You love teaching children, there’s no doubt about it. You’re great at it and you enjoy every minute of it. But as easy as you make it look, there’s a lot that goes into teaching – before, during, and after each class.

Just imagine if you had everything you needed for teaching in the palm of your hand. Well, stop the music because I’ve great news for you! A teacher’s best friend is the Jackrabbit Staff Portal. This feature was designed with you in mind and it just keeps getting better!

How to Manage Your Classes with the Jackrabbit Staff Portal

One of the greatest things about the Jackrabbit Staff Portal is it’s mobile-friendly. No matter what device you use (computer, smartphone, or tablet), the layout adjusts to your screen making it easy to use for class prep or as you teach.

Let’s take a look at how the Jackrabbit Staff Portal can help you be your best self in the gym, pool, studio, or classroom!

Student details

Part of being a great teacher is connecting with your students, whether you remember a conversation from the previous week or have the class sing them happy birthday. The personal touch is what the kids love and look forward to each week, right?

With the Staff Portal in hand, it’s easy to see who has an upcoming birthday (cake icon), who has allergies (medical icon), and student details like who’s here for their first time and who missed the last class.

Include student photos to help speed the attendance process along, especially helpful when there’s a substitute teacher. The photos are also great to reference when you are confirming student sizes for the next performance.

Additional information for students includes roll notes, family information, and absence history. And if you want to add a note for the future, you can add new roll notes from the studio or gym floor.

Attendance tracking

Taking attendance is something you do week in and week out. But, Jackrabbit’s Staff Portal gives you more than just the option of marking present or absent. We know the details are important.

If a student is present, you can take it a step further and mark them as late, left early, or observing. This is helpful in spotting attendance trends and opportunities to reach out to the family. When it comes to marking a student absent, you can:

• enter their absence for today or a future date,
• indicate if they are eligible for a makeup class, and
• add a note for future reference

Of course, the Staff Portal comes with time-saving features that allow you to mark all students absent or present with one button. The quicker you can take attendance, the more you can focus on the class itself!

Lesson plans

Building lesson plans and curriculum for your classes is no quick and easy task. And if you are going to put in all that hard work, you want to have that information with you in the classroom. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good notebook with post-its and scribbles everywhere but you want to look like the professional coach or instructor that you are – am I right?

The Staff Portal shows any lesson plans added to classes so once again, you are prepared for class without extra stuff in your bag. Everything you need is right there in the portal.

Skill progression

Whether you teach gymnastics, swim, or dance, there are certain skills that help you move from one level to the next. And being able to show that progression is a benefit to the student and the family.

The Staff Portal is a great way to track and update skills in the classroom or poolside. With parents having access to these skill updates through the Parent Portal, you can streamline the process of keeping parents in the loop with the few clicks it takes to update the skill itself!

And, because skills and levels are completely customizable, we have seen our clients use the feature to share choreography videos, communicate suggested levels for the next season, and even record temperature checks during reopening after COVID-19.

Virtual classes

Virtual classes are the new rage, thanks to Coronavirus. But even when life gets back to the normal we all miss, virtual classes will remain on your schedule for the foreseeable future. You’re a pro at it now and it gives your program a broader reach. How does it get any better than that?

The Staff Portal gives you access to the virtual class in addition to all of the other tools you need to manage your classes, whether you are in the gym coaching or outside of the studio prepping for class.

Supplemental resources

With resource management in Jackrabbit, you can share supplemental class resources to parents to view in the Parent Portal and for you to view in the Staff Portal. Whether you want to share worksheets, recital music, or just a fun game for the little ones, being able to see these resources in the Staff Portal keeps you on your toes.

Soon, our product and engineering teams will add the option for you to upload resources to classes directly from the Staff Portal, streamlining the process even more. Look out for more details to come on our 20/20 Vision of enhancements for the year.

Learn more about enhancements in 2020

Connect with families

I’ve said it before and I don’t think I can say it enough – connection is super important. Building a great student-teacher relationship is the most incredible thing to witness as a parent. And in order to build on that relationship, you have to stay connected with families as well.

Whether you want to check in on a student that has been absent the last two weeks or you want to give mom and dad an update on significant progress, the Staff Portal gives you the ability to do that quickly via email. Being able to take action while the thought is on your mind makes the reach-out most meaningful and impactful.

The Jackrabbit Staff Portal is a powerful tool that helps instructors, like yourself, master the studio, gym, pool, or classroom with organization, efficiency, and preparation.

Ready to take the Jackrabbit Staff Portal for a spin? Sign up for your 30-day free trial today and get started!

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