May 2013
8 posts
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Items Needed for Victims of Oklahoma City Tornado
Teachers and Friends,
Moore Public School’s asked us to pass along this message about opportunities to help the victims of yesterday’s Oklahoma tornadoes. Please read and share.
Sending thoughts and well wishes to everyone impacted.
- Christine Garland, and the Remind101 team
Donations are needed for the those impacted by yesterday’s tragic weather events in Oklahoma.
...
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Remind101 Partnering with Brown University to...
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Please help us spread the word about this opportunity! Use the social buttons below to share.
You can also embed the form on your blog or website with this link:
<iframe src=”https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/embeddedform?formkey=dDNVN0hwenprOVVEUV9SMmVPdzNaLWc6MQ” width=”760” height=”683” frameborder=”0”...
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Meeting the students where they are
I always love making new friends on Twitter. Recently I got connected with Chris Stanley, an English and 21st Century Literacy Teacher at Fraser High School in Fraser, Michigan.
I knew Chris and I would be fast friends when I saw him use, “FOR-EV-ERRRRR”, in a tweet. (Reminiscent of The Sandlot scene when Squints tells the story about The Beast, anyone?)
Chris has been using Remind101 with...
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Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!
We wish we could troll Pinterest for the best DIY gifts and make every teacher we’ve ever talked with an adorable present in honor of Teacher Appreciation Week. But sadly, unless they involve 1’s and 0’s, arts and crafts are not our thing. So we’ll have to settle with a lot of virtual hugs and this honest message:
At Remind101, we go to work every single day feeling...
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April 2013
3 posts
8 tags
How to add the Remind101 widget to your Moodle...
Guest post by Ben Spieldenner, Intro by Christine Garland
Huge “THANKS!” to friend and teacher Ben Spieldenner for writing this guest blog post for us!
Moodle lovers - have you been struggling to get the Remind101 widget on your site and getting stuck with formatting issues? Have no fear, Ben’s blog post is here:
Since the advent of the Remind101 widget, I have been trying to...
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ISTE 2013 Giveaway!
Summer is approaching fast! Time for backyard bbq’s, block parties, family vacations, and ISTE 2013!
The ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) is the world’s premier ed tech conference and exposition! Once a year, ISTE brings teachers from all over the world together for a 4 day, unforgettable, conference to collaborate with like-minded educators passionate about using...
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"The Student is Still Responsible" - Guest Post
Intro by: Christine Garland, Guest post by: Jacqueline Roth
If you haven’t read my blog post from a couple weeks ago titled, “Should you worry that texting students is “hand holding”?”, I hope you have the chance to do so.
That post was in response to many conversations I’d been hearing, and having, with teachers and administrators regarding concerns that...
March 2013
6 posts
7 tags
Should you worry that texting students is "hand...
It is our job as a company to know the obstacles teachers face when communicating with their students and parents.
When I started to hear educators discussing whether using a texting service, like ours, was considered “hand holding” with students or not, I knew I had to take a step back, learn where the concerns were coming from, and how we could overcome them. Educators are concerned that...
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10 Reasons to Add Texting to your Classroom
Effective classroom communication is a key ingredient in any teaching strategy.
On Remind101’s first Hack Day we pulled 10 of our favorite stats about texting in schools and put them into a beautifully designed site to show how adding texting to your classroom communication plan can benefit students.
Click on any image to check out the full interactive infographic created by our lead...
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Remind101 Hack Day 3/1/13
By: Christine Garland
Last Friday the entire Remind101 team paused our normal tasks and spent a day creating something new for the company. It was great way to finally put to fruition some of the fun ideas we’re always talking about, but never have the time to do.
Here are the fun projects that came out of Remind 101’s first Hack Day: The Development Team: Jeremy made us a robot! Her...
Brain Teaser: Remind101 is more popular down South...
By David Kopf
It’s true, of the 50 US states, we are disproportionately popular down south. We’d love to explain this phenomena, but our theories have run dry. We were ready to give up until a good friend and advisor, Andrew gave us the bright idea of soliciting our readers for help. If you have a theory that could unravel this riddle, post it to the comments section below.
~ The Data ~
...
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How many messages should you be sending home a...
