highschool |

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 reading & being patient. Very very patient. It’s fair to say she was the reason I got into college. I learned slower. I read slower. But she was ok with that. I think I found a lot of confidence in her patience. “Keep trying, you’ll get it”.

Anytime I thank her for spending that time with me & tell her how much she impacted my life, she shrugs it off and say’s ” oh stop, you did it yourself!”

A sincere thanks to Mrs. Whitefield at Niles West High School!

How remind101 revolutionized our school

Kelsey Murray teaches mathematics at Rocky Mount High School in North Carolina

One way remind101 has revolutionized our school is through the new building we are constructing. In June, the school I teach at, Rocky Mount High School in Rocky Mount NC will move into a brand new, state of the art building with all of the latest technological features, as well as being an ‘eco-friendly’ building. One remind101 account we have set up is a chance for students, parents and community members to receive alerts with new building progress stats and links to slideshows for updated photos of the construction. While people can’t always enter the construction site because of safety reasons, every one in our town can feel connected and ‘in the know’ about our new school via these announcements.

A more general way remind101 has helped our school is by increasing the number of students who complete their homework assignments. By enrolling students and parents, students do not have the excuse ‘I forgot to write my homework down’ or ‘I didn’t know what we had for homework.’ Also, when parents get involved in pushing students to do their homework, this starts the beginning of the parent-teacher-student communication we strive for. Parents then join alongside the teacher in helping students succeed.

I, along with other teachers at my school, send announcements with general information as well, more than just homework assignments. I remind students of upcoming events at the school, test/quiz dates and I even scheduled a “Merry Christmas” announcement to be sent out to my students while I was in Africa during Christmas break. ‘HOW COOL?!’ they all said! :)

“We have a test? You didn’t tell us we had a test!” How Catherine Flippen uses mobile in the class

Catherine Horton Flippen is a foreign language and fine arts teacher at Mill Creek High School in Hoschton, Georgia. She is an educational technology evangelist, effective digitized pedagogy integrator, and all-around technophile. You can follow her on Twitter (twitter.com/CatFlippen), read her blog Ctrl+Alt+Teach (www.ctrlaltteach.com), and browse her digital footprint (about.me/CatFlippen).

I’ve been a victim of communication failure. So has most every other educator I know. It’s practically a pandemic taking over our email and snail mail and leading to even more time spent outside of the classroom desperately trying to reach students and parents. Take, for example, the following scenes from a particular school day that I have experienced at least twice any given semester:

2nd Period Student: “Sorry I’m late. I didn’t know our class had moved. You can’t mark me tardy.”

Teacher: “You should have remembered. I wrote it on the board and reminded you at the end of class. Now you’ve missed the main instruction, and I’ll have to repeat everything again.”

Group of Students in Every Class: “We have a test? You didn’t tell us we had a test!”

Teacher: “Well, it’s been on the class calendar online, and I mentioned it yesterday in class. You all should have written it down in your agenda.”

Parent Email at the End of the School Day: “I didn’t know my child had a big project due / needed to bring something to class. She needs an extension / to be excused from the activity / should get an automatic 100%.”

Teacher: “I posted information on my website and even sent a letter home three weeks ago. Don’t you check my website and didn’t you receive the letter?”

Sound familiar? Just thinking about it makes me shudder. Every educator puts forth so much effort into making calendars, sending home information, and emailing notifications that it becomes a huge disappointment when parents and students are clearly not using your resources. Throw in phone logs, email difficulties and masses of paperwork, and I’m on the verge of bypassing important teacher-parent and teacher-student communication in lieu of spending my time doing even more important things like, you know, grading and planning.

Thankfully, I’ve discovered a communication revolution following on the footsteps of the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and Mobile Learning movements: TEXT MESSAGING. No, not the kind that requires your phone number to be shared among adolescents and teenagers (and the potential mess involved with that scenario), but the kind that is FREE, SECURE, and even DOES THE WORK FOR YOU. No actual phone numbers are exchanged, no personal information is shared, messages can be scheduled in advance, and every message you send out is recorded on the Remind101 website for professional and legal reference.

Thanks to Remind101, I’ve been able to circumvent communication failure so far this semester. My students are still talking about how awesome it is to receive messages from their teacher. They come to my class prepared and on time more regularly than I have ever experienced. Parents have told me that they enjoy feeling more “in the know” of what their student is doing in my class. And after I shared Remind101 with other foreign language teachers at Mill Creek High School in Hoschton, Georgia, the entire department adopted the practice en masse.

Here are some specific examples of how real teachers use Remind101:

My classes are heavily integrated with educational technology, so we are often in a computer lab two to three times per week and sometimes on short notice. I send out frequent messages to each subject I teach to remind them at least twice of our relocation beforehand.

Paula Sanchez at Mill Creek High reminds her students at 6pm almost every night what is or what will be due tomorrow.
Lindsey Barwick Brouillard at Berkmar High School in Lilburn, Georgia sends a message to her Language Arts students in the evening once or twice a week asking one or two reflection questions that they are meant to answer as a homework assignment for that day.
Mill Creek Foreign Language classes switch classrooms once per week to use language labs for listening and speaking practice. Whenever Jason Smith or Claire Wise, both of whom have language labs in their classrooms, need to switch with other teachers, they send reminder texts to each individual class period to reduce confusion and tardiness.
Courtney Alexander Lowe at Loganville High School in Loganville, Georgia will text interesting facts and news to her Chemistry students to make learning an often difficult field of science more interesting and relevant.
While she was recently ill, Gillian Bradley of Mill Creek High texted her students to let them know that although she was absent that day, they were still having their vocabulary quiz.
Some of the other ideas we’ve generated involve sending out parent-only reminders for major tests, texting shortened links (using bit.ly) to digital assignments or information, and even sending out a “vocabulary word of the day/week” that students can use on classwork for extra credit. The uses for educational text messaging are endless.

