Why Does Scheduling Parent-Teacher Conferences Have to Be So Complicated?

As a classroom teacher, I always dreaded creating sign-ups, especially parent-teacher conference sign-ups.

Over the years, I tried a variety of different tools, always hoping the next one would be a little easier and save me some time. Unfortunately, that never seemed to be the case.

First, there was the one you really do have to be a genius to use. It was time-consuming, the slots weren't pre populated, and I had to figure out exactly how many I needed to make sure I had enough room to meet with all of my students' parents/guardians. And don't even get me started on the ads if you use the free version.

Paying for it never seemed worth it either. So I can get a premium background? Yeah, no thanks. Parents look at it long enough to schedule a conference. No one really cares if you have a cute fall theme.

Then there was Google Calendar. Creating the appointment slots there took time, too. I still had to figure out the timing to make sure I could fit everyone in. Every year is different, so you can't always use the same format. Sometimes you need to meet with parents separately, which means adding even more slots to account for. It was just another thing I had to spend time figuring out. No teacher has time for that!

And then there's the Google Doc that so many teachers revert to because, let's face it, it's pretty easy to create and share with parents.

The problem? There's no privacy. Everyone can see who has and hasn't signed up. Parents can edit the document, which means slots and times can accidentally get switched around. Not exactly professional, but it got the job done.

The bottom line was that nothing seemed to work particularly well. Something that should have been simple always ended up taking more time than it needed to.

And that brings me to EduSignup. I wanted to help create something that was quick, easy to use, and actually met the needs of teachers. Not just for conferences, but for all those other sign-ups we create throughout the school year, from classroom supplies and volunteers to special events and everything in between.

I also wanted teachers to be able to collaborate with one another. Conferences don't always involve just one teacher. Sometimes there are special educators, specialists, or other staff members who need to attend. I wanted everyone involved to receive an email when a parent signed up so we could coordinate without having to send a bunch of emails back and forth. It really does take a village!

And, of course, it needed to be affordable. Teachers already spend enough of their own money on their classrooms, and schools don't exactly have unlimited budgets. A teacher subscription to EduSignup costs less than two trips to your favorite coffee shop. You really can't beat that.

My husband and I created EduSignup because I knew there had to be a better way. After years of using tools that never quite did what I needed them to do, I wanted something that would actually make teachers' lives easier.

We're excited to share EduSignup with more teachers, and we really hope they see the value in what we've created. At the end of the day, my goal was pretty simple: give teachers one less thing to worry about and a little more of their time back.

And if you've ever spent way too much time trying to organize parent-teacher conferences, I think you'll understand exactly why we created it.

Check out EduSignup →