CONNECTING WITH PARENTS USING SIGN UP GENIUS

When I first started teaching, I remember going to special 2-hour meetings, twice a year, to schedule conferences. We'd all sit at tables in a huge circle as the principal hunched over an accordion-folded stack of printed names of students at the school that also had siblings in attendance. Students that received additional services were also listed so that we could all coordinate conference times that would make it easier for those families to attend back-to-back conferences instead of possibly coming on separate nights if these  scheduling meetings did not occur. It generally ran smoothly enough, but I doubt there were many that didn't feel like they had more pressing matters to attend to, like preparing for the conferences themselves.

As technology develops with time, websites like Sign Up Genius are changing the way teachers schedule meetings with parents and family.  Sign Up Genius is a website that allows schools and teachers to organized dates and create meeting times before emailing others to take part. The graphic below illustrates how easy the steps are to this process on their site:

This process allows for more flexibility for all parties. Teachers no longer need to coordinate times to accommodate for certain students. Parents are able to log in at any time to schedule times that work best for their schedules. Reminders are automatically sent, saving additional time. One account can be used  to organize multiple classrooms. As each group/classroom is added, family emails can be included for each class should they have more than one child attending the school. Teachers and administration can make changes to the schedule to allow for specified break times are parent requests.

No matter the size of school, any teacher would benefit from using Sign Up Genius. It allows for greater flexibility in planning and communicating. It can be accessed 24/7 by both teachers and parents and saves the waste of paper for notifications. Set up is easy and intuitive; once family emails are collected they simply need to be entered into Sign Up Genius and the website will store everything there.

Concerning cost, like many other sites Sign Up Genius is offered for free, but the options are more limited. Below is a table that shows the services offered for each tier of cost. Pricing information is also available at http://www.signupgenius.com/pricing

ISTE Standards for Teachers

(Click on the link above for descriptions of the following standards this tool can address.)

       Facilitate and Inspire student learning and creativity (d)

       Model digital age work and learning (a, b, c, d)

       Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility (a, b, c)

       Engage in professional growth and leadership (a, b, c, d)

Sources:

http://www.signupgenius.com/