By: Christine Garland
The concern that started my research on messaging frequency was from a number of teachers who asked how many times a week they could send a message without being annoying. In other words, “at what point am I just bugging them?” It’s hard to make generalizations about how often you should be sending out messages to your students and parents. Our data can tell us averages on...
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Welcome Ben!
It’s my absolute pleasure to introduce our most recent full time hire, Ben. Ever wonder how messages get sent each and every time you hit send, or when you click ‘schedule later’ it actually sends later? Well, Ben’s one of the fellas that holds the fort down at Remind101. He’s a software engineer.
Remember the widget that just launched? He built it from scratch. More...
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Thanks Mrs. Whitefield
Most people don’t know this, but I struggled in high school. A lot. I learned slower, I took tests separately from other students because I needed time.
Everyone has had a teacher that has created an impact on their life. Mrs. Whitefield changed mine (she keeps telling me to call her Denise but I just can’t!). She spent HOURS a day reviewing papers with me, ensuring I did the...
February 2013
2 posts
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New Feature Release: The Remind101 Widget
Last week we slyly launched our latest feature. The Remind101 widget!
What is it?
The Remind101 widget allows you to display recently sent Remind101 messages on your class website or blog. It’s extremely easy to install and, completely safe to use.
Step 1: Log into your account on any computer and go to “Account”, and “My Widget” in the upper right hand corner.
Step 2: On the next...
January 2013
6 posts
9 tags
Teacher-family communication increases homework...
We’ve always believed that increased communication outside of class will foster a better work environment for students, and ultimately impact their success. But a study conducted by Harvard Graduate students, Matthew Kraft and Shaun Dougherty, has now proven it.
By splitting middle and high school classes at a charter school in Massachusetts into treatment and control groups, Kraft and...
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We moved. Literally!
This week the Remind101 team moved into our new office space in the SOMA neighborhood of San Francisco. It’s fully equipped with lots of granola bars, sparkling water and gorgeous views. Check out our new thinking pad!
Teachers in, or visiting, San Francisco, our doors are always open to you!
If anyone would like to stop by the office we’d love to have you. Reach out to us...
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How to use Remind101 in Elementary, Middle, and...
This fall we decided to write a blog post on “The 10 ways to use Remind101.” Since that post, we continue to discover creative use cases that open up fantastic new possibilities. It’s not unusual for me to stumble across a teacher using Remind101 in a new way. When that happens, I try my best to share their story on Facebook,Twitter or here on the blog. One memorable recent message was this...
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What makes Remind101 safe?
By Christine Garland
When you land on Remind101.com for the first time you’ll read, “A safe way for teachers to text messaging students and stay in touch with parents.” From that communication point on you’ll hear us throw around the word “safe” often. We describe ourselves as a company, and our messaging service, as safe. It’s the word that has resulted in numerous product decisions and sets us...
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Communication, TechNinja Style
Twitter has been a great place for us to meet and get to know teachers using Remind101. It’s always exciting to start a conversation with a teacher tweep, and rapidly turn the relationship from a follower to a friend. One notable twitter-tastic teacher that fits just that story is Todd Nesloney, a 5th grade teacher at Fields Store Elementary in Texas and an #edtech advocate. I don’t remember...
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To Tweet or to Text?
We recently got an email from a teacher using Twitter to communicate with her class and parents. She had heard about us and was considering switching or adding Remind101 to her communication tactics. She’s had success with Twitter and likes using it (can’t blame her, I’m a twitter addict,#guilty), so she asked in our words what the difference would be in using Remind101.
Which raised the...
November 2012
7 posts
6 tags
Team News: Welcome Lindsay, our Lead Designer!
Team News: Happy Holidays to us! This year we get to enjoy the gift of a growing team.
Please welcome Lindsay, our new lead designer.
The hiring of a designer has been a long time coming for Remind101. As much as we all love the Kopf brothers, they aren’t exactly the most artistically suave gents. So while we give them a wowing applause for getting the site to where it is today with little...
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It’s after 3 pm, do you know where your students...
A couple of weeks ago Brett and I went to Carlmont High School in Belmont, CA for a day to present to students in their AVID program. AVID, Advancement Via Individual Determination, is a college readiness system designed to increase school wide learning and performance. Students apply to be in the 4 year program at Carlmont HS where they will be guided on their decision and application...
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Feature Update: The URL Shortener is Here!
