Tandem for Schools, our online school calendar software now offers text message integration so that users can receive text message updates of the school events that they care about.

Parents, students, and faculty can be away from the computer for most of the day, but many people carry around a cell phone with them at all times. If they have a user account with their school’s Tandem calendar they can change their preferences so that selected updates get sent directly to their phone via text message.

Currently users can log in and set reminders for specific events so that an email will be sent to their email inbox to remind them of an event within a specified time before the start of the event. You can also get email updates sent for all changes or new events for a specific group like Girls Varsity Soccer or Drama Club.

Text integration of a school calendar can improve school communication and save time for parents students and faculty. For instance, say you are a busy parent driving to a school baseball game, which has been canceled due to rain. You may receive a text message on your phone alerting you of this if you have signed up to track events for Boy’s Baseball and have them sent to your phone. Say you are a principal of the school and you want to alert students, parents, and faculty that school will be delayed for 2 hours due to an unexpected snow storm. You can add an event to the school calendar under a group called “Important School Notifications”. Now everyone who has signed up to track this group and receive text updates in their Tandem account can be notified of this important information via a text message.

Interested to learn more about Tandem school calendar software? Set up a free 1 on 1 demonstration on your computer here.

Software is increasingly changing the way we perceive common tools of everyday life such as books and calendars. Before a computer became common in every home and classroom, we were accustomed to paper based systems for activities such as reading or finding out what events are happening at school. Just as the Kindle for the iPod has altered the book industry by enabling almost instant access to millions of books, Intand’s school calendar software, Tandem for Schools, has transformed the way school administrators, teachers, students, and parents interact with the school calendar. And like other tools in society that have been replaced by software, school calendar software has many advantages.

Eliminate paper-based systems
Paper based calendars are not very efficient by today’s standards. Traditionally school districts may have sent out a paper annual calendar to all students families. These calendars would be pretty empty except for school holidays. Many schools would also send out a monthly newsletter or flier home with students that described upcoming events. This would often require hundreds or thousands of pages of paper to be printed out, and often the information was out of date as soon as it was received. School calendar software like Tandem for Schools allows schools to publish events to an online calendar that is instantly accessible to everyone who goes to the calendar’s web page on their internet browser. This can also save lots of paper and ink.

Increased event awareness
Another advantage of school calendar software is that it can raise awareness of what is going on at the school. While a paper calendar that you stick to your fridge can be a reference for what events are happening at the school, a calendar that sits on a web page can be far more informative. An online school calendar can show every event that is going on at the school with detailed information about the place, time, directions, contacts, etc. Instead of a sheet of paper that can be lost in transit or misplaced, Tandem for Schools is always accessible from anywhere you have access to the internet. Students and parents always know where to go to find out what is happening at the school, which encourages school participation.

Improved School Facilities Management Process
Before school calendar software solutions like Tandem, managing and scheduling use of school facilities could be a major project. The school administrator may have to account for a large number of school groups and scheduling conflicts could be common. Requesting use of a facility could take days or weeks, with the back and forth phone tag or email tag. Tandem for Schools makes this facilities management easy with automatic conflict detection, and a simple and streamlined facilities request and approval process.

Real Time Information Updates
If there is a change in the time of an event, or a school cancellation due to inclement weather, Tandem for Schools can display this change on the main calendar almost instantly after a school administrator makes the change. In contrast a paper calendar takes a very long time to update and is useless for school cancellations or same day changes. Being able to check the status of an event or school cancellation online is very convenient to parents and can prevent lots of phone calls to the office. With Tandem for Schools, parents can also sign up for automatic email updates when the status changes for an event.

There are many other benefits of school calendar software compared to paper-based calendars. If you would like to learn more, sign up for a free demonstration of Tandem for Schools.

1. Easily access the calendar from any web browser
Tandem for Schools is a web based online calendar so parents can access the calendar by simply going to the school’s unique URL. This enables parents to be able to access the school’s calendar from any location even if it’s not their own computer. You can also access it from mobile devices with an internet connections like an iPhone or Blackberry.

2. Filter events
Schools that use Tandem for Schools often add all events for the entire school on the main school calendar. If you are a parent that is only interested in specific groups that your child belongs to such as varsity soccer or drama, you can easily filter the view to show only these events.

3. Search events
If there is a specific event that you want to find more information on Tandem has a useful search feature. Say you wanted to see what concerts were coming up. Just type in “concert” in the search box and Tandem will show all the concerts.

4. Obtain detailed information about an event
By clicking on an event on the calendar you can see a more detailed view with information like participants, contacts, supervisors, miscellaneous info, and trip information if applicable.

