Do you use Remind101?
If you are a teacher and you aren’t already making this awesome (free) tool work for you and your classroom, you are going to LOVE me today…
In a nutshell, Remind101 is a free service for teachers that allows them to schedule and send text messages to their students (and parents) without giving out their personal cell phone number.
Once you sign up and set up a teacher account (all you need is an email address), you are given a specific phone number and a “class code” (example: @school10) to share with anyone you want to receive your texts. I set up a different class (with a different code) for each of my three grade levels, but you can set them up for anything!
I did this at the beginning of the year on my syllabus by including a little section like this:
From there, you simply log onto your Remind101 dashboard and compose text messages to be sent. You can either send them immediately or schedule them to be sent out later. (I usually compose all my texts on Friday for the following week and schedule them to go out around 7PM the night before an assignment is due.)
Yes, I post all their assignments on Blackboard too; but, they ALWAYS have their cell phones with them. This has been a LIFESAVER for me with all the snow days, schedule changes, etc. this semester. And, the kids seem to really like and appreciate it too!
*I haven’t used it yet, but Remind101 also just released a new tool that allows you to send attachments (like handouts) with your texts, which I think has a lot of potential too.
I’m not being paid for this post at all, I just really really like it and think you will benefit from it too. The possibilities, really, are limitless. (In elementary school, for example, I see it being a great tool to use with parents to keep them updated on field trips, due dates, etc.)
So… What are you waiting for? Sign up now!
Have you had success with this too? Think you want to start using it? Start now or bookmark this page to remind you (haha, no pun intended) about it at the beginning of next year!
You’re welcome. 😉