Now that we’re finally approaching the end of 2020, we’re pausing to take a look back at how you and your communities stayed in touch during this exceptionally tough year—from coordinating sudden closures and adapting on the fly in the spring to recognizing the sobering impact of distance learning on student engagement and educator well-being alike.
But we also wanted to wrap up the year on a more hopeful note: Despite the circumstances, communities around the country found a way to stay connected and keep learning.
It isn’t always easy to reconcile day-to-day communication with the impact it makes. But this year, we thought it was especially important to at least try—so here are five numbers to show what 2020 looked like for you and almost 30 million other educators, students, and parents on Remind.
Remote and hybrid learning depends on communication outside the classroom, and each of these messages went to an individual student, parent, or educator on Remind.
This is a testament to the new role of video instruction this year—and all the communication, coordination, and technology that educators need to put into making it happen.
Sometimes, text messages or video conferences aren’t the best way to get in touch. Every call represents time that a teacher, administrator, or staff member put into calling parents and students directly.
This year, we’re seeing districts of all sizes supporting two-way classroom communication instead of leaving it up to teachers to handle. While some district offices use Remind for central communication, others use it in conjunction with their mass messaging tools.
This means that they and their families can choose how they prefer to communicate for learning—more important than ever when a login or reply is the difference between being engaged and being unreachable.
We’re not sorry to see 2020 go, but we’re grateful to have been able to play a role in however you’ve supported your students this year—and we’d love to hear how you’ve been using Remind. Take care of yourselves and your communities, and we’ll see you in 2021.
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* ppcUrlCookiePart1 and ppcUrlCookiePart2 must be called, see bottom of script
* update ppcUrlCookiePart2 and ppcUrlCookiePart2 to match your querystring and form field names
*
*/
//Leave this as true to always use querystring values if they exist, if no querystring will attempt to get cookie values
var ppcUseLatestValues = true; //set this to false to use cookie values if they exist (if false, will not check querystring first).
//function to grab params from cookie
function getCookie(param_name) {
var i, x, y, cookie = document.cookie.split(";");
for (i = 0; i < cookie.length; i++) {
x = cookie[i].substr(0, cookie[i].indexOf("="));
y = cookie[i].substr(cookie[i].indexOf("=") + 1);
x = x.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, "");
if (x == param_name) {
return unescape(y);
}
}
}
//function to create cookie
function setCookie(param_name, value, exdays) {
var exdate = new Date();
exdate.setDate(exdate.getDate() + exdays);
//CHANGE DOMAIN BELOW TO MATCH SITE
var c_value = escape(value) + ((exdays == null) ? "" : "; domain=remind.com; path=/; expires=" + exdate.toUTCString());
document.cookie = param_name + "=" + c_value;
}
//function to check if cookie exists and, if so, run the setCookie function
function checkCookie(param_name, param_url_name) {
var param_value = getCookie(param_name);
if ((param_value != null && param_value != "" && param_value != "undefined") && ppcUseLatestValues == false) {
//this means the param name/value pair exists - and we don't want to use latest
}
else {
//this means the param name/value pair does not exist - so create it
//grab values from URL
var pageURL = window.location.search.substring(1);
var URLVariables = pageURL.split('&');
for (var i = 0; i < URLVariables.length; i++) {
var parameterName = URLVariables[i].split('=');
if (parameterName[0] == param_url_name) {
//filter out "#" in case that is in the last URL param
param_value = parameterName[1].split("#")[0];
}
}
if (param_value != "undefined" && param_value != "" && param_value != null) {
//create cookie
setCookie(param_name, param_value, 365);
}
}
}
//function to setup the parameters and save the cookie values
function ppcUrlCookiePart1() {
//setup list/array of parameters desired. names on right should match querystring names
var param_names = new Array(
'ppcSource;utm_source',
'ppcMedium;utm_medium',
'ppcCampaign;utm_campaign',
'ppcAdGroup;utm_adgroup',
'ppcKeyword;utm_term',
'ppcContent;utm_content'
);
//loop through all params and create cookie
for (i = 0; i < param_names.length; i++) {
var param_object = param_names[i].split(";");//split out the cookie name and url name
var param_name = param_object[0];
var param_url_name = param_object[1];
//start the cookie creation
checkCookie(param_name, param_url_name);
}
}
//function to grab cookie params
function mGetCookie(param_name) {
var i, x, y, cookie = document.cookie.split(";");
for (i = 0; i < cookie.length; i++) {
x = cookie[i].substr(0, cookie[i].indexOf("="));
y = cookie[i].substr(cookie[i].indexOf("=") + 1);
x = x.replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, "");
if (x == param_name) {
return unescape(y);
}
}
}
//function to check if cookie exists and, if so, fill out the corresponding form fields
function mCheckCookie(param_name, param_field_name) {
var param_value = mGetCookie(param_name);
if (param_value != null && param_value != "" && param_value != "undefined") {
try
{
var obj1 = document.getElementsByName(param_field_name);
obj1[0].value = param_value;
return true;
}
catch (err)
{
return false;
}
}
return false;
}
//function to setup parameters and begin cookie value insertion into marketo form
function ppcUrlCookiePart2() {
//setup list/array of parameters desired. names on right should match hidden form field names
var param_names = new Array(
'ppcSource;utm_source__c',
'ppcMedium;utm_medium__c',
'ppcCampaign;utm_campaign__c',
'ppcAdGroup;utm_adgroup__c',
'ppcKeyword;utm_term__c',
'ppcContent;utm_content__c'
);
//loop through all params and create cookie
for (i = 0; i < param_names.length; i++) {
var param_object = param_names[i].split(";");//split out the cookie name and url name
var param_name = param_object[0];
var param_field_name = param_object[1];
//start the cookie creation
mCheckCookie(param_name, param_field_name);
}
}
//ppcUrlCookiePart1 will grab values from the querystring and save them in cookies
ppcUrlCookiePart1();
//ppcUrlCookiePart2 will retrive values from the cookies and populate the hidden form fields - should be in the onload
try
{
//attempt for Marketo form
MktoForms2.whenReady(function (form){
ppcUrlCookiePart2();
});
}
catch (err)
{
//if error on Marketo form, try loading for regular form.
ppcUrlCookiePart2();
}