Month: January 2019

January 25, 2019

Have you ever had to plan a family party or a small get together? Even something as small as that can take a lot of time and work. Now imagine planning and managing a high school Prom. There’s 3,000 students attending. Where do you even begin? My School Dance came out with a general Prom Planning Timeline that most Prom Planners follow. Trust me, if you haven’t started planning yet you need to get on it!

• ASAP–Finalize the date and time, Theme, Book venue, DJ, Begin marketing efforts, Book photographers, Book caterers, & Start thinking about your decorations.
• 4-6 Months–Create your tickets, Select prom favors, Begin getting together all decorations and themed items, & Figure out the food and drinks you’ll provide.
• 2-4 Months–Create a managing agenda, Continue working on DIY decorations, Start pushing out marketing and social media efforts, Create playlists and other media, & Reserve any rented items.
• 3-6 Weeks–Constantly oversee data and reporting, Discuss photo opportunities with photographer, Continue pushing marketing efforts, & Purchase extra items for decorating such as tape, cords, scissors, batteries, pens, water, etc.
• 1-4 Weeks–Prepare a floor plan/seating chart if needed, Double-check all items on a checklist, Finish up all decorations & DIY projects, Check if any hired help (DJ’s, photographer, caterer) needs anything, Check equipment and lighting, & Purchase remaining items.
• 1-2 Days–Exchange contact info with all services hired, Pick up last minute items, Pick up rental items, Begin set-up early or night before, Prepare payment for services, & Check reporting.

Many people don’t realize planning for a big event like Prom takes months of work. How do schools expect a few teachers to do all of this on their own and still do their job of educating students everyday?

If your school uses My School Dance to help manage your dance, it will cut this timeline down in half. We provide a much more simple and time-saving solution for our Prom Planners. Plus, it’s free for schools to use My School Dance. Sign your school up today and we can start managing Prom as a team!

Contact:

Stephanie Hamilton

833-336-8656

January 18, 2019

In the words of Henry Ford, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” I strongly believe that adapting to change is something everyone needs to learn to do. In order to survive, you must learn to adapt. Right?

I’m Stephanie Hamilton, the Media & Marketing Specialist with My School Dance. Let’s talk about change. We always hear the phrase, “We’re old-fashioned” or “We’re stuck in our old ways”. Why does it have to be like that? Take a risk and try something new. Especially when it comes to dance managing.

Prom planners, students, teachers, administrators, parents, whoever you are: Stop planning your dances and events the old fashion way. Here’s the number one reason why. Time.

You ever hear someone say, “There’s just not enough time in the day”. Well it’s true, and that’s why My School Dance is here to help. By using our processes, you’re given those few extra hours a day to focus on whatever you want to focus on.

Do you realize how much time you’ll save in all your dance processes?

• You gain your lunch hours back. No need to sell tickets at lunch when you can sell them online.
• You don’t have to manually flip through the entire packet of names to find the student checking into the dance. Just scan their QR code on their ticket with your mobile device.
• Don’t go out of your way to chase students down to turn in their permission slips. They can sign and submit them online.
• Why waste time creating flyers and hanging them up around the school when you can just share your dance landing page on all of the school’s social media accounts? 
• Who wants to enter in all of the data into an excel sheet? Nobody. That’s why we have live reporting where you can just download your data without typing everything in.

Doesn’t this sound like it will save your life during dance planning season? On top of all of these awesome time-saving features, we even provide dance planning checklists, local DJ’s, venues, and more.

Now after all of that, why would you want to plan the “old fashion way?” Did I mention, My School Dance is free for all schools to use. So not only are you gaining time, but you’re also not spending any additional money. Doesn’t get much better than that. Sign your school up today and a dance partner can walk you through the entire process.

Contact:

Stephanie Hamilton

833-336-8656

January 11, 2019

Hey everyone! Welcome back to the second half of the school year! My name is Stephanie Hamilton and I am the Media & Marketing Specialist with My School Dance. Now that we’re in the second half of the year, students are starting to become more drained and they don’t have as much motivation. What better way to kick off the new year by hosting a Sweetheart Dance in February for the students? This will get them interacting with one another and they’ll have a fun event to look forward to.

