YELLOW BRICK ROAD MUSIC

Many of you may already know about the handy, little tool called Remind, formerly known as Remind 101. I became interested in the free communication service back when I started up my very first elementary choir. I knew that most of my students’ parents used cell phones as their main form of communication. However, I wanted a way to communicate with parents that didn’t involve inputing tons of numbers into my cell phone or giving away my personal number. That’s when I discovered Remind.

Remind is a service which enables you to send texts to students and parents while keeping your own number private. To quote directly from the Remind website, “Messaging is one-way so teachers share the most important class information, reminders and updates, but there is no chance of unfair or inappropriate back-and-forth communication between student and teacher.”

Here are the reasons I love it:

#1. It’s secure
No numbers or responses are exchanged, which leaves little to no room for misunderstandings. You send the message, it’s received, and that’s it.

#2. It’s free.
I like free stuff. You like free stuff. We all like free stuff. The website claims that the basic service will be free for teachers forever. They do hint that premium services may be added in the future, which wouldn’t be free. Though, without even a hint at what those premium services might be, it’s hard to say whether or not they would be worth the cost.

#3. Proof of Communication
Parents and students who sign up for the service can’t claim that they “lost the paper with all the information about the concert”. Likewise, teachers can’t say that they sent a reminder when they didn’t. All messages are recorded and can be pulled up on the website at any time. You can check both the date and the exact time in which each message was sent.

#4. Convenience
You’ll likely gain the gratitude of busy parents who yearn for an easy way to stay on top of important reminders. You can even schedule messages ahead of time. Plus, you just might save a few trees by avoiding all those paper reminder slips. They just get eaten by the dog anyway.

#5. It’s blog-friendly
Remind provides the code for a widget that you can embed into your blog. So, if you have a class website, you can embed scrolling reminders for your readers. Simply add an HTML/Javascript widget, paste the code into the body, and click “save”.

For fun, I added a widget from my account onto my practice blog. It fit in rather nicely with my sidebar, and I like that it has a “Get the app!” button so that parents and students can easily add it to the devices they use every day.

If you’re looking for a free, convenient, and safe way to communicate directly with students and parents, Remind is a great choice. What methods of communication do you currently use for your performance groups? In what ways might Remind be helpful to you? Leave your message in the comments.

Thanks for reading!
Jennifer