A few years ago I started using the Remind App with all of my classes. Needless to say it has been a game changer in my teaching career. As most of us know, texting is the easiest, fastest and most effective way to communicate in 2017, particularly with middle and high school students. Other than creating and using a Snapchat account (or something better that comes along probably next week) some day, texting is it. I am still amazed there are folks that have not even hear of Remind, so here’s a quick overview video of what it is…
The professional part of Remind is that it allows you to communicate with students, parents, players, other staff members or anyone else you want; without those folks seeing or knowing your personal phone number and vice versa. This is a great feature particularly when it comes to students, obviously. It just draws a line of professionalism in the sand that too often times get blurred these days. You can also set up the feature where you, as the educator, can be only an information giver. Basically, the settings allow you to restrict responses from anyone, should you want to do that.
One of the best features that I use often is the scheduling feature. You can set up reminders to send to groups, well ahead of time for any time or date in the future. With limited time for certain activities sometimes, this scheduling feature allows you to set up your day, week or month ahead of time.
The final piece about Remind is it gives you the chance to positively interact with students and parents beyond the classroom walls and for them to do the same. For example, the picture below was taken by a student in my Ornithology class. She sent it to me while she was outside in the field birding and wanted to get it me as soon as she could because she needed help with the identification. She could’ve emailed it, but I may not have gotten back to her as quickly. Because of the power of Remind, I was able to get back to her as soon as possible and give a quick ID. I hope you consider using Remind for the powerful tool it is!
(American Crow taken by Sofie F. in Scituate, MA)
Game Changer Teaching 