had to manually create an event for each student in their calendar to make a Meet link. Is there an easier way to do this?"
Solution:
Solution:
Yes! This project will take all of the details from a spreadsheet (EG name of student, parent email address, time of meeting) and create the events in the teacher's default Google calendar, then paste the Meet link back into the spreadsheet.
Yes! This project will take all of the details from a spreadsheet (EG name of student, parent email address, time of meeting) and create the events in the teacher's default Google calendar, then paste the Meet link back into the spreadsheet.
Note. It is important that the teachers do this themselves so that they will be the host in the Meets and can let the parents in. You might also want to get Google to allow anonymous people to join Meets created in your organisation (EG parents without a Google account - more info here and scroll to 'Google Workspace for Education users'.)
Note. It is important that the teachers do this themselves so that they will be the host in the Meets and can let the parents in. You might also want to get Google to allow anonymous people to join Meets created in your organisation (EG parents without a Google account - more info here and scroll to 'Google Workspace for Education users'.)
Follow the instructions on the 'Read Me' page, or watch the video below:
Follow the instructions on the 'Read Me' page, or watch the video below:
Video:
Video:
Short demo:
Longer demo with brief explanation of code:
FAQs:
FAQs:
How did you allocate a time slot for your parents?
How did you allocate a time slot for your parents?
We used a Google Form offering them a range of times and used the Form add-on 'Choice Eliminator' . The add-on would remove the time once a parent had selected it. Some schools use their own systems to do this EG ParentMail. Others just give parents a time without the choice.
We used a Google Form offering them a range of times and used the Form add-on 'Choice Eliminator' . The add-on would remove the time once a parent had selected it. Some schools use their own systems to do this EG ParentMail. Others just give parents a time without the choice.
How was the experience of conducting meetings online?
How was the experience of conducting meetings online?
The meetings went surprisingly well - in general we had more parents 'turn up' than on a regular parents' evening and we often had more than one parent join, even from separate locations EG one parent at work. We surveyed parents afterwards and of the 150ish responses, 2/3 said they would prefer to do parents' evening like this in the future, regardless of lockdowns. 1/3 said they prefer meeting fact to face and seeing examples of student work. In future we may offer a mixture of the two approaches. Parents with more than one child were particularly grateful for this approach as it meant they didn't have to sit in corridors trying to entertain young siblings while waiting for meetings to take place. Staff were mostly in favour of the online version too.
The meetings went surprisingly well - in general we had more parents 'turn up' than on a regular parents' evening and we often had more than one parent join, even from separate locations EG one parent at work. We surveyed parents afterwards and of the 150ish responses, 2/3 said they would prefer to do parents' evening like this in the future, regardless of lockdowns. 1/3 said they prefer meeting fact to face and seeing examples of student work. In future we may offer a mixture of the two approaches. Parents with more than one child were particularly grateful for this approach as it meant they didn't have to sit in corridors trying to entertain young siblings while waiting for meetings to take place. Staff were mostly in favour of the online version too.