The EdTech Roundup
Connect:
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Editorials & Press
  • Ed Tech Sites
  • Lesson Plans
    • Elementary
    • Secondary
  • Former Weekly Podcast
  • About Me
  • Contact

School Circle: Connect, Collaborate, Contribute

1/19/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
School Circle is a new, free service that aims to make fundraising easier for schools.  The site helps schools connect to local businesses, organize their fundraising events, and get every stakeholder on the same page when it comes to events, funding, and sponsorships.  It's an excellent resource and worth checking out.

In addition to everything mentioned above, School Cirlce also acts as a central hub for parent-teacher organizations so that meetings, documents, and important information can all be easily found and organized.  Before going further, let's check out an introductory video that covers the details.


As you can see, School Circle almost acts as a social network for your school, allowing parents and businesses to easily connect and share information.  I really like that it even has an e-notice board so that members can share things they need or they're trying to get rid of. Especially in larger school districts, this resource can go a long ways towards building a stronger, more connected community.  You can also check out their examples page for me reasons to try School Circle. 

Picture

When you first arrive at School Circle, you'll probably notice that your school is not on their list, being a new service and all.  However, if you just send them an email, they will get you added to the list and then you can get rolling.  

Once your school is added and you've created a free account, you can get started making connections between parents, the school, and local businesses.  When you first login you'll see your dashboard where you can connect with local businesses, post items to the noticeboard, share documents with members of the PTA and much more.
Picture

At the top of the dashboard you'll find links to all the necessary pages you'll need, but really these are just anchor links to the different sections on the main page, which I really like.  By keeping all the important information central and on the same page, it makes for incredibly easy navigation, and they do so without making the page feel cluttered or overwhelming as well.

From the dashboard you can also add local businesses that your school has ties to, post to the noticeboard, or even setup an online fundraising auction

Picture

Going a little deeper, if you click on any of the businesses that are connected to your school (or if you're setting up a business) you'll be able to get a profile of their business, see the type of work they are doing in relation to the school, and see any specific deals or discounts they offer to school members.

Picture
As for the specific connections with businesses,  the Business Directory is designed primarily to showcase (and thereby support) parents’ businesses, but also local businesses that don’t happen to have children at the school. 

The way it's designed, the PTA gets to decide how much they would like to charge their parents to list their business and this is one way by which School Circle helps the PTA to raise money for their projects. 

And, the way School Circle stays in business themselves, is that they take a small percentage of the listing fee (but only if a school should decide to charge businesses to list).  Right now they take 20% of the listing cost, but as a new business that number may change.  Plus, this is what allows them to offer the service for free to schools.

Finally, if you explore the Parent's Association section you'll see that you can easily post updates and share documents (like meeting minutes), so that you can have a digital repository to help stay organized and on the same page.

Picture

And basically, that's School Circle!  It's an excellent resource for connecting parents and businesses to your school and for building a stronger community.  On top of all that, it's a completely free resource!  So, if this is something that might benefit your school or district, I definitely recommend sending them a message to get your school added to the list.  Overall, they are an excellent and simple to use service that has a lot to offer today's schools.

Picture

All the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I was not compensated for writing this review.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Reviews

    Here you can find the Round Up's collection of in-depth reviews on the latest programs, apps, websites, and more.

    Make sure to click the review's title or the Read More link for the complete review!


    Picture

    Featured

    Picture
    Check out our featured review | ClassroomAPP: A Complete, K-12 Digital Platform for Online and In-Person Classrooms

    Teach.com

    Picture

      Subscribe

    Subscribe

    Connect


    Awards

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    RSS Feed


    Archives

    July 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    April 2013

           
​Except where noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
Picture

Copyright 2020 | Mike Karlin, Ph.D.