A lot of schools tend to not have a Sweetheart Dance due to the limited budget they are provided for school dances. I’m here to tell you that even if you are on a low budget, you’re able to host a Sweetheart Dance. Everyone always assumes dances are going to cost a lot of money, which can be true. However, I strongly believe that if you try, you can plan a dance without exceeding your budget. I’ve listed some ways that your school can plan a Sweetheart Dance while on a low budget below:

• Venue– Usually, the venue is one of the most expensive components when planning a dance, but you don’t have to go all out for a Sweetheart Dance. That’s the best part. This is more of a casual dance, compared to Prom. Host your dance in your school’s gymnasium or cafeteria. Basically, any area in your school that is big enough to hold a decent amount of students. The venue doesn’t need to be some extravagant event space. By using your school, you won’t have to pay for a venue at all!
• Decor– A Sweetheart Dance requires very little decor. All you have to buy are balloons, streamers, paper, and maybe a few lights. Check out your art classroom to see if there’s anything you can use from there as decorations. Some easy things you can do with these supplies are create paper flowers and hearts, hang streamers and lights around the ceiling, create balloon hearts, and make tissue paper pom poms.
• Music– Instead of hiring a band or a DJ, reach out to your students for volunteers. Usually, there’s at least a few students that are already in bands or sing. Or you can post flyers around town and see if any bands are willing to volunteer their time to perform for the high school. If you can’t find volunteers, the next best thing would be to make a playlist on your phone or laptop and hook it up to a bluetooth speaker.
• Photo Booth– Photo areas are becoming more and more popular at big events, like dances. Instead of hiring a Photo Booth company, create your own DIY backdrop for students to take pictures by. My School Dance’s Pinterest page has many different ideas for backdrops that doesn’t require a lot of time or material. Try to get a volunteer to take pictures for students or have a volunteer from the Photography or Newspaper Club take pictures for a set amount of time.
• Food– There’s no need to have food at all of your dances. For the most part, students tend to go out to eat after the dance is over. If you feel the need to have some sort of food, ask local businesses to donate food for the event.
• Tickets– Use My School Dance so you’re able to sell tickets online to the students. This is free for all schools and will make the management process a lot easier than the old methods.
• Volunteers– Ask parents or teachers to volunteer their night to help chaperone, set up, and clean up the dance. Most will be willing to donate a few hours to help the students.

Now that we’ve figured out how to plan a Sweetheart Dance on a low budget, what are you waiting for? February is only one month away! Get to planning and start managing this dance with My School Dance! There’s no cost for schools to use our platform. Sign your school up today!

Contact:

Stephanie Hamilton

833-336-8656

January 4th, 2019

Happy New Year everyone! For those who don’t know me, I’m Stephanie Hamilton and I am the Media & Marketing Specialist with My School Dance. It’s crazy to think that it’s already 2019. Personally, I have a very good feeling about 2019 and am excited to see what’s in store for us here at My School Dance!

2018 was a great year for My School Dance and I’m so excited I was able to be a part of it. I think it’s important to go back and reflect upon the year to see how far you’ve grown and to come up with some goals for the new year.

Our past year consisted of collaborating as a team to better our platform, strategizing to create new enhancement ideas, and attending/presenting at a lot of trade shows all over the country. We’re excited about what our platform can do for your school and are continuing to spread awareness especially since Prom season is quickly approaching!

Some of the things My School Dance is looking forward to the most in 2019 are:

• New Enhancements– We’ve got some awesome new features/enhancements in place for our platform that will make managing your school’s Prom even better.
• Tradeshows– There’s some really awesome trade shows coming up that we’ll be attending. There’s even a few that we haven’t gone to before, which will be exciting. It’s always fun meeting new people at the shows and getting to network with other companies!
• Prom Season– Our favorite time of the year is going to be here before we know it. My School Dance is known for “Prom Planning and Managing.” We’re excited to help all of our teachers out there so they don’t have a stressful time managing such a big event. 

2019 is going to be an exceptional year for everyone and My School Dance is ready for it. Reflect on your past year and respond back with what your 2019 goals are. We want to know! 

Are you in charge of planning your school’s Prom? Start your year off right by signing your school up with My School Dance for free! Why not start off stress free? Sign your school up today! 

Contact:

Stephanie Hamilton

833-336-8656