I "remind" my class.

Today I was lucky enough to visit the HQ of the great Ed app remind.  It was a good opportunity to share what happens in my class as well as the great things that are happening in Australian education. It was also nice to be helpful to the staff so that they can see what teachers need and want from such an app.

Firstly, what is remind?
Remind (in a nutshell) is an sms service and app that teachers can use to safely send push notification reminders to student and parents.

Please find more information on their website
https://www.remind.com

I got to meet and have lunch with Clara and Rachel, Clara introduced me to other staff, including one who is originally from Australia in Melbourne. 

The conversation over lunch included sharing other back channel sites and ways of communicating with students and parents in and outside of the classroom. Such as Today's meet, Google sites, blogger and Twitter.

Some of the questions I was asked included how else would I use remind to communicate and what do I do to make sure such tools are used correctly. Some questions I would invite you to consider.

I shared about ways of dealing with behaviour and how promoting positive behaviour on and off line is essential. This includes identifying their digital footprint, how everything they do and say has an impact on individuals, places and themselves. I included the example of handing out plain piece of paper and instructing students to crumple it, tear it, stamp on it and ruin it. Then try to return it to its original condition.  I then relate this practice to how they treat others.

We also continued to discuss how communicating online in a classroom setting can give students a voice and then you can keep record of what students have said and shared.

I would encourage others to check out remind and see how you could use it for your class or even school. I am hoping to use it at our school as we do not have a school app but this is a cheaper and efficient way to remind parents about notes, change of dates and items that need to come into school.

Thank you to Clara and all he lovely staff at remind for making me feel so welcome and the delicious cob salad for lunch!
Another thing they also said is that they are always trying to get teachers to stop by so they can hear more about classrooms and how remind can help, so if you are ever in the bay area, I highly recommend you get in contact with Clara.