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Dec 12, 2012

How Can Technology Help You With Parent Contact?


How can I get my parents involved in the classroom?

Using Technology to Communicate with Parents: Remind and BloomzJust like many other teachers, I'm sure, I am trying to raise test scores and achievement, increase homework completion, increase parent contacts, and meet my APPR goals this year.  I am testing out a tool to help increase parent involvement.  It is called Remind101.  I am going to start using it with my classes (students and parents) this week. I'll keep you posted.



I heard about it from a friend of mine who is using it and has great things to say. Remind 101 to message students and parents - free and safe.  The bottom line is that many (if not most) of our parents have cell phones, but may or may not have reliable internet and check/use email.  Text message are a great way to communicate with parents.  One of the best options out is there is Remind101.

Try out Remind101 to communicate with students and parents!

Remind 101 to message students and parents - free and safeHere is the website Remind101.com

Here are a few teacher blogs that discuss it
http://misslwholebrainteaching.blogspot.com/2012/10/remind-101.html 

A great discussion of the set up and features  A few highlights:

  • Your number and the parents' number stays private
  • Both students and parents can subscribe to updates
  • You can send out announcements to a large group, or to smaller groups, and can schedule ahead of time.
  • They cannot reply to the messages (this could be a plus or a drawback).
  • You can set up different groups for students and parents, or have them subscribe to the same updates. 

I think most kids want to be successful but are not in the habit of keeping track of multiple classes, doing homework, remembering what they need to do, etc.  Also, let's face it, our kids (and parents) are connected and used to technology.  While it may not always have a place in the classroom we need to connect with them where they are. 


Bloomz is another good option for parent communication


Another good options is Bloomz, however this does NOT send out only text reminders, but has an option for text, email, or smartphone app. This does allow two way messaging, and allows sending photos. It has more options, but also is a bit more complicated to set up. Remind is about as simple and straightforward as you can get!

Remind is free, anonymous, and very easy to set up. You can schedule messages to go out ahead of time.  I think its worth a try.

Anyone used either of these to communicate?  Did you see an increase in parent communication or parent involvement? Do you have feedback or suggestions? 


Tech options to communicate with parents: Remind and Bloomz


3 comments :

  1. This sounds fabulous - especially the fact that it can be used with cell phones (from what I see) which is so important at my school - lots of parents don't have e-mail. Please let me know what you think of it!

    http://mrsodonnellsroom.blogspot.com/

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  2. I will keep you posted. So far the biggest hurdle has been getting information home and getting people signed up. Sign ups are coming in slowly...so far I'm at about 12 out of my 90+ students... It may be better to start earlier in the year. Those that are signed up like it though.

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  3. I LOVE this tool. My child's teacher uses it (although not as often as I'd like) and it's awesome to get a reminder to put library books in her backpack, or to remember that it's the last day to send money for school photos.

    Thanks for the post!

    Mme Aiello @ Teaching FSL

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