Teachers often face more communication challenges than they can count—if they're not dealing with outdated contact information or trying to find out whether their handouts made it home, they're juggling three or four different communication tools to cover all the bases.The first step to more effective classroom communication is getting organized. Here are 10 ways you can simplify communication with Remind.
Think of all the permission slips, forms, and notes that you send home—and that's not even counting take-home assignments and review sheets. Instead of dooming printouts to the bottom of a student backpacks, attach documents to your messages and send them directly to mobile phones. If students and parents need to fill anything out, they can send files right back.
Text messages have a much higher chance of being read, but that won't help if they're not being delivered. You can check on the delivery status of every message and see who's viewing the attachments you send.
Save a step when you plan your lessons and schedule assignment and project reminders ahead of time. In addition to giving students an extra nudge, you won't have to think about these for the rest of the term—giving you time to focus on the things that come up.
If participants get texts, all of your messages will come from the same randomly assigned phone number. If they're signed up for multiple classes, the app helps them keep all of their messages in a single place. (Plus, push notifications let them know whenever they get a message.)
If you have phone numbers or email addresses for your students and parents, great! You can add them to your class. But if you have not-so-fond memories of chasing down busy parents for their contact information, you can always ask them to sign up for your class when it's convenient for them. Once they do, you're all set.
Families don't need smartphones or even Internet access to use Remind—all they need to communicate is a mobile phone with texting capabilities. If they prefer a different notification method, they can log in with Remind.com or the app to manage their settings.
Remind is built for education, which includes iKeepSafe certifications for COPPA, FERPA, and California Student Privacy. Everyone has access to resources and guidelines that help keep communication constructive and safe.
Not every message needs to go to your entire class. Start a conversation with a small group of up to 10 participants or send a direct message to just one person. You can always turn off replies when you're done.
Coordinating field trips and other events can be a massive undertaking, especially when it comes to keeping track of all the moving pieces. Instead of sending home permission slips, creating rosters, collecting checks and cash, visiting the treasurer, and coordinating volunteers, take care of everything through Remind.
Communicating with students and families doesn't need to be time-consuming, frustrating, or ineffective. A simple, personal message can go a long way to making sure that all of your students have the opportunity to succeed.
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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();
}