Remember a few weeks ago when we said we were working on an automated URL shortener? Well it’s finished!
If you’re aren’t familiar with the term, a URL shortener is exactly what it sounds like. It reduces the character size of a URL while keeping the link alive. We created a URL shortener for a few reasons: 1) To avoid spam - cell carriers sometimes flag URL’s containing known spam strings and...
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Team News: Welcome Christine, our Marketing...
It brings me great happiness to announce our second full time hire, Christine Garland. I’ve known Christine for years. She’s been a great friend and coworker in some of my early startup days. Christine handles all of Remind101’s marketing. Some of you may have realized that if you ever comment, tweet, FB post or email Remind101, Christine is there to answer. A huge part of why...
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Nova Middle School Breaking Communication Barriers
While emailing with Florida’s Nova Middle School principal, Jermaine Fleming, over the summer about Remind101, I learned that their use of our product came out of a desire to break through frustrations in effective communication between school and home. Their story is an important one, so I asked them if we could share it with the rest of our Remind101 teachers. Jermaine passed on my request and I...
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Where to get your Edtech news
Monday mornings are my favorite time to sip on some coffee and catch up on what’s going on in the edtech world. Keeping up with current events and exciting releases in education can be hard, especially as a teacher with an already overflowing schedule. But, it’s important. For us, it’s important because we want to build tools for you, and we can’t very well do that without knowing what...
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Visiting Mrs. Stanford’s Class
Over the summer a first grade teacher in Parma, OH, Jessica Stanford, wrote a post on her blog about Remind101. When I found it, I remember my immediate excitement, the post was flooded with comments. We shared it around the office and geeked over the traffic the post was bringing to our site. After experiencing the enthusiasm Mrs. Stanford’s fan base had first hand, I began following her blog...
October 2012
6 posts
8 tags
Standing on a desk with Mr. Spieldenner
Today the team got a chance to skype with our friend Ben Spieldenner. Ben is a teacher at Ashland High School in Ashland, Ohio.
Beyond his own classes, Ben has been a thought leader in implimenting technology at his school, including his succesfull push to allow an open cell phone policy for students.
Talking with Ben reminded me of an article I recently read about how the most important...
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Coming soon to a Remind101 account near you:
Just a Remind101-er that we’re still listening! Top 2 projects we’re working on, and one we’ve decided not to work on. Behind the scenes at Remind101 HQ.
1) Automated URL Shortener - BuildingEver notice when you’re typing in a message on Twitter.com and you paste a big longgggg URL in that for some reason you still have a suprisng number of extra characters left? That’s because Twitter...
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Teachers - Remind101 wants to buy you lunch!
Since our launch, Remind101 has been using feedback from our teachers to create, and innovate, our product. It’s the single most important part about building this company - every button we change, or feature we add, is to make your life as a teacher more efficient. We’ll always love hearing your suggestions and thoughts on Remind101 online. But when possible, we’d love to see you in person too. ...
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Remind101 Android App Now Available
Time to climb to the highest mountain top, or in this case is our blog, and share with the world that Remind101 is now available in the Google Play™ store!
Droid users can now sign up, manage existing Remind101 accounts, create new classes, and send or schedule messages on the go. It’s safe communication efficiency at its greatest! Want it? Head to the Google Play store on your Android...
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What do Mickey Mouse, Remind101 and @BuistBunch...
Probably lots of shocking and coincidental things…but the commonality we’re interested in is that we were all together on Tuesday night. This past Tuesday, one of our long time users, and friends, Michael Buist was passing through San Francisco during a Disney Cruise with his family.
Michael’s family was kind enough to spare him for a few hours from their vacation so we could hang out...
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Happy Banned Website Awareness Day!
October 3rd is Banned Website Awareness Day, a day dedicated to helping teachers everywhere discuss and become proactive in changing overly restrictive regulations of web use at school. Luckily for Remind101, this isn’t something we’ve had to battle with on a regular basis (if you do have in issue accessing Remind101 at school leave a comment here or email contact@remind101.com so we can help),...
September 2012
1 post
30 tags
Thank You from Remind101
This past summer Remind101 made moves across state lines and nations. From San Francisco to New York, and Texas to Toronto, we found our traffic exceeding what we had anticipated by leaps and bounds. The fast paced growth has been an incredibly exciting journey! But possibly the most exciting part is that we’ve grown because of our teachers. It would be great if we could jump on stage at the...
