American Time School Blog

Like many things in this world, schools have become more complex over the years — evolving from the one-room schoolhouse to the sprawling, intricate facilities we see today.

This is where it becomes essential to embrace new technologies. Among these resources are school notification systems that automatically spread important messages throughout a building, keeping students safe and informed while making life easier for staff.

Anytime Chuck Ehler, Superintendent at Rushford-Peterson Schools in Minnesota, gives a tour of a classroom, people say, “Wow! I really like the clocks that you have here. That is really impressive.”

Rushford-Peterson opened its new, state-of-the-art school in 2017, after flooding and aging buildings necessitated the project. But the district not only received a new building, it upgraded technology, too.

“We have everything in this building technologically — from programmable LED lighting to programmable heating and ventilation,” says Technology Director Corey Mattson. “We have wireless access in every corner of the building. We have a secure building with secure entrances.”

School clock systems are reliable. They can keep perfect time for years as long as you perform regular maintenance on them. But when they go down, getting them fixed in a quick and efficient way is important for schools to stay “on the clock.”

Here's how to perform maintenance checks to prevent fire drill repairs and ways to fix your clock system if something does go wrong.

There are few moments during the day as precious as lunchtime. Lunch is supposed to be a refuge from the day's obligations, a time to decompress, regroup and recharge.

Any grown-up with a hectic daily schedule appreciates this, but for young learners, lunchtime is even more vital. It's their time to fuel their brains as they learn about the world around them.

That means people like Joshua Poveda, chef and food service director at Evergreen Charter School in Hempstead, New York, play a vital role in students' education. When Poveda realized lunchtime at his school wasn't the nourishing respite it was supposed to be, he optimized Evergreen's lunch schedule with the help of synchronized clocks.

You don't have to strain your imagination to see how being late to class can impact students' academic performance. Tardiness means missed instructional time during critical classes when lessons are introduced and announcements are made. And not to be overlooked is the disruption that late arrivals can cause across an entire classroom.

While they may suffer academically, chronically tardy students do get good at one thing: coming up with excuses, which can be as simple as, “I lost track of the time.” One way to eliminate that pitfall is to install a synchronized time system with a Bell Countdown digital clocks.

When there’s an emergency in a school, efficiency and communication become paramount. Working hand-in-hand with the deployment of better emergency notifications is the utilization of high definition visual displays, like the EverAlert Emergency Communication Platform.

Remember the school fire drills when you were a kid? Typically, school officials were strategically located throughout the building, barking out evacuation orders as students and teachers streamed out of classrooms.

Schools face a challenge when it comes to emergency protocol planning. Each school is different — the floorplans are different, the geographic locations are different, the distance from the local police station is different — and so each school has to develop its own emergency protocols based on best practices.

To be a successful coach, manager or teacher, you must be able to clearly convey messages to the groups you want to motivate. You must also recognize that some individuals or small groups may need to be communicated to differently in order to understand that message and act on it. This same concept is being used by schools that need to send important messages to everyone in a building. Integrated school communications systems are like good leaders: They can send one message to all, yet tailor it to specific groups, so everyone can understand and act towards a single result.

When we think of smart technology, the first devices that may come to mind are smart phones, tablets and notebooks. Well, you can add school clock systems to that list. New technology surrounding these systems means that keeping time and keeping kids safe is now one bundled solution that falls under the smart technology umbrella.