Save Your Sanity with SignUpGenius

Have you heard of SignUpGenius yet? Are you implementing it in your classroom? I know staying organized makes our lives so much easier, and using SignUpGenius is defintely able to do that. This website lets you coordinate with parents and co-workers to manage tasks easily. SignUpGenius also lets you send out automatic reminder emails to help keep everyone involved stay on top of things. Whether you have already tried it out or have never even heard of it, I want to share a few ways to use SignUpGenius in the classroom and how to get it set up! 

Ways to Implement SignUpGenius in the Classroom

There are so many ways to use this site to your benefit, but here are a few of the ways I would use it most:

• • Any classroom event or party that needs parent volunteers or items/donations

• • Parent-teacher conferences (You can set up custom and recurring time slots for parents to sign themselves up to come in when you are available. No more back-and-forth emails and notes home trying to schedule conferences!) 

• • Volunteers for a classroom activity that needs some extra help (weekly parent readers, a big science experiment, helping you in the classroom, cutting laminating, etc.)

• • Requesting donations for more school supplies and craft items

• • Organizing what the co-hosts of a baby or wedding shower for a colleague will be bringing

• • Simple RSVPs for parties, events, showers, etc.

• Tracking what everyone is bringing to teacher/staff potluck lunches

How to Use SignUpGenius

Visit www.signupgenius.com and create a new account (or sign-in if you have an account). You’ll get a verification email, and once you click the link, you’re done. Easy peasey to set up an account! I would also encourage parents in my classroom to go ahead and make accounts as well, but they don’t have to have one to sign up.

To create your first sign up, click the green box that says “Create a Sign Up”. Then, enter in the basic details for what this sign up is for and a message for participants.

Customize the theme with their built-in choices or upload your own photos.

Step three in the creation process is where you decide which direction it will go. The site gives helpful tips on which selection to make based on what you need.

• • Select the “One-Time” option for random tasks, events, and RSVPs.  

• • Use the “Recurring” option for things like weekly/monthly parent readers, standing weekly volunteer hours, etc.

• • Choose the “Time Slots” for parent conferences.

• The “Custom” option is great for more complex things like a school-wide event that needs time slots and items to be brought. It’s worth looking into for more complicated things, but I used the other options more frequently.

If you choose the “One-Time” or “Recurring” options, next you will fill in the date and time of the sign-up. Then, you will fill in the items needed and quantities.

If you’re doing the “Time Slots” option, then next you will pick dates and times. SignUpGenius makes it easy to create recurring time slots (i.e. every Tuesday and Thursday mornings for conferences and Wednesday afternoons). You can easily add and delete time slots to customize the sign-up as well. 

The last few details include what information you ask participants for, how many notifications you receive, and how often to send out reminders to participants.

Next, SignUpGenius gives you a full preview of your sign up. Make any changes you need, and then you’re finally ready to publish it and send it to out. You can save all the email addresses so you’ll only have to enter them once.

I hope this doesn’t seem overwhelming. I promise it’s not! This site does a great job of walking through each step, and if you make a mistake, it’s simple to go back and edit.

I truly think using SignUpGenius in the classroom can save you time (and the headaches) of organizing people for all sorts of events and occasions.

I want to add that this covered the free version of SignUpGenius. There are options for paid versions that add even more features. If you’re just using this within your own classroom and team, you should be just fine with the free version.

If you are using SignUpGenius in the classroom already, I’d love to hear any other ways you implement it!

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