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 Remind, formerly Remind101, has been around for years. I found the tool to be easy to use and effective from the beginning. It is reliable, meeting students and family with timely information via mobile text. Since the majority of parents have their phones within reach, Remind is meeting families where they are at in their busy day. I’m taking on a different advisory role this school year as a WEB leader. WEB stands for “Where Everybody Belongs”. WEB is made up of 8th graders who assist and mentor 6th graders as needed. Teachers certainly have their academic perspective of helping these 11/12 year-olds transition into middle school life. WEB leaders can give a “boots on the ground” angle that speaks from their experiences. I’ve seen WEB from the 6th grade advisory side and I’ve always been impressed. All the leaders assigned to my room have been good and some great. My attempts to speak with kids, which I think I do well for an old guy, pale to that of WEB leaders making a meaningful connection. There’s two days of training for the new crop of WEB leaders. This must happen before school begins, to be ready to meet their 6th grade advisory assigned class. The training is vital to a successful school year but cuts into their summer vacation and last minute family events. Communication in the summer is challenging, but Remind has made this process so much better. It all started last spring with the new WEB leaders attending our spring celebration. Using Remind is a easy to sign-up process, every student leader would get timely planning updates as needed. Starting up was easy for both teachers, students and families. Remind has “Co-Teacher Support”, to add other owners to our advisory class. There are three teacher leads including myself, so this feature was a perfect fit. From there we have created numerous updates for the upcoming training. Remind also has “Read Receipts” to see who’s received the message sent. The feature I most appreciate is the ability to “Schedule Announcements”. I can set reminders in advance and Remind will send it on that date and time. In addition, I can do “File Attachments” for our training agenda and other support documents needed. Both of these features are so easy to use. There are many more Remind tools for your classroom. Text reminders are valuable to enhance effective communication as families are as busy as ever. The free version totally meets my needs. Timely digital communication is important, building a strong triangle of learning for students, families, and teacher. Remind will “Share the Learning” in any classroom.   Flipgrid Live and Edcamp Flipgrid are done, so it's time to reflect. Both events were Tuesday, July 31 and Wednesday, August 1. Each day was filled with a ton of fun education energy by Flipgrid and educators full of sharing the excitement. My PLN grew from this vibrant learning community. I have less than a year of experience with Flipgrid, starting my grids back in December. Within a month I had moved most of my video projects to Flipgrid with ease and no hiccups. I wrote about it in March, “Flipping Out With Flipgrid”. Educators I present to love Flipgrid and it's easy for anyone to use. Flipgrid Live was Wednesday night after two days of great learning. I was pumped to attend this event, to see what was new with my favorite video tool. Here’s a list of the cutting-edge features and product enhancements. Below I grabbed all the features from their Flipgrid Blog.
There are so many great tool choices within Flipgrid. My mind is zinging with excitement and the anticipation of what my students will create. Flipgrid is a GREAT product that got even better.  |
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