I really enjoy this app, it’s great for parents of younger children that are in school - I get text updates all the time from my boys’ teacher’s, one kid goes to after school care and his program director keeps in touch and sends pertinent updates through it, if they rode the bus (I drive them and pick them up) I would be able to communicate with the bus driver through the app, and even the school principal sends out announcements from the app - announcements that I’m sure are told to the students but by the time they get home they’ve forgotten about and never tell us, so we’re able to keep up to date on things like book fairs, student award ceremonies, dances, dress up days, reward days (Kona Ice comes to the school monthly), etc… it’s just a really beneficial tool to keep up with my children’s different school activities, projects, behaviors, etc. I am someone who does more texting than calling, I absolutely HATEEE talking on the phone for some reason, so it’s great that it’s a text app to keep us informed - but it also makes call for those who aren’t really into texting. It’s a very useful tool to have.

When I returned to teaching in the fall of 2018, I knew some teachers were using Remind but I did not see what the big deal was. Mr. Covid has made it very clear to me what the big deal with Remind is. Remind gives a teacher the convenient, easy, and quick way to communicate with his/her students, either individually or as a class. Remind also gives each student the same option to communicate with his/her teacher. If a student has a problem or issue that s/he does not want to share in front of the entire class, Remind is the perfect vehicle for that student-teacher communication, especially if the teacher has his/her phone out and available while teaching - as I now do. Why not just use the school's email system? Simply because many students now do not check their emails frequently. They use phone aps to send and receive messages. I know now that Remind is a terrific phone ap for useful and needed teacher-student conversations. I am now a true believer in the power of Remind and will be making extensive use of this ap in the fall when my school district returns to in-person instruction. I strongly recommend all other teachers do likewise.

It’s fine to receive basic reminders. We use for school admin to parent or teacher to parent and Vice versa communication. The free version has very low character limit (140) so it’s hard to fit even basic info-so then it’s a reminder and see attachment. Which you can only attach one picture or file. So that means sending several messages which leads to over notifications, which then parents are bothered. (There are plans available for higher character around 500 is the one my school finally switched to. This is very helpful. Idk the cost on the administration side, but I appreciate it both as a teacher and parent.) On the parent side if you have receive notifications turned on then it’s really like two notifications because you get the notification and view it. But then you still have to open the app and view in the app for it to be marked read, otherwise it still looks like you have a new message. Also if several attachments were sent in a row you have to open each one separately. So it’s small inconvenience but adds up. I do like how you can individual message within groups so it’s a way for parents to connect without sharing numbers. And you can individual connect with a teacher. But each teacher had to make their own group. Overall it functions for its basic purpose to send a brief reminder to a group of people who have signed up-but that’s the key-very basic.