August 2012
5 posts
10 tags
Schoology offers education without walls, and now...
Once upon a time Schoology started offering the ultimate way to manage lessons, engage students, share content, and connect with other educators. Later, they launched an App Center, and gave Remind101 the ultimate honor of being included.
Hopefully most of our readers are familiar with, or already using, Schoology. Schoology connects students and parents to educators and learning resources...
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Back-To-School With Remind101
It’s mid Aug, is your Remind101 account ready to go back-to-school? We’ve definitely been feeling fall rapidly approaching over here with new activity on the site, and an influx of students subscribing around the country. (Yay!)
So…we figured it’s time to put together our recommended checklist to help you get ready for a new year of communicating safely.We call it, “The Remind101...
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10 Ways to Use Remind101
One of the most common questions we get when explaining Remind101 to newcomers is, “what type of messages are teachers using Remind101 for?” In the past year, teachers have sent millions of messages with Remind101, which means they’ve come up with more great ways to use Remind101 than we could ever possibly count. Not even with our shoes off. So, going on a wild assumption that you don’t have...
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Until You Try a Twitter Chat, You Haven't Lived!
Last night Remind101 was invited to our first ever Twitter Chat session by our friend Lisa Dabbs, @teachingwthsoul. The virtual group is #ntchat, which stands for New Teacher Chat, and they get together every Wednesday at 5 pm PST to tweet about a new topic. When Lisa asked us if we would be interested in participating in a chat about safe mobile communication, obviously we were thrilled. But...
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It’s All Fun and Games Until the iPhone App Stops...
* UPDATED: The iPhone app has been fixed. If you are still experiencing issues, please delete the version you currently have and re-download the lateast updated version of the app.
Last week we updated our iPhone app to its latest version, 1.3.As many of you have noticed, the unfortunate result was an uprising of bugs that have since caused the app to stop functioning.
We’re so sorry for...
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When in Rome, use Remind101...at least that's what...
Terri Street is a Teacher and Librarian at Longfellow Middle School in Norman, OK.
I have been a delegation leader for People to People Student Ambassador Programs for ten years. It’s been my privilege to travel to four continents and over a dozen countries with some of America’s best young people. One of the most difficult parts of the preparation and travel experience has always...
July 2012
4 posts
7 tags
What we learned at #Merit12
Last week, remind101 received an invitation from our friend Rushton Hurley to do a presentation at MERIT’s (Making Education Relevant and Interactive through Technology) summer 2012 training “camp.” If you’re not familiar with MERIT, it’s a research-based, educator development program designed to help teachers bolster their curriculum with student-centered, technology-enhanced learning activities...
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Canadian Numbers Have Arrived!
The long awaited arrival of shiny new Canadian phone numbers is finally here!
Startinggggg…….NOW! Canadian users can enjoy Remind101 without worrying about additional fees.
Shouts to our dev dudes, Jeremy and David, for making this happen!
Few things you need to know:
1) How to switch your current US phone number to a Canadian number.
Login to your account on...
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Lions, & Tigers, & Texting! Oh my!
Christine Garland is the Marketing Engineer at remind101, you can tweet her @cagarlandEarlier this week a friend shared an infographic on the positives of texting.
The data included, and case studies shown, are super neat! For example, who would have thought melanoma could be avoided with a little SMS action. That’s powerful stuff. But the brief blurb at the top of the infographic had this...
June 2012
4 posts
3 tags
"School's Out. For. The Summer."
As another year comes (or already came) to an end, we find ourselves reflecting. We also find ourselves wanting to know how to remove the past year’s classes from remind101 so we can be ready to set up next year’s new ones! So this is our, “How to delete a class 101, from remind101.”
Log into you account on www.remind101.com. (The iphone app doesn’t have settings that...
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News: We made our first hire! We’d like to extend...
The fact that Jeremy Ruppel survived college on little more than 3 not-so-square meals of straight chicken broth a day, is only one of the many reasons we knew we had to hire him.
Coding since he was just a lad, Jeremy’s skills as a developer are nothing short of genius.
After graduating from RIT where he studied New Media Interactive Development, Computer Audio and Creative Writing, Jeremy...
