Parent Communication via Remind 101

Last year, I vowed that I would not check my work email from home.  I'm happy to say that I have made good on this vow 99.9% of the time.  The exceptions I have allowed for are: a) if I'm home sick and don't want a day's worth of stuff to pile up, or b) if I am expecting something very specific that I've told someone I will check for. Both of these things happen very rarely, and I'm here to say that this vow has changed my life.



I'm an anxious, Type A person. Even though there was absolutely nothing I could possibly do about a stressful email from work at 10pm, I used to check it anyways. Frequently, this would cause me to lie in bed at night in a panic, tossing situations and ideas and responses around in my mind.  This lack of rest was not healthy for me or anyone I had to interact with, and served no purpose at all. I couldn't do anything about anything until the next day.  Also, person who emails at all hours and expects an immediate response? Unreasonable. They might need to make this vow themselves.

It was hard at first because it had become habitual, but I stuck with it. However, there are times when I have a quick thought and want to let parents know something right away, and logging on to email them would break my vow. If I were to do so, I would of course see all of the other emails and be helpless to avoid their pull.  Well, recently, I heard about a great app called Remind 101 that I think is going to help me with this:

Remind 101 is basically a texting service for parent-teacher communication.  You create an account, give the phone # and text code to parents to sign up, and then you can text them something whenever you want.  

I imagine using this for things such as, "Don't forget to get your reading log signed tonight!" or "Make sure you check in with your child about X." They never see your phone number and you never see theirs, and you are confined to 140 characters (like Twitter).  You can also schedule messages in advance. How cool is that? My husband is a high school music teacher, and he is excited about this as well.  He goes on a variety of trips with his bands and orchestra, and he has had to give kids his # and vice versa so that they can find each other in situations where they are spread out all over the place at a festival or something.  It makes him (and me) so uncomfortable, and this is a great solution.  

I'm all signed up and am spending some time today drafting a letter to send home inviting parents to register.  I have no idea how it will work, but I'm going to give it a go.  Have any of you done this?  If so, what do you think?

*I am receiving zero, zilch, nada for mentioning Remind 101.  I'm just excited about it :)