Scavenging with Remind 101

Every year I am very lucky to be able to take my 8th grade students to Boston.  Not only do they see and learn at the sites we have already covered in American history, they also get a preview of what is coming ahead throughout the year.

I gotta say that Remind 101 played a very important role in the success of this years trip.  Remind 101 is a free text messaging service made for teachers, admin and anyone else who would like a safe form of texting reminders out to students and families.

One of our annual stops is the JFK Library in which the students do a scavenger hunt through the exhibit area.  After teaching kids for almost 17 years, I know that once you set them loose in a museum most of them will simply zoom through.  The scavenger hunt gives them a fun purpose and slows them down to actually check out the exhibits.

Once we were driving to the library this year, I realized that I totally and completely screwed up and forgot the scavenger hunt.  At first I thought, I would just let it go but then the lightbulb went off and had the idea of texting them all the clues and having them jot the answers or pics down in their Notability app on their Ipads.

Journaling in the Atrium

Luckily my wonderful chaperones took the students to the opening film and I set off to reconstruct the scavenger using Remind 101 as a tool.  Once they got out of the film, it was as easy as pressing send and off they went in search of the items.  I continued to send out texts as they searched thorough the exhibit and then in the final text they were given a quote by JFK to reflect upon.  With the quote in hand, we had a reflective journal moment in the beautiful glass atrium.

After they were all finished, I was actually quite happy that I had made the mistake of forgetting the original hunt.  By using Remind 101, the students were even more engaged and excited about the hunt.  In fact, we ended up actually ushering them out the door because we were running late to our dinner appointment!

Not only did Remind 101 get me out of an embarrassing fix, it also made me stop and realize just how much teaching has changed since I began in the 1990's.  I remember jumping up and down for joy when my school bought me a new overhead projector.  I wish I could hop in a time machine and go share with that young teacher just how much it would all change.  Then again, I'm sure that app is coming soon.