Remind is there to fill that gap for me. It allows me to send a text or email (receiver’s choice) notifying someone of a significant event. I hope to use it in the 2014-2015 school year to keep parents abreast of the things going on in the classroom and the school like upcoming projects (which also don’t get shared until the day before they are due), snow days, parent-teacher conference dates, school events, and any other major happenings.
My biggest struggle with using this service has been in getting parents to sign up. At the 2014 ASCD conference the staff at the Remind booth had some great ideas for encouraging use that I will be implementing at the beginning of the next school year. They even gave me a couple of t-shirts to raffle off to students who got their parents to sign up with the service. I will be making full use of those and other prize ideas.
I can’t wait to see if this works more effectively for my students. If it does, I can fully endorse the service for others in my building.