Thursday, June 5, 2014

REMIND101

You all know that I am a major Google user.  For the last several years, I have been communicating with my students using Google Voice.  I really like Google Voice and it lets me text and email my students using my personal cell phone.  I have also used Voice to call parents using my personal cell phone.  What???

Google Voice provided me with a generic number--so students and parents don't know my personal cell phone number. It's great for sending students reminders, answering questions, offering encouragement, and generally communicating with them. With Google Voice, students can respond to me--which is awesome.  If you haven't checked out Google Voice, you really should give it a try.  Students communicate with their cell phones more than any other form of communication so why not use those phones to your advantage.

Well, as things change in technology, so do ways to communicate.  Recently I started using Remind 101. This is a great way to communicate with students and parents too.  Using the Remind101 web site, you can set up entire classes to text.  When you sign up for Remind101, they give you a generic cell phone number so students/parents don't get your personal number.

What's the biggest difference between Google Voice and Remind101?  Students can NOT text you back using Remind101.  It is simply used as a communication tool.  Another difference, you can send attachments, photos, documents, presentations and more right to your students. Remind students of upcoming due dates on assignments and tests, send links to students to check out a web site, send a link to a YouTube video, correct whole assignments at one time to the entire class, remind students that you are meeting in a different location, or to go straight to the Commons for an assembly, oh--I could go on and on about the ways to use Remind101.

Check out the Remind101 web site and watch the video below to get started today.



1 comment:

  1. wow I think that might be the holy grail we've been looking for!

    ReplyDelete