WEEK 4 – Remind
Its 2015, and for students of an appropriate age, the smart phone rules. Ever wish you could take advantage of being able to text message them (without having to use your personal phone!)? And how about being able to send information and reminders to the parents of the younger students? Or maybe to fellow teachers? Well, you can, and it's free and easy with Remind.
Remind (formerly known as Remind101) is a free one-way texting tool that teachers just love. And that “one way” thing is a real bonus as far as many teachers are concerned, since they don't have to deal with the time consuming mess that replies can produce. Think of it as the 2015 version of the take-home flyer or note (they can't reply to that either, right?). Quick, convenient, and far more likely to be paid attention to than pieces of paper or emails.
Here's a 3 Minute Teaching With Tech Tutorial for Remind (formerly known as Remind101):
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Here's some perspective on using Remind that teachers have published online:
- Tips for using Remind in the Classroom from “The Brown-Bag Teacher”
- Mrs. V's Remind FAQs
- Remind 101…A Closer Look from “TeachThruTech”
REMEMBER, AFTER YOU TRY Remind … Please Drop a Comment below and share your experience! What did you use it for? Was it easy? How did students like what you created?
About the Challenge:
The Try-a-Tool-a-Week Challenge started March 1st. Every Sunday through the end of May we're publishing a new web page with a new, awesome free tool to try. Everyone who provides their name and email address (click here to open the Challenge introduction page and SIGN UP) will get an email providing the link to the page. The goal is just to have fun and learn about these powerful free web applications for teaching and learning, and along the way you get the opportunity to win some giveaways we'll award at the end of the challenge to randomly selected participants! To have a chance a winning, just participate and share some observations about the tools you each week!
Week 1 was a blast with nearly 500 teachers signing up and dozens of great comments shared about Socrative, our Week 1 tool! Socrative is a popular Student Response System that students can use from just about any device.
For Week 2, more participants kept signing on and we checked out the free functionality of ed.ted.com! Creating a robust, interactive lesson based on any YouTube video or TED Talk, including a simple quiz, is easy-peasy with this outstanding tool from TED.
In Week 3, we got a 2-for-1 bonus, learning about LessonPaths and Blendspace, awesome free web apps that make it a snap to combine web content and your own content into a set of organized lesson content.
Remind is another useful apps! I am using it this semester and it really helped me REMIND my students about tests, projects, homeworks. And another feature is the CHAT. Instant!
Thanks!
I have been using Remind for two years and I absolutely love it! Remind allows me to communicate with parents about upcoming classroom events, send out reminders and even share PDF copies of my newsletters. I love the fact that I don’t have to share my personal information, because with Remind I can use a universal number to communicate. This is one of my favorite communication tools!
My school has a variety of ways to reach students. Email, phone, newsletter, website, homework posting site, etc… The list can go on. I like the idea of Remind, and some co-workers have used it with success. When I polled students about it, they said it was good, but confusing because you don’t know who the text is from. It just gives a number; it is in the body that the teacher’s name is found. Also, according to students, if multiple teachers and classes use Remind, it is all from the same number. So instead of reading a text on their home/lock screen, they need to open up their messaging service to see who it is from and what the text is. I think it is a good idea, especially for students who “live” on their phone. Sending out a quick message, especially for an extra credit assignment, seems easy enough. I will have to look into it more to determine its viability in my classes.
Remind is versatile for higher education students who own a mobile phone not for primary school students.
Schools who own an LMS email or text their students or parents using it. If the school does not own an LMS the application can be used to text parents sharing information about their siblings.
When using Remind with primary school students, parents can get results of tests/exams fast, informed of child absence etc.. The parent will receive the info in a jiffy being on time to act if needed.
I did sign up and try out Remind. It is a great tool for sending out text blasts in a secure/private way. However, I have been using Scholastic’s Class Messenger which functions in much the same way. The benefit to the Class Messenger is that students and parents are able to respond with questions or comments. It also has different categories so that you can request donations or meetings with parents. The negative aspect to Class Messenger though is that they need to download the app to get messages on their phone, rather than a direct text that doesn’t require an app. So in that sense, Remind might be better for some families.
I have used this and for the most part it is a great tool. My problem is like everything else, students say, “I never got the message” and there is no way to verify whether the message went through or not. Although it probably has most times, there are still times when you have to wonder if they might actually be telling the truth.
App looks great. My school is a 1-2-1 iPad program and all the students already have email addresses…. so I feel that the students are easily contactable and wired in so to speak.
However, I like the idea about using it to message parents. Would use it for parent volunteers, reminders about events – and will pass this onto administration to see if they feel they could use it in the school.
I love Remind! It is so easy for the students to sign up, and I used it to remind them to study for our test tomorrow!
I see the value in group messaging for emergencies or as a replacement for short messages in email. In higher ed we encourage students taking responsibility for time management and sending reminders about the “big test” is counter productive.
I love using Remind, and my students appreciate it, too! During our bad weather days this winter, I sent students Remind texts about online resources I posted, so we did not fall behind when we missed school. Students say things like, “Will you please send us a Remind text if you have tutoring in the morning?” I also appreciate that Remind keeps adding features, such as the two-way chat and the message “stamps.”
Our PTO president uses this to inform parents and some of our teachers use also. As a parent, it is great to receive reminders! What a great way to reach out and stay connected!
This is a fantastic tool! It is especially helpful when you need to remind parents to send money in for a field trip. I also love this for the students to remind them of upcoming tests or big projects.
I am going to use Remind to stay in touch with my Environmental Club students and my classroom students. This is a great way to remind about homework, or study times or deadlines on projects.
Remind is a great tool that gets teachers, students, and parents / guardians on the same page. It is quick and effective and the features get better and better with stamps and more. Great to use for extra curricular activities as well.
Remind is an ok product for getting information to parents. I really dislike that parents don’t have a way to contact back and that I can’t send info to 1 or 2 parents. I’ve been using this year to send out blanket information, which as been good.
Thanks for the comment on Remind Karen. This is a logical perspective, and I absolutely get the desire for students to take responsibility for checking their email, we’ve struggled with the same thing. That being said, the world continuously changes, and texting is a far more widely used technology for K-12 and traditional aged college students than email is (and remember, email in many ways displaced paper memos, etc., a couple decades ago). I’m not sure where the line should be drawn, but if texting produces far more effective communication results than email, isn’t it worth considering?
Remind is of little value in our college environment. Our learning platform has an easy to use tool to email all class memebers as well as a calendar that generates reminders about quizzes and dropbox deadlines. The onus is on the student to check not on the teacher to remind.
I’ve tried REMIND but got very disappointed as it doesn’t work that great here in France! Indeed, the text message functionnality doesn’t work in France. You can still use the email functionality, but I don’t really care about that one as we all, teachers, pupils and parents, have a “school” email address.
I would have love to be able to send text message to my pupils. I think it’s a great tools for US and Canadians teachers. Kids are always on their phone, so, they would see you message instantaneously. One way I would use it would be to send the pupils a text message to remind them of a work to do, or of something to bring to class. Or to contact a parent quickly.
Hope to get that in France soon!