Google Voice

Although I am a big fan of Remind, I realize there is a flaw with that program: no one can reply to the teacher's messages. While that may be great for informing parents/students of school information, it's not a true conversation because no one is allowed to talk back.

While I fully support after-hours educational conversations, I am also a firm believer that teachers deserve to separate their professional life from their private life. I learned the hard way that if I give my cell phone number to parents, I don't get the privacy that I crave. So what's a girl to do?

Fortunately for me, Google Voice was created to save my life. Okay, maybe that's a bit dramatic. But it's pretty darn cool.

What is it?

I think of Google Voice as a free call and text-message forwarding service. After you sign up for a phone number through Google Voice, you choose which existing phone line of yours you'd like to connect it to. From then on, calls to your Google Voice number will come through that phone.... without giving the caller knowledge of any of your personal information.

If you hook it up to your cell phone, you can answer "regular" calls and text messages, as well as those coming to your GV number, at any time.


Features

• 100% free.
• Ability to pick your own phone number (and area code) -- especially helpful so you can pick a number that you'll remember and/or that is free for others in your area to call from a land line. 
• Ability to discard your Google Voice number at any time and stop receiving calls/text messages from it. 
• Ability to switch your Google Voice number at any time. 
• Connect your Google Voice number to an existing phone line of yours -- do not buy anything extra in order to use Google Voice.
• Ability to connect your Google Voice number to your cell phone, which means that you can take screenshots of text messages if you need documentation of your conversations. 
• Transcribes voicemail for you -- handy when you can't listen to a message or need written records of communication.
• Keeps your personal number completely private. 
• Free iOS app from which you can call and text message; it even imports your existing contacts!
• "Click2Call" feature, which allows you to screen phone calls to your Google Voice number.

Why might this be useful in the classroom?

1. Students and parents can contact you with questions or concerns. 
2. Most people I know would rather text than call, which you can really only do from a mobile phone. Google Voice allows you to do that without revealing your personal cell phone number. 
3. Although you take phone calls on your personal phone line, you do not have to give your "real" phone number to students or parents, so your information is still private. 
4. You can trash your Google Voice number and replace it with a new one at any time. This is handy if someone starts abusing the privilege of having your information... 
5. Document voicemails and text messages for your admin, in case there is any question about the content of the conversations.
6. Don't get stuck at school at 5 pm, trying to finish all your phone calls home. Call from your cell phone {using your GV number} while you're stuck in traffic on the way home.

Logistics

One of my best teacher friends uses a Google Voice number with her freshmen Algebra students. She gives them her number at the beginning of the semester, inviting them to text her with homework help, project questions, and/or grade inquiries. She tells them that she is available until 9 pm and will not answer texts until 6 am the next morning.

Surprisingly, she has only has two "incidents" in the two years she's been using this. One happened over spring break: a kid got bored and decided to prank her. Unfortunately, he did not block his phone number, so she called him out on it when they got back to school; he was embarrassed to be caught and didn't do it again. Another student texted too late. Again, my friend addressed it the next day at school, and it was never a problem again.

If your "incident" stories don't turn out as successful as my friend's did, you could always just change your Google Voice number.

 
How do I set it up?

You have to have a Google account, but if you have a gmail address, a Blogger blog, or a YouTube account, you already have one. If you're not a member of one of those sites, signing up is quick and easy. Besides, you get to take advantage of so many of Google's features that you really should have a Google account, anyway (IMHO).

Once you sign up or sign in, you have to access the Google Voice website. I usually just Google-search the term. But I've included the link various times in this blog post for you -- click on any of them to be taken directly to the website you need! :)

Users are directed to choose their own phone number. You can choose anything you'd like, so long as it's not taken by another user. This worked great for me, since I moved here with an Oklahoma area code and had no plans of changing my phone number after 10+ years! I wanted people to be able to call a local number, and I was able to easily choose a number in the local area code.

After you pick which phone number you'd like to call your own, you get to choose which phone you will connect your calls to. I chose my cell phone.

Finally, confirm your number with Google. To do this, Google will give you a confirmation code (I believe it's a 5-digit number?) on the computer screen as soon as you pick your phone number and which of your personal phones you'd like to direct your calls. Afterwards, Google gives you a call. When you pick up the phone, you're instructed to enter the confirmation code with your phone's keypad. It's super simple!

