Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just wondering if folks like the remind app and feel it has increased communication between parents and teachers

It could be good potentially but we need to streamline the methods of communication. Keep Remind and let people get used to it for several years. Cut one of the emails and eliminate the contact options through Synergy and Canvas. One email and Remind.

It just creates more confusion.
Our school's teachers and coaches use regular emails, Synergy emails, Canvas communications, Remind, Band and Whatsapp. Six things! It is mindboggling.

I’m a teacher. Our school encouraged us to use it but it is not mandatory. I teach upper class students so I don’t communicate much with parents. When I communicate with my students (all students not individually) I use Canvas announcements. Those work pretty well as students get the emails. Not sure if parents get them too or not

DC's teacher this year mainly seems to use the Dojo app for communications, but we do have multiple class groups, among other things, in Remind. It all gets confusing, IMO....

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think we are using it yet?
We have parentvue, canvas, teachers have two email addresses but you never know if you are supposed to use org or net, we get a smite newsletter, there’s a listserv, we get texts and I think some administrators and guidance use twitter. We don’t yet have carrier pigeon or the very expensive bus tracking app I thought they said we were getting.

Surely there is a way to streamline all of this.

Lucky. Our principal is forcing it down our throats. We HAVE to send at LEAST one weekly message. I had a parent angrily write back (even though she signed up for it but regardless). I don't need this extra BS on my plate in order to maintain some MCPS quota so they can justify buying yet something else. If a teacher WANTS to use it, they should. Like the above poster said, no one should be forced to do so.

Parents don’t voluntarily sign up for it. We are forced because someone at MCPS enters our information without telling us. I’ve been trying for a week to get removed and remind won’t delete my account and my school staff doesn’t know how to either. Her anger is valid.

Hmm...don't think so. First day of school, all of our classes only had about 50-60% of parents signed up for messages. Definitely wasn't 100% and the people not signed up had been with the school forever..not like they were new families and we were missing the info. Also, it's really not valid anger when it's misdirected. Don't blame a teacher for something out of their control.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our MS has never sent us anything about this app. How do you set it up? I checked the MCPS website, and all I found was a press release about it but not information on how to set it up.

Download the app. Signup with same email you use for kids school contact.

Thanks!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t think we are using it yet?
We have parentvue, canvas, teachers have two email addresses but you never know if you are supposed to use org or net, we get a smite newsletter, there’s a listserv, we get texts and I think some administrators and guidance use twitter. We don’t yet have carrier pigeon or the very expensive bus tracking app I thought they said we were getting.

Surely there is a way to streamline all of this.

Lucky. Our principal is forcing it down our throats. We HAVE to send at LEAST one weekly message. I had a parent angrily write back (even though she signed up for it but regardless). I don't need this extra BS on my plate in order to maintain some MCPS quota so they can justify buying yet something else. If a teacher WANTS to use it, they should. Like the above poster said, no one should be forced to do so.

Parents don’t voluntarily sign up for it. We are forced because someone at MCPS enters our information without telling us. I’ve been trying for a week to get removed and remind won’t delete my account and my school staff doesn’t know how to either. Her anger is valid.

I have the ParentVUE app which sucks for communication. I also have Remind and only one teacher (out of 3 MCPS kids) uses it, so I find it annoying more than anything.

ONE communication tool would be amazing.

As a parent, as much as MCPS sends me 3-10 messages for things on the various platforms, it’s interesting that I didn’t know about remind until I started getting texts from unknown people and then figured out it was about my sons school. He’s sped so none of the staff names I knew and I initially thought it was maybe spam until the follow up message mentioned his school.

I literally get 3-4 of the same message on different platforms already. Why is this being added?? Like can they at least remove another platform first?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just wondering if folks like the remind app and feel it has increased communication between parents and teachers

It could be good potentially but we need to streamline the methods of communication. Keep Remind and let people get used to it for several years. Cut one of the emails and eliminate the contact options through Synergy and Canvas. One email and Remind.

Agreed. What I don't like re: Remind is that MCPS gave Remind access to our personal phone numbers and I am getting texts from parents on my phone. MCPS does not pay for my phone and should not have provided my number to Remind. Also, I have opted out of having my phone number attached to Remind communications, but every time MCPS refreshes data with Remind, my phone number is uploaded into Remind again.

Technically they didn't give anything to Remind. Remind transmits messages to you because it's synced with Synergy, which has that info. If they unsync Synergy, Remind has none of your info.

