It’s the beginning of 2015, and it’s time to prepare a new classroom calendar and a new study calendar.
2014 was a great year. Tekhnologic had a fantastic start and it was a year I picked up some new tips from colleagues.
One of these tips was to use a classroom calendar.
I hadn’t used a classroom calendar previously. I knew that I didn’t want to use a paper calendar because that would have been impractical. I don’t always teach in the same room.
So, I decided to make a calendar in PowerPoint and it wasn’t long before I saw the benefits of using a classroom calendar.
Numbers and Dates
Students can use months and days regularly, and practise ordinal numbers.
Important dates
Students are regularly informed about important dates and events.
National Holidays
The names of national holidays can be translated into English, giving students the ability to talk about those dates in English.
National Holidays and Festivals from Around the World
Are great to include because it gives you a launching pad into a cultural topic.
Fun Days
You can include fun days, such as: ‘National High-five day’ and ‘Talk like a pirate day’ and bring a little humour and curiosity to the room.
Svetlana Kandybovich has suggested a great activity.
“Make your own ‘Fun Day’ calendar – this could make a really nice project for students”
You can read more of her ideas here.
I also started keeping a study calendar in Excel.
The Excel calendar can be used for many things. I use one to keep track of the classes I teach, but it can also be used for classes you take, or to keep track of what you have been studying.
Why use them instead of calendar apps?
Because they are simpler and they can be exported as .jpeg or .png files and inserted into any presentation or document, which is easier than linking to an external source. They are easy to edit, easy to customize and easy to print if you need to.
Earlier last week, I started to prepare my calendars for 2015, and I decided to publish the templates here.
If the templates I’ve made aren’t what you are looking for, check out Microsoft’s templates page.
2015 Calendar in PowerPoint
Click on 2015 Calendar pptx to download the PowerPoint version of the calendar or visit the downloads page.I created this calendar by adding new layouts to the theme in the slide master view.
2015 Calendar in PowerPoint
On each slide there are two types of placeholders.
Picture Placeholders
There are two picture placeholders on the left-hand side of the calendar. Drag and drop your own images into the box to personalize your calendar.
Text Placeholders
There is a text placeholder for every day, so that you can add your events to the calendar easily.
Editing the Calendar
If you would like to edit the calendar further, please go to the tips & tricks page and read the entry about the slide master view.
2015 Calendar in Excel
Click on 2015 Calendar xlsx to download the Excel version of the calendar or visit the downloads page.I created this calendar by using the IF function in Excel and by adding some conditional formatting to the worksheets.
2015 Calendar in Excel
Each worksheet is a different month, with a final worksheet which calculates the beginning and the end of the month.
The Excel file contains a lot of conditional formatting. This tell the calendar to highlight the current day. A good tip to know in Excel is how to enter data into multiple worksheets. If you press CTRL and click on the all the worksheets, the information you enter on the first sheet will be repeated on all the sheets. This means you don’t always have to type regular events in.
I have checked this Excel file, but if you have any problems with the formulas or conditional formatting, please leave a comment or contact tekhnologic.
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