Like others across the country, Houston-area districts had to get creative and make some quick adjustments when learning moved from in-person to remote to everything in between.
Since there are a number of districts in the area with Remind Hub—including Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, Katy ISD, New Caney ISD, Pasadena ISD, and Spring Branch ISD—we asked Houston administrators and teachers about the lessons they learned from the pandemic and the problems they solved with Remind.
Spring Woods High School
With schools either fully or partially closed, educators needed a way to engage with students every day.
“I needed a quicker, more efficient way to talk with high school students because so many of the messages we needed to get to them were getting bogged down in their email,” said Jennifer Collier, Principal at Spring Woods High School. “Remind gives teachers the ability to safely build two-way communication with their kids in class. It’s become such a powerful tool to keep everyone informed.”
TIP: Enable two-way communication for an entire organization with default class settings.
Pasadena Memorial High School
During the pandemic, maintaining an open line of communication with students became more important than ever—not just for academic instruction, but for social and emotional learning as well as mental health.
“Students are stressed and anxious right now,” said Janelle Jensen, a teacher at Pasadena Memorial High School. “I do individual check-ins with them to see where they are mentally and how they’re feeling, and I try to help them or direct those who need emotional help to the right people.”
TIP: Check out examples of how teachers have been using Remind with their communities during the pandemic.
New Caney ISD
As administrators adjusted to changing circumstances, they wanted to make sure families felt supported and informed.
“Communication with our families is a top priority for our district,” said Gretta Rogne, Director of Digital Learning at New Caney ISD. “We adopted Remind to help us maximize our reach throughout our community. But along with the communication, what made the process seamless was the integration with our existing systems, Canvas and Clever.”
TIP: Integrations available via Remind Hub include LMS integrations, video conferencing integrations, and rostering via SIS sync for larger organizations. Remind composer integrations and the Share on Remind option are available for all users.
Sam Houston Math, Science, and Technology Center
At the same time they worked to increase communication with students and families in their districts, administrators looked for ways to avoid creating more noise.
“We needed to bring communication onto a centralized platform where educators, students, and parents could receive school updates, information, and resources,” said Griselda Gonzalez, Assistant Principal at Sam Houston Math, Science, and Technology Center. “Remind empowered us to communicate more frequently, and our community outreach and communication changed overnight.”
TIP: Make the most of every message with features like scheduling, translation, and file attachments. And to consolidate communication even further, voice calls are available via Remind Hub.
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