Use Google Tasks to Set "Reminders for Reminders"

Helping remind students to stay on top of work in distance learning isn't easy. As much students need reminders, we, the adults, need them too. Hours of video calls per day can fry your brain. I always like to send students reminders for due dates. My favorite tool for reminding me to send student reminders is Google Tasks. Google Tasks is built in to Gmail. When I set a task in Google Tasks, with a due date, it adds it to my Google Calendar. This helps me remember to send students reminders of due dates for assignments. 

Consider this scenario. You just finished a lesson with your class on Zoom or Google Meet. Students were assigned some work asynchronously based on the content of the lesson due some time in the near future. You are worried students may forget. Use these steps to use Google Tasks to schedule "reminders of the reminders"

Step 1: In the Classwork tab of Google Classroom, click the three dots on the assignment in which you want to remember to remind your students. Click Copy link.

Step 2: Access Google Tasks in the right side panel in Gmail (it's also accessible in Drive, Calendar, Docs, Sheets and Slides). Click Add a task

Step 3: Title your "reminder to remind students" task and paste the Google Classroom assignment link in the box where it says Add details. Set a time and date for your reminder.

Step 4: When your reminder notification alerts you, open Tasks, find the task, copy the link and paste it into an announcement in the Google Classroom Stream.

Students will receive a notification that you've created an announcement in the Stream. When they open the notification, they will have that clickable link to the assignment. For those students who struggle to stay on top of assignments, this can be very helpful. 

If you have any questions and would like a follow up, contact me via Gmail or Hangouts at ajuarez@techcoachjuarez.com. If you would like to unsubscribe from this blog, go to bit.ly/tcjinbox.