Month: May 2019

May 31, 2019

It’s important to keep students connected, collaborating, and engaged throughout your lesson plans. Especially towards the end of the school year when students are getting antsy about summer approaching. Check out these 5 ways to get students more engaged in the classroom:

• Warm-Ups: Before beginning your lessons for the day, have your students do a 5-10 minute warm-up. It could even be as simple as having them get up and do a few stretches. It’s important to get them to get up and move so they’re awaken and ready to go.
• Team-Building: Group your class into small groups for a 10 minute team-building exercise. This gets them interacting with one another and using their brains at the same time.
• Music: Add some type of music in your classroom. This calms your students and is a good way to put them in a good mood. Either have music playing in the background or just play it for the first couple minutes of class.
• Mixed Teaching Styles: If you continue to use the same type of teaching style, it could bore the students. Try to mix it up a couple days a week to make your classroom more lively.
• Quizzes/Polls: After you cover a certain topic, divide your students into groups and quiz them. Once again, they’ll be working as a team and staying engaged. 

There’s so many other ways you can get students more engaged in the classroom too. Pinterest has some awesome options if you ever run out of ideas. Even if you start small and just add a few of these ideas, you’ll notice a difference in your student’s engagement. These are going to help you get the most from the learning environment.

If you enjoyed reading these helpful tips, check out some of these blogs for more: Bonding In and Out of the Classroom, 5 Tips You’ll Want to Know When Preparing for School Trips, and How to End the School Year and Set Goals!

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Contact:

Stephanie Hamilton

833-336-8656

May 24, 2019

Many people think managing a big event is just another basic task that anyone can do, but they’re wrong. Managing an event, like a dance, entails a lot of time and hard work. What also comes with managing an event are mistakes. A lot of them. However, mistakes are there so we’re able to learn and correct them for next time. I wanted to provide our readers with some of the biggest event managing mistakes that people make and solutions to them! Check them out below:

“What-ifs”– This is honestly one of the biggest mistakes planners do. Usually, during an event there’s always one or two hiccups or curveballs that gets thrown at the planner. Some planners aren’t prepared for this and stress out because they don’t know what to do.

Solution: Sit down with your team before the event and come up with “what-ifs.” What if the caterer doesn’t show up or what if the DJ is sick? You need to constantly be prepared and know what to do when an issue arises. 

Budgeting– Many planners don’t come up with an actual budget sheet. They just have a number in their head and figure out things that could work without writing it all down into a chart.

Solution: Grab a budgeting template online from My School Dance’s Pinterest Page or on Google. Lay out how much can be spent for every single thing associated with the event and do not go over that range.

Communication– Miscommunication happens all the time. Especially with an event like a school dance.  The dance planner might forget to confirm with their vendors. What if the DJ forgot or an issue arose?

Solution: Dance planners should constantly be in communication with anyone and everyone associated with the dance. This could be through text, phone calls, email, social media, etc. You want to make sure everyone in is the loop.

Walkthroughs– Many planners don’t realize how important a walkthrough is for vendors. Vendors that you bring in need to know the type of space they’ll be in so they are able to plan accordingly.

Solution: Set up a walkthrough day and time early on in your calendar with the vendors. This will allow both you and them to get a better idea of how the night of the event will play out. 

There are many other mistakes that people make when managing an event, but these are the top 4 My School Dance has seen. My School Dance wants to ensure mistakes like these don’t happen to you. We want you to have a smooth and stress-free event managing process. If you’re looking for a new way to manage your school’s event, check out our website. Our platform is free for schools to use! Let’s stop making managing mistakes together!

If you liked reading this blog post, read these ones next for more tips: How My School Dance Provides Extra Safety for School Events, 5 Ways to Manage Event Planning Stress, and 10 Actionable Tips to Manage Prom Better!

Follow us on social media as well: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Instagram!

Contact:

Stephanie Hamilton

833-336-8656

May 17, 2019

With everything that is going on in the world today, My School Dance, wanted to ensure that our features can help add extra measures of safety for any school event or dance. Although our platform is here to help make managing a big event easier on teachers, it’s also here to make sure our students are safe.

There have been multiple stories in the news regarding school events, such as dances. Money from cash boxes have been stolen by teachers or students. Students that shouldn’t be attending a dance forge their parent’s signatures so they can get in. If you have a really big school and are manually flipping through packets to check students in, anyone can easily sneak past into the dance. It’s time for schools to change their dance managing method to not only help the dance planners, but also to encourage more safety within our schools.

Here are some of My School Dance’s features that add some safety measures:

• Online Ticket Sales– All ticket sales are done online through the most secure payment processor, Stripe. The money goes straight into the school’s account or they can request a check. 
• Digital Agreements– Parents/Guest Parents/Administrators have to create their own account to sign all permission slips on behalf of the student. We have to verify the email address on our backend to ensure students aren’t forging their parent’s signatures and that the email address is valid.
• QR Code Check In/Out– Schools can use the QR code scanner to check students in and out of the dance. They can then enable the text notifications that get sent to the parents letting them know when their child arrives and leaves the dance.

