Texting with Students

At the risk of appearing overly partial to a commercial product, I feel compelled to write about a powerful communication tool that I will use this year: Remind101. The service is simple – students subscribe and I can send them updates via texting. What is so well-executed about the service is the fact that students phone numbers do not appear on the teacher interface (web or mobile) and the teacher information doesn’t appear to the students either. In addition, students are unable to reply to the teacher or to other students. In other words, this is truly one-way information push for important reminders and updates.

I have used this a few different ways so far. First, I have sent reminders to bring materials to class when I was worried that it was not clearly stated otherwise. I have sent students updates on last-minute changes in meeting locations (changed classrooms).  I have even used it as an ad-hoc field trip notification system, enrolling students on the way to an off-campus event so that I can send out reminders while away from school. I am sure I will find more uses as the year progresses because my attitude is this – they are already using their phones so why not try and leverage that a little bit to keep them engaged in the course?

I highly recommend it to any teacher wanting another way to reach students that is safe and easy to use.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBSCRIBING TO MY CLASSES

• Step 1 (for Chemistry Honors) = Text the characters “@qchemh” to 281-500-9892
• Step 1 (for AP Chemistry) = Text the characters “@qchem” to 281-500-9892
• Step 2 = after receiving a confirmation text, reply with the student name
• Step 3 = there ain’t no step 3!