5. Export individual events to your personal calendar
From the individual event view you can export the event into your personal calendar such as Outlook, iCal, Google Calendar, or Cozi.

6. Synchronize your personal calendar with the school events you are interested in
Tandem allows you to sync with your personal calendar like Outlook, iCal, Google Calendar, and Cozi. It can automatically post events that you have filtered on your Tandem Calendar to your personal calendar.

6. Keep track of groups you are interested in
Another useful feature of Tandem for Schools is the group tracking feature. If you are logged in and view a specific event, you can click on “track this group”. You will receive email updates of events that this group is involved in, including any changes that are made.

7. Get directions to an event
Simply click on the “get directions” link on the event detail view and Tandem will redirect you to Google Maps with the event destination already filled in.

8. Set a reminder for an event
Busy parents can have a hard time remembering all the events that their children are involved in. Tandem for Schools can send you an email to remind you of a specific event. Simply log in, click on an event, and click “set reminder”. You can specify the time that you want the reminder sent, such as 2 hours before the event, and a notification will automatically be sent to your email.

If you are a parent who would like their school calendar to do more, you can request that your school consider Tandem for Schools here.

Edutopia has an article about using Google Calendar as your school calendar titled Online Calendars: Virtual Schedules Help Busy Educators.

“The first tool I’d like to explore is the online calendar. Keeping an electronic calendar is nothing new, but you’d be surprised at how few people use one. It took me several years to let go of my paper-based day planner, but once I settled into the digital-calendar world, I never looked back.”

Google Calendar is a great improvement over a static page that lists key dates for the school year, which may or may not be accurate. Google Calendar is a free online calendar web application that is easily accessible to parents, students, and staff by going to the designated web page. It can also be embedded directly on a web page. In short, it is a quick and easy solution for a basic web calendar.

While Google Calendar is a good basic calendar, it lacks a lot of functionality that schools needs to manage school events and facilities. Tandem was designed specifically with schools in mind, so it performs several functions that help make school administrators jobs easier and helps communicate school information more effectively to staff, students, and parents.

Making School Administrators Jobs Easier
Tandem for Schools goes way beyond Google Calendar, with a built in request system that streamlines facilities requests. School staff simply logs in and clicks on “Submit Event Request” from the “Requests” section of the dashboard. The administrator in charge of the calendar simply receives the requests and can approve or deny it. There’s no paperwork or phone/email tag needed. Tandem automatically checks for any schedule conflicts, avoiding double booking of facilities. This system makes it much easier to coordinate the multiple sports teams and other school groups.

It is also  very simple to make changes to the calendar, when times change, and parents and students see those changes reflected right away. Schools have reported much fewer phone calls because there is a simple real time source of information for parents.

Tandem for Schools has a dedicated support staff that will help you get up and running fast and answer any of your questions.

Communicate More Effectively
While Google Calendar is a good basic internet calendar, it can be hard to read at times, since the name of the event often gets cut off. Google Calendars boxes are a fixed size so it can quickly get cluttered and unreadable. Tandem for Schools has a better design and layout from a usability standpoint with boxes that expand dynamically so that you can easily read all the event names. It is also easy for viewers of Tandem for Schools to filter the calendar to show only events that are relevant to them. Since Tandem for Schools is much less cluttered than the Google Calendar, you can fit a lot more events on the Tandem for Schools calendar. This helps everyone get a big picture of everything that is going on at the school, which encourages students and parents to get involved in extracurricular activities.

An example of a school using Google Calendar:

Tandem for Schools Calendar:

Interested in learning more? Sign up for a free 1 on 1 demo on your computer (via Go To PC) or sign up for a free 30 day trial of Tandem Plus.

Tandem for Schools is a simple school schedule system solution software. If you have ever had the daunting task of managing a school’s event schedule that accommodates the tens or hundreds of different school groups, it’s enough to make your head spin. Today’s schools have more sports and clubs than ever before, and a paper solution just isn’t practical or effective.

Simple Request System
Tandem simplifies the scheduling of school events through a simple request system. A staff member can log on to the school’s calendar and request a time and place for an event. The school administrator receives all the requests and can approve or reject each one. Rejected requests get sent back to the requester so they can modify the request if they choose. Approved requests are published to the main calendar.

Centralized Online Calendar
Centralizing all the school’s or even a district’s events on a central school calendar provides several benefits:

*Reduced Phone calls
Parents can see when and where events are taking place by viewing the online school calendar.

*Easier Planning
Administrators can get a big picture view of what is going on at the school.

