Remind 101 - Perfect for communication with parents and students K - 12

Welcome Back!  There's nothing like jumping into a new school year with a great plan to communicate with parents and students.  Teachers choose sites like Edmodo, Facebook and blogs for that communication and they are terrific sources.  To add to your bag of tricks is Remind 101. 
What is it?
Remind101 provides a safe way for teachers to text message students and stay in touch with parents for free. Teachers use remind101.com, the Android or iOS app to send texts to students' and parents' phones without ever having to share their own phone number. Students and parents also never have to share their phone number with teachers. Ever.

How Might I Use It?
Field trip reminders, motivational messages, homework, exam reminders, schedule changes, fun facts, and trivia. It’s a great way to communicate information to students and parents safely! 

How do I get started?
Go to remind101.com on your computer, or download the Android or iOS app, then create your first class to see how it works. It takes less than two minutes to get started! 

My students are too young for cell phones.
That's when you use it with the parents.  Busy parents would love reminders about field trip permission slip due dates and test schedules.  They will LOVE this!

Everyone has two minutes, right?  And once your account is created, messages take seconds to write and send.  Today's parents and students are more connected than ever.  Remind 101  would be a great way to keep the lines of communication open between home and school.

Here's the link: Remind 101

Talk about TRAUMATIZED!

The name of this blog may have you questioning why I picked it.  It's not a terribly interesting story, but I'll share it anyway.  I was watching The View (don't judge me, I was on summer break) one day and Whoopi Goldberg was wearing a shirt that had "Traumatized by Mediocrity" on it.  I LOVED IT! It's like my sarcastic and somewhat cynical view of the world was summed up with three little words.  Fantastic!  I had to have that shirt.  I found it too, and then quickly dismissed the idea of owning it because it had a $75 price tag. As if.   So, I called a local sporting goods store and asked them to make it for me.  Um, yeah.  I asked for cursive and some girly swirls...this is what I got. (I'm pictured here with favorite son, Conor.  He will be thrilled that I posted this picture for everyone to see.) Seriously?  In the long run, I got the shirt for free because it was NOT what I asked for and nobody else in the store knew what it meant.  Go figure.

Mediocrity is everywhere, and sad to say that includes the field of education.    You all had the teacher who was a few years from retirement but who had, in no uncertain terms, "retired" years before and just kept showing up.  They copied the same worksheets and lectured the entire class period in that monotone "anyone, anyone?" kind of voice.(Ferris Buhler's Day off, great movie, right?)   Sad to say, those people still exist.  They plod along and do the bare minimum to get by, when with a little effort they could be incredible.  They simply don't care, are too afraid to ask for help,  think getting better would be too much work, or are completely okay with being mediocre.  I don't get that.  I really don't.  I', not saying that I think their intent is bad, per say. However, I don't think it's ok, especially when dealing with students, to aim low.  Wow.
  
Don't get me wrong, not all teachers are like that.  In fact, in our district, there are some teachers who are ROCKSTARS!  They completely get it and hone their craft by attending professional development, scouring the internet for creative ideas and taking courses to further their knowledge on things like technology and Common Core.  They stay after school to help students, take loads of work home with them to grade and show up an hour early to make sure they are prepared for the day.  They strive to make their classes interesting and meaningful.  They build strong relationships with their kids and treat them with dignity and respect.   They are the ones who keep me believing that things can change - that by example, they may push a teacher who is stuck in the mediocre phase to want more.  I'm praying this turns out to be true.

Mediocrity is NOT limited to the field of education.  You have the checkout clerk who smacks gum and checks her cell phone when she is supposed to be waiting on customers.  You have the customer service workers who are rude and abrasive when their job, by definition, is to help consumers.  And please, don't even get me started on employees at the DMV.  Seriously?  How many of you have waited in line to renew a license or change a tag on your vehicle?  Could there be a more unwelcoming environment?  And we have no option...we HAVE to be there.  They know this, so they don't have to strive to "get better".  They sip coffee and talk on the phone, while the poor fools in line get angrier by the minute as their lunch hours slip away.  And what baffles me is that there always seems to be a plethora of workers milling about, yet only one is actually helping patrons.  What's up with that?

People amaze me at their lack of sense, lack of good taste, and laziness on a regular basis.  It seems, to me, that there is an overwhelming part of the population that is perfectly happy with being idiots.  Thus, I give you a few pictures from an email I got today entitled "Parents of the Year".  I think this proves, yet again, how incongruous it is that we need a license to drive, hunt and fish, but anyone can be a parent.