Organize parent-teacher meetings with Calendly

Parent-teacher meetings usually generated their share of small response coupons to make up the meeting schedule. For teachers looking for a solution that takes advantage of digital technology and which adapts particularly well to meetings that have become virtual, here is a simple and effective solution, which seems to rally a majority of technophiles.

Calendly app allows you to schedule meetings by selecting availability time slots and to offer options to hold meetings, either by Google Meet, Teams, Zoom, or even by phone. Then just send a link to the recipients so they can choose the best time for them. As the recipients make their choice, the time slots disappear from the choices offered to others.

Synchronizing with a calendar ensures that meetings are entered automatically while generating the necessary connection links, or showing the phone number for those who prefer this option. Each event in the calendar will have its own link. The free version should be sufficient for the needs of the majority of teachers.

How to do?

To get started with Calendly, you must first enter a Google email address (gmail or linked to Google Suite). The dependence on Google ends here, however. In the "Calendar connection" settings, you can choose the calendar from another provider, for example Outlook. And as mentioned earlier, it is possible to hold the meetings through platforms other than Google Meet.

Once in Calendly, you have to create the event by following the steps. We determine the duration of each meeting by ideally planning a few minutes of beating between each, then we select the dates and time slots offered. We then copy the event link to send it to parents.

Some things to consider

• If you organize your meetings in Google Meet, check if access is allowed to Meet without a Google address. The IT departments of your school service center must authorize this. If parents don't have a Google Account and the school service center doesn't allow access, parents can also use their child's Google Account, if available.
• A parent who does not have an email address, but who has access to a device connected to the Internet (computer, tablet or cell phone) can still access a video conference by entering the URL address of the latter in their web browser .

Tutorials

In conclusion, in order to visualize the process in a very concrete way, we offer you these two tutorials:

• Organize meetings for parents Meet with Calendly by Sylvain Duclos
• Parent Meetings - Calendly and Google Meet by Annie Marois

For other options for organizing your parent meetings, Carrefour education offers its thematic guide. Meeting of parents in virtual format.