As an educator, effectively scheduling your time so you get the most out of every minute of your day can be exhausting. If you teach multiple subjects, have multiple classes, or just have too many students in one place at one time, keeping up with the demands of an average day can wear you out! Effective time management is critical to keeping up with your work and that of your students, and thanks to modern technology there are apps for that! Here's a list of the top five scheduling apps for teachers to make back to school time less strenuous and more fun!
1) Meeting Room Manager
Published by Asuresoft, this app boasts on their webpage that they are the secret scheduling weapon of choice for higher education professionals worldwide. One of the best things about this software is its MS Outlook integration, allowing you to keep your superiors apprised of what's going on at all times. Even better, you're not limited to being in the classroom while you use it! You can access this program from your home, office, or even on the bus or train while you commute, so the days of "Did I mark that in?" are over! This makes the top 5 because of its impressive flexibility and intuitive design.
2) Scheduling Plus
This scheduling software by Rediker appears to lack some of the bells and whistles of Meeting Room Manager, but it's still worth giving a look for its automatic or as-needed schedule building. Scheduling Plus alerts you of scheduling conflicts, allows you to check students' progress against their schedule, and offers a mobile app to make checking schedules and resolving conflicts as easy as pushing a single button. While it's more stripped down than Meeting Room Manager, this app offers solid value to the educational professional in terms of efficient use of time.
3) Schoolrack
Teachers have to buy a lot of supplies and classroom essentials out of their own pocket. One of the best things about Schoolrack is that it's a free app! Using a simple classroom website builder, you can keep in touch with students, parents, and administrators, schedule conferences and due dates for assignments, and even privately message students to keep them focused and on track.
4) Edmodo
Designed similarly to Twitter, this classroom-focused tweeting site allows you to contact students and note changes to schedules efficiently without worries about whether or not your school has access to "proprietary" Twitter. You can set up a calendar, file-sharing, and send your students reminders about that big exam or let them know a pop quiz is coming!
5) Planbook
This app is more limited than some of the scheduling tools above, so it's not a great standalone app, but it makes up for its limitations with ease of use. If you have a rotating schedule, you can make lesson plans and scheduling up to fourteen days out, and if something unexpected happens to derail your schedule, you can easily make an amended schedule by "bumping" your calendar. While the built-in time limit makes Planbook a less robust tool than some of the others, its flexibility and user-friendly design make it a useful backup app for your other scheduling applications.
When you're heading back to school, you need every edge you can get to keep you one step ahead of your classroom. These scheduling apps can help you manage student and class schedules and lesson plans without driving yourself crazy juggling old-fashioned calendars. Before you say "Good morning" on the first day of school, make sure you're prepared with one of these excellent apps!
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About The Author
Vick Unger is a school district administrator and guest author at Top Masters in Education, a site with reviews of online masters in education degree programs.
cc licensed flickr photo shared by woodleywonderworks
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I appreciate that you shared this 5 apps with us. This is a great help in our part. I will try those apps one by one so that I can choose what’s the most effective.