So, why use Remind101 when other SMS options are available? Remind101 was the only one with the easiest user interface as well as simple sign up instructions, e-mail option for those without mobile devices, unlimited texts, up to 10 groups, and amazing one-on-one assistance availability. This service was the best for teachers with extensive technological experience as well as teachers skeptical or unsure of using mobile technology in association with their classes.

Harnessing the power of mobile devices and Web 2.0 communication can connect teachers with students and parents more readily than email, static websites, and send-home paper notifications, and that connection makes your class more relevant and accessible to a generation of students attached to their cell phones and smart technology. Seeing as Remind101 makes text messaging so simple and secure, everyone should be utilizing this resource in their classes. Maybe one day we will see the end of frustrating communication failures and teachers will have one less thing to worry about during their busy days.

(Ironically, just as I finished writing this blog post, a student approached me and asked, “Mrs. Flippen, how do I sign up for that text message thingy?” Even teenagers who are initially unsure eventually see the usefulness of Remind101!)

Students speak out-attempt to change school cell phone policy

The students of Brockton Public School from Boston, MA on cell phones in the classroom. Thanks to Ms. Dougherty’s class for taking time to share your thoughts!

Dear Mr. Kopf,

Hi. We are students in Ms. Dougherty’s fifth period class in Y307. We would like you to know that we wrote the mission statement that you read. We are trying to change our school’s current cell phone policy and rules for using technology. Different teachers have different ways of using technology in class. Some teachers think its just a big distraction; they don’t realize how it can improve our grades and help us learn. In our school, if a student gets caught using their phone or electronic device they get punished-their phone is taken away, they are given demerits and they may even get suspended. Remind101 is awesome because receiving text messages to remind us of our homework is very helpful. Some of us always forget the homework assignment, but we always have our phones so all we have to do is look at the message. We would like for you to speak about why students should be able to use technology in school and think it would have a really positive impact. We love to use technology and enjoy school as well. We believe that using technology for academic purposes is a major step in the right direction.

Sincerely,

The 5th period students of Y307

Guest Blog Post: Shawna O’Halloran

How are teachers using remind101 and what do they think? Shawna did a great screencast on remind101, this is a follow up. If you’d like to be featured email contact@remind101.com!

I teach High School Math (Geometry up through Calculus) at St. Marys High School in St. Marys,Kansas.

I heard about remind101 from a classmate of mine during an online meeting of a graduate class. He mentioned it in passing and I thought it sounded great so I looked into it. I started using remind101 as a way to bring the everyday technology students use into my classes. I think it is a great way to remind kids of events coming up. I asked the students before I started if this was something that would interest them, and they responded very excitedly that is was. Initially I thought I would remind them about tests and quizzes, but eventually it evolved to changing due dates, omitting questions from homework, and handing out class feedback on tests and quizzes (ie: averages, etc). The students are really appreciating this tool.

I have not opened this to parents yet. I wanted to test run with students before I invited parents to join. Also talking from some parents, the age of students I teach, we want them to learn responsibility and so parents are glad they are receiving texts but don’t necessarily want to join in.

There are many times as a teacher where I have thought, “Oh wait, I wanted them to skip this problem,” or “I’m not going to put this on the quiz since they didn’t seem to understand it,” and I have wanted to relay this to students. Remind101 is an easy way to do this. Even students who are not signed up will hear through the grapevine from those who are about changes. The students admitted to being confused when the first message came through. “Why is Mrs. O’Halloran texting me and how did she get my number?” Then students look at the message and remember. This has cut down the “I forgot” excuse from students. I still hear it, just not as much.

For any teachers interested in remind101, I suggest just trying it. I’m still learning and it is sometimes hard for me to remember to send the messages, but I am getting better. I helped students sign up in my classroom. For the first time, I told students if they were interested to get out their phones and they were going to “text” in my class. They were giddy with excitement. Just this reaction is enough for me to know that I did the right thing. They see me as someone who utilizes the technology they love. They know it is not a common practice and they still are not to randomly text in my class, but that one day was exciting.

I pulled the directions up on the overhead and had students sign up during class. As many teachers know, it is surprising the questions you hear from students. My students text everyday, but still when they received the text back asking for their name, they asked me what they supposed to type. I told them, “Just what it says, your name.” It is days like these that makes teaching fun. For students who were absent, if they wanted to sign up, I helped them do it in a spare minute. There are directions to print off, but I did not use these. When and if I invite parents, then these directions will be useful. I think at parent-teacher conferences, would be a great time to help parents sign up.

The one thing I would like to see from remind101 is a mobile page. Like students, we live with our phones. I will be out doing something and remember that I need to send the messages and it is hard from the full page on a cell phone. Sometimes I think having students able to text back would be nice, but then I think about it again and decide that they can call or email if necessary. I would like to see the ability to text just one of the members of class. There have been a couple times where I want to remind a students to come in before school for extra help, but can’t. Overall, remind101 is great. I would recommend this to teachers. I know there have been times where you may think, “Oh, I wish I would have told them this.” This can fix that. Meet them on their technology level and the response is amazing.

We’re working on a mobile site as we speak! As always, remember that typical messaging rates apply and always consult with parents before using remind101 with students. Leave a comment or email contact@remind101.com with any questions!