Running Head: REMIND 101 TO REMIND MY 101 STUDENTS

Remind 101 to Remind my 101 Students

University of St. Mary
MAT 737
Jason Carter

REMIND 101 TO REMIND MY 101 STUDENTS

Intervention/Innovation
I teach 6th and 7th grade math in Knoxville, Iowa. My students have a hard time
remembering to turn in their homework. According to school policy, when students forget
their homework they have to call their parents and get a detention. I was giving out a
ridiculous amount of detentions. I needed a way to fix this problem. Through this class, I
found out about a phone application called Remind 101. I can text students and parents
reminders without giving out my phone number.
Background
Being a male teacher with a lot of female students (and athletes), I dont like to
give out my phone number. I have seen too many news stories where students having a
teachers number has led to strange situations. I have no worries about myself, I am
capable of being appropriate. I cannot expect middle school and high school girls to be
appropriate all of the time. If any of them were to say something inappropriate, I could
potentially be in trouble. This thought was what attracted me to the Remind 101
application.
Area of Focus Statement
My statement for my research is: will the use of the application Remind 101
reduce the amount of late work in my class? As I said before, texting my middle school
kids wasnt an option. With Remind 101, I can text the students and their parents the
reminders. Within this research, I planned to also observe parent reactions and feedback
to see if they appreciated the reminders.

REMIND 101 TO REMIND MY 101 STUDENTS

Research Questions and Literature Review

The website for Remind 101 explains how easy the application is to use.
Teachers simply sign up, create a class, add students, and start messaging. Students and
parents opt-in to join classes via a unique class code. Once classes are set up, teachers can
connect with their classes, and get instant feedback on their messages with Stamps.
(remind.com) This answered my first question: is Remind 101 easy to use? According to
their website and other teachers feedback, it is very easy.
My next question involves my safety. I wanted to know that students and parents
would not see my phone number when I used Remind 101. In his article, Rip Empson
talks about the safety of the application. Students will never see the teachers cellphone
numbers and vice versa, the founders have built the system to ensure privacy in that
regard, while still allowing teachers to send out a single message to every subscriber, and
create multiple classes and groups. (Empson, 2013) I was happy to learn that I could
safely remind kids about their homework via text while keeping my private information
private.
My last question was whether or not this would be an effective reminder tool. In
her article, Kalil talks about the effectiveness of Remind 101. According to a study
conducted by Harvard University, on average, teacher-family communication increased
the odds a student completed their homework by 42 percent and decreased instances in
which teachers had to redirect students' attention to the task at hand by 25 percent.
Parent-teacher communication is clearly key to a student's success. (Kalil, 2014) 42

REMIND 101 TO REMIND MY 101 STUDENTS

percent seemed like pretty good odds and I was hoping to see similar results in my own
classroom.
Data Collection and Data Review
My late work percentage before using Remind 101 was about ten percent. That
means that one out of every ten students was turning in their assignment late. This
seemed ridiculous to me. I started implementation of Remind 101 at the start of the
school year (August). By November, my late work daily percentage was down to just
three percent These are very impressive results. September it was already down to seven
percent, by October, the percentage was at six and in November it reached four. After
November, I stopped keeping track and kept using the application.
These results mean that Remind 101 works. Students are turning in more work
and parents are involved in the homework process. Because of this application, not only
did I decrease my late work, I decreased my detentions and parent contacts. Students
think the application is cool and like that I send out reminders on Sunday nights about
Mondays homework.
Part of my research involved parent reactions and observing how parents liked
using Remind 101. I am glad to report that the parents love the application. Many
students were lying to parents about having homework and this application makes that
impossible for them to do. Parents remind their students after getting the text, and then
students get their homework done. Its a great system.
Action Plan and Final Thoughts

REMIND 101 TO REMIND MY 101 STUDENTS

My action plan is simple- keep using the application. It is working and students
and parents are so used to it that it would be impossible for me to stop. Other teachers
have also had success and our office likes that there are less detention referrals. I dont
usually get excited about new things, but this is one that I am very happy to use. I have
also been using this application to text my basketball girls and that has been very useful
as well.

REMIND 101 TO REMIND MY 101 STUDENTS

References
Empson, Rip. "Now At 30K Schools And Growing Fast, Remind101 Is On A
Mission To Modernize Classroom Communication." TechCrunch. N.p., 18 Sept. 2013.
Web. 04 Dec. 2014.
Kalil, Kimberley. "Remind101 Connects Parents and Teachers." Parenting. N.p.,
2014. Web. 03 Dec. 2014.
"Remind | Remind101 Is Now Remind." Remind (formerly Remind101). N.p.,
2014. Web. 06 Dec. 2014.