Parent Communication Apps

Howdy Y'all!

Have you caught the technology bug yet?

Technology is continuously changing. 

 And it's hard to keep up.  

Especially in the classroom.

I went to a short training during staff development on technology in the classroom.

I found out about two great parent communication apps for teachers, parents, and students.

Have you heard of them?

 

These are both great apps, but they are two very different apps depending on what you are needing for your classroom.

They BOTH are a safe way to contact parents using your phone without giving out your phone number.  

Being a work-a-holic teacher caring educator, I know that if I were to give our my number to parents, I would "taking my work home" in the sense that I wouldn't be able to say no to those late night text or phone calls.  

I need to be able to leave work at the front door.  

Don't get me wrong, I do not mind sending a quick email or answering a question for five minutes, but I can do those things on my own by choice.  

If someone texts me, I would feel obligated to text back.  

Even if I was at dinner with my favorite man.

That's just who I am as a teacher, but I realize that's not always healthy. 

So when I heard about these apps, I was sold!

An advanced way to communicate without compromising my number.

(email is SO 2010!)

It took a while to navigate and figure out which one would be best for me as a teacher.

I'm here to save you some time!

Here's the skinny!

Remind 101!

Remind101 Website

Safe- Yes

Free-Yes

Teachers can text parents- Yes

Parents must send a text to the remind101 app with your username in the message

Teachers can text students- Yes

Great for older students!

Parents/Students can text teacher- No

If a parent or student tries to text back, they will get an automated reply that says "You can't text your teacher!"

Teachers can text individual parents- No

This app works only as a one-way group message.

Teachers can sent picture images- No

Celly

Celly Website

Safe- Yes

Free-Yes

Teachers can text parents- Yes

Parents must send a text to the celly app with your username in the message or they can create an account online.  Note: It's important for families to create a username that you will be able to recognize since you cannot see their phone number or name.   The Jones Family or Sarah's Mom would work well.

Teachers can text students- Yes

Great for older students who have questions about homework assignments!

Parents/Students can text teacher- Yes

This works as a group message system.

Teachers can text individual parents- Yes

Teachers can add individual usernames to an separate message as well as group message the entire class.

Teachers can sent picture images- No

There ya go!  

I hope you will be able to decide which app you want to use.  

I started with Remind101 but realized I really needed parents to be able to send messages back to me.  I switched over to Celly and feel comfortable with it.  

The only thing I hope they add to this app is the ability to send picture messages.

  

I think parents would really appreciate seeing their students in action as they learn.  

Any questions?