Teaching Tip of the Day- Text your Students

My teaching life has been changed for the better now that I can contact students through text message. Most people are glued to their phone all day long. How many of you shower with your phone in the bathroom? It's just a habit to have our phones available.

I needed a method to infiltrate students' most precious devices. I found a way with Remind 101. Remind101.com is a free service that allows teachers to get an account and create up to ten class groups. Each group gets its own code to text. Once they text the code to the appropriate number, they have to reply to the welcome text with only their name.

Any texts you send out through the website or the app can go directly to them the moment you type the message or can be scheduled for a better time. For example, I don't text students when they aren't in my class. I schedule the texts to send right after school or later (after dinner...7).

This isn't just for students with phones; parents can sign up for texts and students without phones can sign up for "texts" through email. Directions are on the site. The site also has printable direction handouts to distribute to students. Students can't text you back either (just in case you were wondering).

Since using this site, students' homework completion rates have gone up (even in the last marking period) and students request me to send them texts.

Let me know how it works for you!