I'm not entirely positive as to how this works on a house phone, since I've got mine set up to forward to my iPhone. But let me tell you what I do know:

I almost immediately downloaded the free Google Voice app for my iPhone. When I launch it and log in, I see several screens that look almost the same as the regular call screens in my iPhone "phone" app. I can access any of the online Google inbox options via my iPhone:

I can also text and call phone numbers (already in my address book or not) directly from the Google Voice app. This ensures that the recipient will see my Google Voice number on their screen -- not my personal cell phone number.

I used my Google Voice number to call my husband's iPhone to test it out, and his caller ID always registered my Google Voice calls calling from an "unknown number." When I called my GV number from his iPhone, I saw his name pop up on my screen, since he's a contact in my phone.

Google gives you the option to use "Click2Call," which is basically a screening service for your incoming Google Voice phone calls. Via the instructions on the Google Voice set-up page, I had recorded a message with my name. When I enabled "Click2Call," callers would hear my recorded message while Google called me. Callers were instructed to state their name and reason for calling; Google would play this for me and allow me to accept or reject the call. That portion didn't work as well as I'd hoped, so I eventually turned the "Click2Call" feature off. Now I get calls just like I would on my regular phone -- no screening. I'm OK with it, though, because I know that I could change my phone number for free at any time if things ever got out of hand.

Google Voice is completely free to use -- and pretty easy! It would be so simple to put this on your syllabus or classroom website so that students and their families could contact you at any time. As cliche as it sounds, communication really is key, so the more ways you can give families to communicate with you, the better.

Remind

June 2014 edit: This company just changed their name from Remind 101 to Remind. While you can still visit their website from the old, Remind101 links, all links in this post have been updated to reflect their new name. Remind is advertising their name change as, "new name, same mission" on their website. Read more about their name change by clicking HERE.

Remind is a service that allows teachers to text information to parents and students without ever revealing the teacher's phone number.

Great features of Remind:

• Easy to set up and use, even if you're not tech-savvy
• 100% free
• Parents/students can choose to receive the teacher's messages by text message and/or e-mail, so having an unlimited texting plan is not necessary for this service to work
• The teacher's contact information is never revealed to the subscribers
• Teachers can have up to 10 separate "classes" of students. Need more? The Remind team invites you to e-mail them to request more classes
• Easily explain to students and parents how to subscribe to your updates using the pre-made full screen presentation and/or the printable PDF page of instructions created by Remind
• No one except the teacher needs to sign up for an account
• Easily unsubscribe any spammy followers that happen to find your account
• There's an app for that -- Remind -- and it's free, as well, so you can send updates on the go
• Remind keeps a record of all messages every sent with the service -- they are not deletable -- so you can take them into conferences, if needed
• On the same note as above, export a list of all the messages sent and print it if you prefer paper copies
• Teachers can view the number of and names of the subscribers to each class

How do I sign up?

1. Go to www.remind.com to find this screen:

2. Click "sign up" and fill in the appropriate boxes. It's safe to enter your first name; when a message is sent to your classes, Remind will tell them it's from Mr. or Mrs. xxx (or Coach, Professor, Dr....whichever title you prefer!).

3. Create up to 10 classes (more about class ideas later in this post).

4. Click the "invite students and parents" button on the top right side.

5. Look at this pop-up and decide which way you'd like to invite students and/or parents to subscribe to your updates.

You can e-mail everyone the link, or you can copy and paste it onto any of your social media sites. {Just remember that if your social media sites are public and you find some whacko that is obviously very bored, he/she could opt to subscribe to your updates without even being affiliated with your class. You do have the option to delete subscribers whenever you want, though.}

On parent-teacher night or during conferences, you may want to click on the full screen presentation to show people how to subscribe. You can also click the "download PDF handouts" option. You can attach that instructional PDF packet to e-mails home or to your class website(s).


How do I send a message?

The message-sending screen appears automatically in your home page as soon as you log in:

You can choose to add classes or subscribers individually in the "to" field, and then type your message in the large text box underneath. Click the calendar icon to schedule your message to be sent at a later time/date, and click the paperclip option to attach a photo in your message.

There is a limit of 140 characters per message -- like Twitter -- but it's easy to stay under that limit.

Click send when you are ready for the message to either go out or be scheduled.


Video Tutorial
If you're more of a video person, feel free to watch the tutorial below. I'll walk you through how to use the app.

