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Three Cool Uses for Remind

Remind, one of my favorite apps, is becoming a communication stalwart at our school. Free, easy, and effective, Remind (formerly Remind 101) provides versatile one-way correspondence between teacher and students, or teacher and the students' parents. With nearly everyone having a cell phone, and because email is becoming "old school", Remind offers a terrific solution to keeping students and their parents informed, and best of all, in real time. Here are three ways in which Remind is used at our school.


  1. Announcements - Our principal, created a class for our faculty and staff to receive announcements that are timely, or urgent, in nature. For instance, school was closed during a few instances of extreme cold and heavy snowfall last winter. Those of us who subscribed to Mr. Steiger's class received a school cancellation announcement within a minute of his notification. Otherwise, the message could take up to an hour to receive through conventional methods such as email, or our emergency phone tree.
  2. Professional Development - Like our principal, I have a Remind class set up for our faculty and staff. Subscribers get a daily tip pertaining to instructional technology, or classroom pedagogy. These messages can include attachments, hyperlinks, photos, and voice clips. Our teachers appreciate getting bite-size pieces (Tweet-style, 140 characters or less) of information that doesn't clutter their email inbox. Messages from Remind are typically received via cell phone, but this versatile application can be used on any web-connected device. Subscribers without cell phones can receive their announcements as email messages.
  3. Reminders - Makes sense doesn't it? A growing number of our teachers are using Remind to share timely reminders to students and their parents. Upcoming deadlines, field trip forms, and special events are examples of things that no longer rely on a student bringing papers home to be signed and returned. Parents and students can acknowledge receipt of the message through a simple yes or no poll (stamps) attached to the message. As an added convenience, Remind is integrated into Schoology, our LMS application. Remind provides important communication while removing excuses for missed messages.






One can easily get started using Remind in just a few seconds. Here's how to create your free account...

  1. Go to Remind.com and click on "Sign up" button
  2. Choose either the "Teacher" or "Student or Parent" button
  3. Complete the form requesting name, email address, and password
Yes, it is really that easy!

One in five teachers use Remind, and this likely includes you. If so, what creative uses do you have for this easy-to-use, and effective, communication tool?



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Location: Palatine, IL, USA

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