*Calendar Personalization
Users can filter the calendar to get a personalized view of only the school groups they are interested in.

*Real Time Updates
When there are any changes to an event, such as a cancellation or rescheduling, this is immediately reflected on the online calendar as soon as the administrator changes the event.

*Better Communication to Parents and Students
Parents and students can more easily find out about extracurricular activities and become more involved in the school.

Sign up for a 1 on 1 demonstration of how Tandem for Schools can help your school.

School management system software is a tool that can more effectively manage a schools events, facilities, and school groups. School administrators have a difficult job of managing all the logistics of school events with the countless school groups and constantly changing circumstances. School management system software like Tandem for Schools makes this job easier.

Simple System For Planning and Managing School Events
Firstly, Tandem for Schools is a management system for all the schools events and brings all the different school group’s events onto a main school or district calendar that is viewable to everyone online.

It simplifies the scheduling process through a simple request and approval system. School staff send requests for a school facility at a certain time, and the school administrator approves or denies it. Once approved, the event is posted on the school’s online calendar, communicating the event to staff, students, and parents. When a proposed event conflicts with an existing event, the administrator is automatically notified and they can send a notice back to the requester to change the time and place or they can override it.

Jody Stephan from Boardman Schools liked how it made planning easier for school staff.

It allows all departments to see what is scheduled within the building so there are no surprises…We are able to see the whole picture of all building events in one place.  This prevents conflicting events being scheduled. I love the feature of not being able to schedule a conflict unless you override it.

Reduce Phone Calls to School
In addition to making it easier to plan school events, Tandem for Schools is a powerful communication medium. When events are published by administrators to the school calendar, they are visible for reference for parents. Changes are reflected in real time so parents can find out if the game time is moved back an hour, or if the baseball game has been rained out. This also prevents routine calls to the school about dates and times for school events such as early dismissal or teacher workshop days, because the parents can easily access this information by going to an easy to remember web address.

Terry Foster from Bellevue Christian School says Tandem has sharply reduced calls:

If you think about it, if we changed one game, then we’d have to communicate this to 15 – 20 players, as well as 40-50 parents. Each of them would call our office asking for the same information. That’s more than 50 calls regarding just one game change. Sometimes we would cancel 2-3 games a day. Our office just wasn’t equipped to communicate this information quickly enough.

Improved Communication Throughout School
Having an accessible online calendar is more effective than a paper calendar because changes and new events are reflected immediately. Instead of having a calendar for each group, all the events are schedules are consolidated onto a main calendar, which can be filtered or customized to an individual’s preferences.

Vicki Storey from Santa Ynez Valley Union High School

This is the greatest communication tool we have on campus. It saves me hours a week. The program itself is easy to use and the information is instantly available to our community. What more could you ask for?

If interested in learning more about Tandem for Schools, you can sign up for a 1 on 1 demo with a Tandem expert.

An online school calendar can be very beneficial for a school, parents, and students. Here are 5 things you may not know that online school calendars can do.

1. Subscribe to an RSS feed

Online school calendars can have an RSS feed which will allow you to receive updates in any RSS feed reader such as Google Reader, MyYahoo, Bloglines, etc.

2. Sync your personal calendar with school events

Chances are that you use some type of online calendar or desktop based calendar client like Outlook. Wouldn’t it be great if you could automatically populate the calendar you already use with important school events? Additionally, with Tandem for Schools, if you are only interested in the High School Varsity Soccer schedule, you can filter and sync only these events to your calendar.

3. Get automatic email updates and reminders

You can request to receive an email if there are any changes to an event. In Tandem you would click on the event on the calendar and when the details come up you would click on “Email Me Updates”. You can also click on “Set Reminder” to receive an email reminder before an event.

4. Reserve a facility for a event or meeting

If you are a coach, club leader, PTSA leader, ect, you can request a school facility for an event. Once the calendar manager approves the request you will have the room or gym reserved. Tandem for Schools automatically ensures that another party doesn’t book the same facility at the same time. Also, school facilities could be better utilized by the community and the school could even raise money by renting out facilities.

5. Create a custom personal school calendar

You may not be interested in all the groups at the school. Tandem for Schools makes it easy to create a custom calendar that tracks only the groups that you are interested in. For instance if a parent has a child that participates in soccer and jazz band, and they want to be involved in the PTSA, they can create a custom calendar with only events from those groups.

1. Save Paper/Reduce Carbon Footprint
A school can be more environmentally friendly by not printing out all their school calendars for all the students or printing out reminder fliers for upcoming events. Instead by directing everyone to the online school calendar, students and parents can get all the school event information in one place and schools can reduce their carbon footprint.