Ways to use the "schedule later" button:

• Reoccurring events {weekly quizzes or club meetings, for example}
• Calendar events that cannot be changed {winter break, spring break, last day of school, etc.}
• Birthday reminders for each of your students? That might be fun!

One thing to reminder about Remind is that parents/students do not have the ability to text you back. If they try to reply to a Remind message you send, they'll get the following message: "Sorry, you can't reply to your teacher. You can only join his/her class." But it's not a huge deal, since they should all have your e-mail address, anyway!


Remind's multiple-class feature:
Most elementary teachers probably don't have more than 1 class, while most high school teachers probably don't have more than 3 or 7. However, you can always divide your class into small groups or include extracurricular activities you sponsor. Here are some ideas:

1. Assign different students into different groups. Perhaps you have Spelling Group A and Spelling Group B. Maybe you could arrange those into different groups so you could text the appropriate spelling words each week to the appropriate people. This could also work if you're doing, say, a book study, and wanted to make a separate "class" for each book that is begin read.
2. Make a class just for volunteers or homeroom moms. 
3. Create classes for athletic teams and extracurricular clubs. You could go further by making your starters or officers a separate class of their own. 

Ideas for use

1. Reminders about assignments that are due or upcoming quizzes/exams/projects
2. Reminders about snow days, picture days, sporting events, field trips, spirit days, etc. 
3. School events and/or their outcomes (plays, musicals, art shows, academic meets, etc.) -- especially ones where your school won/did well or is playing a rival :)
4. Hints about how to complete an assignment or project
5. Helpful websites that could assist students academically (StarFall, CliffNotes, etc.)
6. Apple/Android apps students might find helpful.
7. Books you recommend (I used to read books from my classroom library and tweet blurb-summaries to interest students in the book.)
8. Vocabulary words/definitions in a Word of the Day (#WOTD) format
9. Exit ticket answers (If students ask a question on an exit ticket, you could answer it via the classroom notification center. This allows everyone to benefit from the answers without taking up any class time.)
10. Motivational/inspirational quotes

How to Create a QR Code Scavenger Hunt {the Easy Way}

Have you ever tried to make a QR code scavenger hunt? If you create one on your own, it can be a HUGE pain! Because the QR codes don't show information unless you scan them, I found myself re-scanning and re-naming codes all afternoon, trying to get my hunt "just right."

But making them has become a lot easier since I found QR Treasure Hunt Generator on the classtools.net website.

How to Create a QR Code Scavenger Hunt {the Easy Way}:

1. Go to the homepage and see a page that looks like this:

2. Click the "get started" button, and go to a page like this:

3. Follow the directions to fill in the necessary forms. You must have at least 5 questions, but that's usually not a problem, since most scavenger hunts have way more than that. Tip: You do not have to write the number, as shown in the example. That's just a way to show you an example without having to think of scavenger hunt clues. :) The only thing you must remember is to put an asterisk (*) in between the question and answer, and to put each question/answer on a separate line.

Notice that you need to provide a password at the very bottom, too. 

4. Click "create the QR challenge" to proceed. You'll see a page with this at the top:

and a unique link; that link is for your QR hunt. You can use this link to go directly to your hunt on the web at any time. You can also put in your password and be able to edit the hunt if, let's say, you made a mistake or need to delete a step. 

When you first click on the link, you can view this "teacher notes" page. I personally find this very helpful. It tells you how to set up for your hunt and some other tips/ideas for making your hunt go smoothly. 

Notice these selections at the very top:

I won't go over all of these options, but I do want to review the top two. One thing you can do is view your questions and answers: 

 

Obviously, I just have test text in there, so there's not much to read right now. But if I went back and edited those, it would be really nice to be able to see exactly what each question asks and what the intended answer is without having to re-scan every QR code!

You can also view the codes for each of your questions individually. This could come in handy if you were going to print your codes for any reason. {One reason I might print codes is so that I can stagger groups of students at the stations. For instance, I might start group A on step 1, but then I might start group B on step 4, just to space things out a little. I want minimal congestion in my room, as I'm sure you do, too.}

If you go ahead and scan the code above, you'll see that it's the "welcome message" to this particular hunt. The website conveniently gives directions in the welcome message so that you don't have to do that part at all. When kids scan each subsequent code, they see a count at the top {1/5 or something} so they know how far along in the hunt they are.

My kids love QR codes and scavenger hunts, so I was pumped to find a tool that helps me combine the two more easily. Best of all? There's no registration, and it's FREE. Yippee! :)