As I have seen from past and present music directors, and from the insight of my own readings, that successfully staying organized can be a tedious task. However, through some research of my own I came upon a wondrous online tool to organize events and activities for the classroom.
VolunteerSpot is a cost free way to set up fundraisers, meetings, and activities to benefit the students of a classroom. Paul Shimmons, writer of ipadmipadusiced.wordpress.com, discussed how helpful the site was to him. "Inside of each Activity then I plan events on specific days. Each day allows me to add Tasks for volunteers to do or Things for volunteers to bring. It really is fast and easy."
Seeing that a fellow music educator has had much success with this program got me interested. Shimmons claimed to have organized Band Booster Concessions and Marching Band Performances using this website. I then signed up for an account to see for myself.
The website is: www.volunteerspot.com
Simply log onto the website, click "create a sign up," and the rest is well explained and straight forward. I was able to create an account in under five minutes.
Once my account was created I explored how to create an event. From there you fill in basic information needed for parents and/or students to contact you about the activity.
As I found, and Paul Shimmons raved about, "Volunteer Spot gives you links to embed into your classroom website, links to post to social media (Facebook and Twitter) and even a pre-created blurb, with links, to insert into a newsletter. You are also given the option to email people with a little message."
Personally the best part about this website are the mobile apps that can be downloaded, Clipboard and Sign Up. As a future teacher on the go, having this nifty tool with me wherever I go would be incredibly beneficial.
This site is a perfect way to incorporate technology into the organization of a Music Educator. With meetings, lessons, concerts, and booster meetings, it seems easy to become lost in a sea of sign-up sheets and papers. VolunteerSpot keeps all these sign-ups online where students, family, and yourself can easily keep track of them.
I agree, staying organized is a very important quality for a music educator. Thanks for the PLN.
ReplyDeleteHow did I not think of something like this? Fundraising is always such a huge (and vital!) part of a public school's music department what with expensive uniforms, instruments, trips for festivals/competitions, and everything in between. This is such a useful little tool and I'll definitely be saving the link for future reference. And who doesn't love a nice mobile app to take with them? Awesome!
ReplyDeleteThis seems really convenient. A mobile app to help fundraise so your school can go on trips and become better with instruments and music? Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
ReplyDeleteThis seems really convenient. A mobile app to help fundraise so your school can go on trips and become better with instruments and music? Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like such a great website! I can't believe that I've never heard of it before. Its so difficult to try to set up events sometimes, and this looks like it would make it a lot easier.
ReplyDeleteThat's so awesome! Fundraising is so important, and it's easy to forget that because it can be such a daunting task. This website makes it easier to achieve, providing more funds for music programs in need.
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