Not true. I never signed up for Remind either. As soon as I sound out the first message, I was horrified when my phone started blowing up with messages. You have to physically go in and change settings so your phone number doesnt show up. I definitely didn't give my admin permission for this. Not sure who set it up, but you're lucky whoever set it up at your school respected you enough not to do that, but don't diminish other people's lived experiences.

My school had training sessions. The trainer helped me with my account. I told him that I didn't want anything going to my phone so he told me how to set it up. If your school doesn't gave training, sign up for the MCPS ones.

Anonymous wrote:Our MS has never sent us anything about this app. How do you set it up? I checked the MCPS website, and all I found was a press release about it but not information on how to set it up.

Download the app. Signup with same email you use for kids school contact.

Our MS has never sent us anything about this app. How do you set it up? I checked the MCPS website, and all I found was a press release about it but not information on how to set it up.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just wondering if folks like the remind app and feel it has increased communication between parents and teachers

It could be good potentially but we need to streamline the methods of communication. Keep Remind and let people get used to it for several years. Cut one of the emails and eliminate the contact options through Synergy and Canvas. One email and Remind.

Agreed. What I don't like re: Remind is that MCPS gave Remind access to our personal phone numbers and I am getting texts from parents on my phone. MCPS does not pay for my phone and should not have provided my number to Remind. Also, I have opted out of having my phone number attached to Remind communications, but every time MCPS refreshes data with Remind, my phone number is uploaded into Remind again.

Technically they didn't give anything to Remind. Remind transmits messages to you because it's synced with Synergy, which has that info. If they unsync Synergy, Remind has none of your info.

Not true. I never signed up for Remind either. As soon as I sound out the first message, I was horrified when my phone started blowing up with messages. You have to physically go in and change settings so your phone number doesnt show up. I definitely didn't give my admin permission for this. Not sure who set it up, but you're lucky whoever set it up at your school respected you enough not to do that, but don't diminish other people's lived experiences.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just wondering if folks like the remind app and feel it has increased communication between parents and teachers

It could be good potentially but we need to streamline the methods of communication. Keep Remind and let people get used to it for several years. Cut one of the emails and eliminate the contact options through Synergy and Canvas. One email and Remind.

Agreed. What I don't like re: Remind is that MCPS gave Remind access to our personal phone numbers and I am getting texts from parents on my phone. MCPS does not pay for my phone and should not have provided my number to Remind. Also, I have opted out of having my phone number attached to Remind communications, but every time MCPS refreshes data with Remind, my phone number is uploaded into Remind again.

Are you a staff member?

I am not the PP but I am a staff member. When I opened my Remind account, I didn't include my cell number. As a result, I don't get texts on my personal phone. I am not sure what PP is talking about. :/

I did not populate my contact information in Remind - sounds like you were given that option, but I was not given that option at my school. I'll have to check with my staff development staff member about how I fix this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just wondering if folks like the remind app and feel it has increased communication between parents and teachers

It could be good potentially but we need to streamline the methods of communication. Keep Remind and let people get used to it for several years. Cut one of the emails and eliminate the contact options through Synergy and Canvas. One email and Remind.

Agreed. What I don't like re: Remind is that MCPS gave Remind access to our personal phone numbers and I am getting texts from parents on my phone. MCPS does not pay for my phone and should not have provided my number to Remind. Also, I have opted out of having my phone number attached to Remind communications, but every time MCPS refreshes data with Remind, my phone number is uploaded into Remind again.

Technically they didn't give anything to Remind. Remind transmits messages to you because it's synced with Synergy, which has that info. If they unsync Synergy, Remind has none of your info.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just wondering if folks like the remind app and feel it has increased communication between parents and teachers

It could be good potentially but we need to streamline the methods of communication. Keep Remind and let people get used to it for several years. Cut one of the emails and eliminate the contact options through Synergy and Canvas. One email and Remind.

Agreed. What I don't like re: Remind is that MCPS gave Remind access to our personal phone numbers and I am getting texts from parents on my phone. MCPS does not pay for my phone and should not have provided my number to Remind. Also, I have opted out of having my phone number attached to Remind communications, but every time MCPS refreshes data with Remind, my phone number is uploaded into Remind again.

Are you a staff member?

I am not the PP but I am a staff member. When I opened my Remind account, I didn't include my cell number. As a result, I don't get texts on my personal phone. I am not sure what PP is talking about. :/