Tech Tuesday for September 10

Welcome back everyone! I hope the start of the year has been as smooth as possible for everyone. Like most summers, I spent my time traveling the country going to some great conferences where I met some awesome people and learned a few new tools I am excited to share with you. As you unofficial tech guy, I happy to help South Teachers with any and all of your tech related needs. The best advice I can give you is to choose one tool to learn for the semester and go from there. If you have questions about what tools you should consider, please send me an email. I'm free 6th and 7th hour and can help you after school by appointment. I look forward to working with all of you this year at the best high school in the state.

Remind 101

There are some other teachers already using Remind 101 this year, so I'm excited to share it with the rest of the staff. Remind 101 is a way for teachers to send mass text messages to students without ever having access to the student's phone number and without the students having access to the teacher's phone number. This is a  great FREE tool for teachers to send reminders to students about upcoming tests, projects, field trips, etc. Students text a special code you create to a designated number and they are in the group. From the Remind 101 app or the website, you can send texts to each class whenever you want to. The nice part of Remind 101 is that it does NOT act like group messaging. Students cannot respond to the text. It is one-way communication for the teacher to reach the students. Here is a video on how to sign up and get started.

Here are 50 Ways to Use Remind101 from Pintrest. 

I think this tool is great for the classroom, but even better for clubs and sports. It is a wonderful way to share information quickly and send friendly reminders. If you have any questions about Remind101, please let me know. 

Lastly, I want to share what I think is the best reasons to invest in technology in your classroom. Below is a Keynote from ISTE given by my friend Adam Bellow. He understands why we need tech and it has much more to do than getting shiny new tools. Please take the time and watch this video. This will fire you up if you want to do some amazing things in the classroom this year. 

Have a great year and give it a try!

Nick