Don't be flippant about Flippity, because it's flipping amazing.

Sooooo...how was your test DRIVE last week? I hope you like Google Drive as much as I do, and that you navigated through just fine...unlike my friend Sammy from one of my favorite movies of all time!  

Let's talk about another tool that will make you "flip."  You'll see what I did there in just a moment.  This site uses Google Spreadsheet to make your life easier.  Now maybe I'm over excited about this because I live and breath in Microsoft Excel, which is a spreadsheet.  I love codes and numbers- who doesn't?!  Honestly, I haven't done much in Google Spreadsheet, because I didn't know how much it was like Excel.  I feel like I am betraying a life-long friend.  However,  I have sat down with Excel and we have had a talk about how I can be friends with more than one spreadsheet software.  Excel took it kind of hard, but we are all going out to dinner next week to break the ice...

Anyhow...enough of my personal drama!  On to...(drum roll please)...

                         ****FLIPPITY****

This tool can do all kinds of time-saving, organizational things to make your teacher life easier.  If you're not a formula kind of gal, like me, then this is the site for you! 

How was that for a sales pitch?

The whacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man wasn't enough?  Hmmm...shall I substantiate with some real-life scenarios to get your blood flowing?  If so, read on!  If this guy is doing it for you, click here!

Flippity is a site that can create games, flashcards, seating charts, randomize groups of all sizes, and random name picker to name a few.  It can create games like a quiz show, crossword puzzles, hang man, or bingo.  All you need to do is enter information into a template that is already made for you, click your mouse a few times, and voila!  Your students think you're a genius-again!  Take a look at this quick video to see what I am talking about:

I created some treble clef flashcards using this.  Take a look here  to access them-and feel free to use!  I did get a little frustrated on how to add images and did some searching.  So, I'll save you some time and just tell you here:  search for the image, right click on the image, copy image address, paste the address into your template.  This is how I did it, and I hope it works for you.  I'm a visuals type of gal, and I needed some flashcards that I could use yesterday in my classroom.  This worked like a charm.

One more piece of Flippity that I don't know how I've lived without is the Random Name Picker.  It has a fun spin wheel to choose individual students, but the part I like the most is that it will randomly choose groups for you as well-of any size!  

Yes, for realsies!

I love drawing sticks to randomly choose students, but when I need some quick, small groups, this has me covered!  There is one draw back though.  If you have a large amount of classes, like me, you will have to make several lists.  BUT how easy is it to copy and paste a list that has already been typed for you-most likely by your amazing secretaries?  

CTRL+C, CTRL+V, CTRL+C, CTRL+V, CTRL+C, CTRL+V, CTRL+C, CTRL+V, CTRL+C, CTRL+V!

Want some other organizational tools?  

A couple that I love are Screencast-O-Matic and SignUp Genius.  

I LOVE screencast-o-matic!  I never know if the sub I get is going to be musical.  9 times out of 10, they are not.  Therefore, when I write lesson plans, I dictate everything the sub needs to say.  I explain every music detail as if this person has no knowledge of music whatsoever.  As you can imagine, this takes a long time.  Since I discovered screencast-o-matic, I have used it several times.  I will record myself explaining concepts, playing instruments, etc.  This saves hours of writing plans.  Here is an example of something I did for a sub.

How many of you elementary music teachers do choir?  Almost all of you!  How many of your students absolutely love choir?  Hopefully, all of yours!  How many of your need to communicate to your choir parents on an on-going basis?  All of you!  SignUp Genius has been really helpful to me.  In my school, my principal does not allow the specialists to send bulk communication home.  Everything that is sent home needs to be through the classroom teachers.  His reasoning is that he does not want to overwhelm the parents-I get it. My oldest daughter isn't even finished with her first year of preschool and I'm overwhelmed at the monthly newsletter/calendar that she gets folks.  In order for students to sign up for choir, I post a link in their newsletter communications.  Then, when I need to send communication home to my choir students only, parents know that it is specific to them and don't overlook it.  It's pretty user friendly, but it does have ads.  I've never seen anything inappropriate, but it is something to be aware of when using with the community.   

If you'd like to see other time saving tools, visit my Adobe Spark page here:

Remember when I talked to you about Adobe Spark?  I thought you did.  Look how amazing this non-professional made this look professional!  Do you have other time-saving tools that you can't live without?  Comment below and give us music teachers some more ideas!