2. Save Time for School Administrators
Creating a paper school calendar can be very time consuming. A school can have over a hundred different groups, including clubs and sports teams. To create a central school calendar means organizing all the different groups into one calendar and working out time conflicts. When you think you’re done, a group may need to make a change, which can mean reworking the entire calendar. Sometimes a group may try to request an event in a facility that has already been reserved by another group and you are required to play phone or email tag to get the conflict resolved.

An online school calendar like Tandem streamlines the event management process. Groups can submit requests to add events, and the administrator can accept or reject with a click of the mouse. The software automatically checks for schedule conflicts before an event is added to the schedule.

3. Reduce Phone Calls to the School
One labor cost that schools often face is calls from parents, due to uncertainty about the school schedule. They may want clarification on when school will start on a given day, or the time of early dismissal. They may call to see if a baseball game has been rained out, or for the place of that days sporting event. These types of calls can be reduced by having an online school calendar that parents can access for answers to these simple questions. Often Tandem users inform us that setting up an online school calendar has greatly reduced the number of calls to the office.

4. More Effective School to Parent Communication
When a paper school calendar is sent out to parents, they may post in on their fridge or it may get lost. If they lose the paper or do not receive it, they are often left in the dark. Usually a paper calendar is good for informing parents about school vacations, but little else. A paper calendar can not alert the parent when an event has been rescheduled.

In contrast, an online school calendar is a living document. Parents can access the most up to date version of the school calendar in minutes. When changes are made to the time or place of an event, it is reflected to the online calendar as soon as it is posted. With Tandem, the school events can be synced with the parent’s Outlook, iCal, Google Calendar, or Cozi, so events will show up in their work or personal calendar as well. An online school calendar is much more convenient for parents, and provides them with instant information that they need.

5. More Effective School to Student Communication
Students also want information about what is going on at the school, both during school hours and after. An online school calendar is a great source of information on events that students want to be involved in. They can also learn about clubs that they might otherwise not know about, but would like to join to build their college resume and make new friends.

Tandem also provides a feature to where students can post pictures and news about school events and groups. This feature can be used by students to share photos and news with peers, like the math club hoisting the first place trophy or the stats of last Friday’s football game.

1. Makes information on school events more accessible for students.
Schools have tons of extra-curricular clubs and yet it can be difficult to get the word out that these clubs exist. If schools publish all their school events on a online calendar like Tandem for Schools, it will help students find out about the extra-curricular groups that they can get involved with. This can help them be more involved with school activities and also pad their resumes for college.

2. Makes information on school events more accessible for parents.
Parent involvement is critical to the success of students and an online calendar encourages parents to be more involved with school events. An online school calendar effectively communicates the when and where for school activities and events, which makes it easier for parents to participate.

3. Alerts students and parents of time critical information.
One of the interesting features of Tandem for Schools is that it allows you to subscribe to an RSS feed, or sync the school calendar with your main personal calendar like iCal, Outlook, Google Calendar, or Cozi. When there is a change to the game time or a school delay due to weather, school administrators can make changes to the school’s calendar which will be immediately reflected on the online calendar as well as get distributed to parent calendars and RSS feeds.

4. Go Green
Printing paper calendars for every student and staff can consume a lot of paper and ink. Also paper calendars often become outdated as soon as they are printed because there will inevitably be changes to scheduled events, which leads to more paper being used to notify everyone. Going digital can save many, many trees.

Try our full version online school calendar free for 30 days, or get the free annual school calendar.

As the new school year is approaching, does your school have a printable 2010 school calendar that your staff and students can access online or print for placement on their fridge? You can get a free printable 2010 calendar for your school by signing up for the free Tandem Basic online calendar.

Once school management sets up the school calendar it will be live online so that staff, students, and parents can access it by going to a specific url (typically yourschool.intand.com). From there they can print out the annual calendar or bookmark the page for future reference. They can also sync your school’s calendar events with a personal calendar like Google Calendar, iCal, Outlook, or Cozi or alternatively subscribe to the calendar RSS feed. Set up of the annual calendar is easy and takes just minutes. The public webpage is hosted on Intand’s secure servers.

Tandem Basic is much more than a static online school calendar. School management can log in to the administration panel and add new events or change dates at any time. These changes will immediately be reflected on the calendar web page and updates will also be distributed to members of the school who have subscribed to the calendar. Parent’s have often commented on the convenience of getting school updates to their personal calendar. To make it look official, you can also upload your school’s logo.

To get started with Tandem’s free 2010 printable school calendar simply register your information.