Friday, January 22, 2016

A reminder about why you should be using Remind: Sending text notifications to your students

We haven't had school in our district just outside Washington, D.C., the past two days because of the weather.  So I've kept in touch with my students by using Remind.

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Remind is a far superior method of contacting our students than email.  Maybe this has happened to you, too: A student emails me a question.  I write back an answer within minutes.  Then the next day the student asks me, "Did you see I wrote to you last night?"  (Students are good sending emails, but not so good about checking for a response.)  So I use Remind.  It sends a message to them where they are, directly to their smartphone.

I also like Remind because it creates a safe environment for me to send text message alerts directly to my students (and the parents who also can register to receive them).  I call Remind "safe" because my texts are not sent from my phone, I can never see the personal cell phone number of anyone receiving my texts, and all messages are permanently stored on Remind's server.

The Remind support materials are terrific.  Here's the link to its Help Center, which has articles on topics like product updates, a getting started guide, and information about making changes to your account.

Remind also has its own channel on YouTube.  There you can find 22 excellent short video tutorials on how to use Remind.  This video (1:02) discusses how Remind works.

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2 comments:

  1. UnknownFebruary 17, 2016 at 8:47 PM

    Hi! Yes, I love Remind as well. I made it a requirement to sign up at the beginning of the school year, and counted it as a H.W. assignment. Of course, like all other assignments, there are those who never did it...even after I again gave extra credit to the students who had signed up in September, on the midterm exam in December!
    My question though is what do you do for the students who do not have a smart phone and can receive the texts but not the attachments? Other than the email alerts, I couldn't think of a way around this. Recently, I also found out that some families refrain from using electronic devices on Sundays. Who knew?!?

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  2. Melissa, Winchester, VAFebruary 18, 2016 at 7:22 AM

    Hello, I too like remind. I am not a teacher, but I am PTO president. Not only is it a good way to keep in contact with the students, but adults as well. I use this as a reminder for parents for special events regarding our school. I also use it for the teachers at the school.

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