Remind 101 provides simple & free texting tool to enrich teaching and learning

Remind101 provides a safe, one-way, mass text messaging system created specifically for use in Education. It keeps your phone number, and the phone number's of your subscribers completely private, stores all of your sent messages, and it's completely free to use. Just sign up and create a list for others to join via a simple text or email. Because of the convenience of sending messages directly to phones, Remind101 is a perfect tool for announcements and reminders such as school holidays, school events, photo days, fundraising events, testing days, and more.

Who's doing this?

1. John Krouskoff, Director of Instructional Technology
   The Clarkstown Central School District in New York have found Remind 101 extremely useful for quick, in-the-moment, updates. After Superstorm Sandy in 2012 John Krouskoff, Clarkstown’s Director of Instructional Technology shared that, “In fewer than 48 hours, more than 2,000 community members benefited from Remind101 service by receiving text messages related to the state of our schools.While I've known Remind101 to be a fantastic communication tool for teachers and students, I never dreamed it would be such a lifesaver for us in our time of need.”
2. Nikki Schubert, High school social studiesNikki Schubert is using Remind 101 for her high school social studies classes in Remsen, IA. She is able to send out reminders to students about changes in lessons, due dates, and homework assignments. She is also using it to send out information about cool websites and things on tv that are related to class. With five preps it's an excellent way for her to keep students informed and to help keep them up to date on our classroom activities. It really works well for students who are absent and need to know what's coming up. She is also using it with student council members in basically the same way and with her play cast. Her hope is to expand it to parents next year and include them in the transfer of information and communication process.
3. Katie Regan, High school English and tech teacher

Remind101 has bridged the gap between techno-phobic teachers and their students at Jordan-Elbridge High School.. Tenth grade English and ed tech teacher Katie Regan introduced Remind101 last year to a few teachers who were frustrated with the amount of communicating they were doing with parents individually and with students not remembering homework or due dates. These teachers claimed to be “dinosaurs” in technology integration and these are the ones she targeted first. As soon as they saw the effectiveness of the site and how easy it was to use, they began to take more risks and try other technology tools. Now, the majority of the teachers in her building are using Remind101. Not only are they communicating quickly and easily with all their parents and students, but they are beginning to see the value in using technology to engage their students.

More ideas for learning

1. Homework remindersHelp students and their parents remember their homework with a quick text reminder.
2. Special eventsHelp students remember to prepare for special events with a text to bring necessary clothing, forms, etc.
3. Learning promptsHelp students get excited about upcoming lessons or units with a text. Consider giving them a sneak peek of what they should think about for their upcoming class or provide opportunities for extra credit work.

Getting started

• Go to https://www.remind101.com/
• Visit “Get Started” at https://www.remind101.com/users/sign_up to set up your account.
• Create a class.
• Share the Remind 101 generated PDF with the number and code to text.

For more information
Sign up by visiting www.remind101.com, or downloading their iPhone app (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/remind101/id522826277) or Android app (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.remind101).