Thing 23: Congratulations!

22 Things down, one to go!  

Now that I have (almost!) completed my 23 Things journey, I have some questions I need to answer.   

1. What were you favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?  

I really, really enjoyed working with Shelfari.  I think that this is a great way to make book recommendations and, for librarians, to share lists of books with teachers. I also liked the online image generators because I feel that I can use them to make my websites and social media pages more attractive to young children and teenage students.  

2. How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?  

Until recently, I have been pretty resilient to learning about new technology. I kind of like being a hermit!  However, I now understand the new librarian has to not only be up-to-date on new technology, but must also be able to present it to teachers and staff.  Despite myself, I have really enjoyed learning about the different facets of technology that I will use as a librarian. One of my new lifelong learning goals is to not only be a librarian that is current on technology, but one that introduces the newest technology.  

3. Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you? 

Actually, I was very surprised how much I enjoyed it. Again, I am not one who is very interested in technology.  However, I felt that most of the things on the "23 Things" list were relevant to my career and I was very interested in learning how I could use them as a librarian.  

4. If we offered this program like this is in the future, would you choose to participate?  

I would, because, like I said before, I want to be someone who introduces technology.  I don't want to just be up-to-date on the newest technology in education, I want to be able to share it with teachers. Isn't that our job as librarians? I would like to see the 23 Things to include some things like LinkedIn, Blackboard, and remind101.  

5. How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote 23 Things Learning Activities?  

Enlightening!  

Thing 22: Your Turn!

Ok, fellow teachers and librarians, get ready for your students to love you!  I am going to introduce you to remind101.  This is an app with which teachers can text students in a safe way.  The way it works is, teachers sign up for remind101 and create a class.

Ok, so now you have set up a class. You can either download the remind101 app to your smartphone or send the messages from your computer. The remind101 app is free.  If you don't have a smartphone,  you can send the messages from your computer.


Now that you have set up a class, students will need to sign up to receive the messages. First, remind101 will generate a number for students to text to and will give you a message to include in the body of the text.  So, my Student Library Advisory Committee will text @mrsricem to 870-776-8329.

Students will then receive a reply message that looks like this:

They will then text their full name, which will add them to my list.  They will then receive a message  that looks like this:

Then, students will get a text message anytime I send them one. Now, I can send them messages from either from the app on my phone or from the computer. If teachers do not have a smartphone, they can send messages from their computers. It will still send from the computer.  

Parents can also sign up to receive these messages. In fact, elementary school teachers will probably want to use this with parents rather than students since most young children will not have phones with which to receive texts. As a Spanish teacher, I would send out a reminder text the day before a quiz, a test, an assignment was due.Sometimes I would just send out an encouraging message, such as "You guys did an awesome job today!" I had many students tell me that they wished all teachers would use this because they loved getting the reminders. I also had a higher success rate on quizzes and tests when I would send students these text reminders. The fact is, most students use their phones or tablets more today than they do their computers.

 It is important to remember that students will not get text messages from your phone number. Students cannot reply to the messages so they will not have your phone number.  Moreover, teachers cannot select individual students from the list to send text messages to.  Teachers can either send them to the group or to no one.