Can you remember 167 birthdays? Should you?

Like many teachers, I began my school year teaching completely remote. It means that the last week in August found me in my makeshift home office, performing wildly to a screenful of tiny black rectangles. It didn’t exactly feel like teaching- more like talking at and hoping deeply. The hard fact is that students who I have never met (and may never meet) in person don’t have to show me anything if they don’t want to. Evidence that they hear me, or that they understand, or even evidence that they have a face is entirely up to them. Online learning can leave us starved of the usual back-and-forth exchange of eye contact, small talk, and smiles that cement together a new relationship. And those relationships are really, really important.

This is not just a people-person’s issue. This is a learning issue. There is a large body of research connecting student-teacher relationships with the likelihood that students will learn. The research is not surprising, because it confirms what most of us have experienced in our own education: if you have a good relationship with your teacher, you’re more likely to learn with her. What is significant about the research is not that relationships have an impact on learning (thank you, edu-researchers, we knew that already), but how much of an impact relationships have on learning. Student-teacher relationships are a factor strong enough to cause students to learn more than they would in an average a year (Hattie, 2012), and relationships could even come close to doubling a student’s average rate of learning (Cornelius-White, 2007).

This understanding, coupled with the preponderance of audio delays, empty screens, and weak internet connections that plague my class meetings, has got me willing to do just about anything to produce a specific body of evidence for my students: evidence that I notice them and that they are important. An email wishing one of my students happy birthday will not directly cause learning. But it is an investment in relationship that is well-worth the 30 seconds it takes to send them a quick note. Plus, thanks to some clever finagling of a birthday spreadsheet, Google Calendar will to the bulk of the work for me. How excited was I when I figured out how to do this? I may have been giddy enough to gift birthday calendars to a handful of my colleagues, each with 167 of their student contacts pre-loaded. It is a seriously cool trick that can help keep you on top of your birthday game. Here’s how:

How to import student birthdays into your Google Calendar

1. Use this Google Sheet template.

You do the work on Sheet 1, and Sheet 2 will make the magic happen.

2. Fetch your data.

There are two ways to “fetch” the data you need, to fill in the sheet. Once you have the info you need, copy & paste your it into the spreadsheet template from Step 1.

• Google Form- Students can fill this out themselves. The Results spreadsheet will give you all the data you need. Pro: no fancy LMS footwork required. Con: Student typos could result in incorrect birth dates or email addresses.

• Aeries or other LMS: If you (or an administrator) can run a report that will give you all the information you need, let that system do the work for you. If your school uses Aeries, this query will do nicely: LIST MST PD TCH.TE SEC STU STU.LN STU.FN STU.BD STU.SEM IF TCH.TE = your last name

3. Get Sheet 2 just right.

Make sure that all student’s birth years have changed to your current school years, and that they match the month/year you’ll be in school. I like to random-check a few names/emails/birthdays on Sheet 2, to make sure they’re correct.

4. Download as CSV

Make sure you’re looking at Sheet 2 as you do this one. File> Download> comma-separated values (csv, current sheet).

5. Create new Google Calendar

By creating a new calendar in Google, you have something that you can change or delete to your heart’s content. If you decide you want to change your reminder settings, or remove it altogether to make room for a new roster of students, you can.

6. Import that beautiful new CSV.

Did you know you could do this? Oh, the possibilities!

7. Set notifications

I like setting my alerts for “0 days” before, at 7:30 a.m. That way alerts come just before my classes start, so I can add a happy birthday to my class agenda and send a quick email.

8. Be an everlovin’ birthday boss!

Get out there and make those kids feel extra special.

Are there other ways to do this? You bet. This is the route that did it for me. Hope it can help you, too!

References:

Cornelius-White, J.H. (2007). Learner-Centered Teacher-Student Relationships Are Effective: A Meta-Analysis. Review of Educational Research, 77, 113 - 143.

Hattie, John.  (2012).  Visible learning for teachers : maximizing impact on learning.  London ; New York :  Routledge