Home-School communications

The first semester is fast coming to an end and this tends to be one of those times during the year when teacher-parent communications spikes and there are lots of reminders about projects due, tests upcoming, preparing for the finals or mid-terms.  You have e-mail and you can post items on your website, but students aren't always checking e-mail or your class website, but they are always checking their phone for messages.  And parents aren't checking your website regularly, but if prompted by a message they would.

So here are a couple free and easy to use communication tools you can use to help.  If you're already using Twitter, these tools can help manage and track the communications.  We know that frequent and timely communication matters.  According to research done by Bitly (a popular URL shortening and sharing service) in 2011, the half-life of a link on Twitter and Facebook is 2.8 and 3.2 hours respectively. [The half-life of a link refers to the amount of time it takes for a link to reach one-half of the number of clicks it will ever receive.]  Read more at Free Technology for Teachers.

Remind 101
This is a simple, free text messaging tool you can use to remind students of assignments, tests, upcoming events like field trips ("remember to get your permission slip signed and returned by Tuesday").  Messages are sent to the entire group (class) not individual students.  Mobile phone numbers remain anonymous.

Here's video (3 minutes) with a simple explanation from teachers and students who use it.  Or, here is a one page PDF description.


for more info, to sign up and try, go to Remind101 resource page.



Ving
This is a freemium communications tool that has the flexiblilty to send messages (a Ving) in multiple formats.  You create a Ving (including audio, video, documents, text, photos, other media) and send it to your predefined recipients via Twitter, e-mail, Facebook, Blog or web postings. or SMS (text message).  Messages are tracked and recipients can respond.  While Ving is a rich tool that can be used for online assignments, assessments, and lots more you can begin by using it as simple a reminder message and parent communications tool.



What's Ving (1 minute)


How it works (1 minute)


How teachers use Ving (6 minute interview with 2 classroom teachers)

For more info, to sign up and try, go to the Ving page.