Happy birthday to....... every student I've ever had!

The most important component of my classroom is a strong class family.  Connections with kiddos is a MUST. But what about after they have moved on from my classroom?

Everyone loves a birthday. 

It's so fun to get cards, emails, comments, and well wishes on your special day. It's even more fun when it comes from someone you don't expect, like your old teacher.

As part of my "Once a family member, always a family member" motto, I send a birthday email and/or card to as many of my former students as possible. I have taught for ten years. Do the math.  You might be thinking "That's a ton of kids to keep track of!". You're right.


Luckily, there's a solution.



Three big tools in my birthday tool belt are Google Calendar, VistaPrint and Boomerang for Gmail. They help me organize and streamline my birthday process.

Google Calendar

I love Google and calendar is no different. You can use any calendar program this same way. I have many different calendars within Google. One of these is "Student Birthdays". Every year, I enter my students' birthdays into this calendar and set it to repeat yearly. 

Here is my student Bobby Birthday.

I entered his first and last name as the subject on his birthday. Then I set it to repeat annually. This way it will continue to pop up for me year after year. In the notes, I add the student and/or parent's email. If you wanted to, you could add a note about this student or even the year you had him in class.

After entering years' worth of birthdays, your "Student Birthday" calendar will begin to look like a less blurry version of this:

Easy peasy, now I will always know when a kiddo's birthday is on the horizon.
Side note- we also have a shared staff calendar that we put staff members' birthdays on in this same fashion. Because, who doesn't love birthdays?!

VistaPrint

Now that I'm reminded of their birthday, what do I do? Well, you may have read how I use VistaPrint.com to make Thank You cards. I did the same with birthday cards!  Once on their website, under "all products" I chose "marketing materials" and then "postcards".  There are hundreds of pre-made designs. Looking through them and deciding on a design was the hardest part!  I chose a fun design and added the wording myself. I left the backside blank to write on.

These are all ready for a message and to be delivered to students who are still in my building. You could easily mail these as well if you wanted to.

Boomerang for Gmail

The third component in my birthday arsenal is an add-on for my G-mail called Boomerang. This is such a cool tool. It allows you to draft and schedule emails to send at a later date or even recurring emails.

It was a game changer since I didn't have to worry about not having time to send their email on a given day.

So at the beginning of each month, I take about 30 minutes to sit down and prepare for birthdays. I check my calendar, I write out cards for any students who are still in my building and put them with my lesson plans for delivery, and I schedule birthday emails for every student who has a birthday. Easy peasy!

I love hearing back from students who were excited to be remembered on their birthday. And I really love that these tools help me to always be able send birthday wishes despite juggling my busy schedule.
Happy Birthday-ing!