By purchasing tickets online, you don’t have to deal with constantly ensuring the cash box is safe. With My School Dance’s team verifying email addresses, no student will be able to forge any signatures. Lastly, with a quicker check in/out process, random people will not be able to sneak into the dance without being seen.

These solutions may not seem like a whole lot, but they are extra measures that can help the teacher managing this event stay in control. Also, being able to access emergency contact information quickly is extremely beneficial for the schools.

If your school is looking for a more organized way to manage a school dance or event that ensures extra safety measures reach out to My School Dance. The platform is free for schools to use! 

If you liked reading this blog post, you won’t want to miss these ones: 3 Useful Tips for My School Dance Users, How to Solve the #1 Challenge to Dance Planning & Managing, and Why We Care About School Dances!

Follow us on social media as well: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Contact:

Stephanie Hamilton

833-336-8656

May 10, 2019

It’s about that time when schools start to get ready for summer break and end their school year. Teachers, I know you’re excited to have summers off, but it’s important to reflect on the goals you set for yourself at the beginning of the school year. Look at the list you wrote yourself and examine it. Did you accomplish your goals? Did you stray off a little on one or two? Really think about it. It’s important to see which areas you nailed and which ones you struggled with so you can make adjustments for next year.

By looking at your recent goals list, it will help you to begin next school year’s list. On top of that there’s some other helpful ways to set your goals for next year. My School Dance listed them below:

• Feedback– Student feedback is extremely crucial. Create a short survey and at the end of the year have students give you feedback on your teaching methods, areas to improve, etc.
• Successes– Go through the year and write down your top 10 successes. These can be projects that were super popular, a lesson plan you loved, or even helping a student raise their grade. 
• Then & Now– Reflect on your past goals list throughout the years to see how far you’ve come. This will encourage you to set even bigger goals for next year.
• Colleagues– Talk with your coworkers and compare goal sheets. See if they have something that you might want to implement. Get their feedback on your teaching style and areas you can improve.
• Situational Instances– Think about the times when an issue or situation arose and you didn’t know how to handle it at the time. Now that it has happened, think about what you would have done differently or if you would’ve changed anything.

After doing some of these helpful exercises, begin thinking about next school year. What do you want to do differently? What do you want to do the same? Is there something new you’ve always wanted to try out and you think this year is the time? Whatever it is, it’s important to begin planning these goals out now. By the time the school year comes around, you’ll be slammed with lesson plans, meet the teacher nights, and grading.

By planning and setting your goals at the end of this school year, everything will be fresh in your mind. Plus, by the time you come back in the fall you’ll be able to look over your list and have an idea of how you want to start this school year.

If you liked reading this blog post, be sure to check out these: New Year, New Resolutions, 5 Tips You’ll Want To Know When Preparing For School Trips, and 5 Ways To Manage Event Planning Stress!

Follow us on social media as well: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Contact:

Stephanie Hamilton

833-336-8656

May 3, 2019

It’s one of the best weeks of the year: Teacher Appreciation Week! Even if you’re not a teacher, you should be celebrating all of the amazing teachers out there that put so much heart into their jobs. Think about it, there will always be at least one teacher that has inspired you at some point in your life. I know there have been many teachers that have positively influenced me in so many ways. Let’s give back to our teachers this week and show them how much they are appreciated. Here are a few ideas of ways to give back:

• Letters– You don’t always have to go out and pay for an expensive gift. Sometimes just getting a hand written letter from a student or parent shows more appreciation that an extravagant gift.
• Lunch– As a Principal/Administration, provide your teachers with lunch to show how much they mean to you. It’s a nice gesture that everyone will appreciate.
• Gift cards– If you want to provide teachers will a little token of appreciation get them a gift card to their favorite store, restaurant, or even a spa. 
• Posters– Organize students to create posters about the teachers and how much they mean to them.
• Prize Giveaway– Hold a weeklong prize giveaway where you pull names from a jar and give out nice gifts to the teachers.
• Flowers– Have flowers delivered to each teacher to surprise them during the school day.
• Notes of Encouragement– For a week straight, put a piece of candy and a note with encouraging words in the teacher’s mailboxes. This way each morning they’ll have positive words and a treat to get them through the day.
• Coffee– Even something as simple as coffee will put a smile on their face. Get each teacher their own travel coffee mug and fill it with coffee so when they come in it’s ready to go. If you want to be creative decorate the coffee mug with the teacher’s name and some things they like.

Teachers dedicate so much time into their jobs, it’s important to show them that they mean something to the students, parents, and administration. Like I said before, you don’t need to go all out and spend loads of money. Just something small shows them that what they’re doing makes a difference.

My School Dance recognizes the hard work teachers put into their jobs everyday. That’s why we always try to find ways to make their lives easier. Choose one of our eight ideas above and I guarantee it will make your teacher’s day.

If you liked reading this blog post, you’ll want to check out these too: Teacher Must Do’s Over Christmas Break, 5 Ways to Manage Event Planning Stress, and Why We Care About School Dances!

Follow us on social media as well: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Contact:

Stephanie Hamilton

833-336-8656