Remind vs Wonderopolis

They've recently changed the character count so even individual messages are limited to 140 characters. The 140 character limit for whole group announcements was Remind's biggest flaw - making that applicable to individual messages as well means it is not longer useful at all. I can't limit all my communications with students to 140 characters and I can't ask them to receive 2 or 3 or more texts every time we communicate. I will be researching and finding another service for the fall. (It also sucks that they are implementing this in the middle of the school year.

- Amanda H.

"Effective Solution for Large Group Communication" What do you like best about Remind? Remind is an effective and easy-to-use solution for large group communication. The ability to schedule messages ahead of time as well as add and remove people from groups easily makes it ideal for our setup. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Remind? You cannot remove group leaders from a group even after they have left the organization. It requires us to start a new group when one of the leaders leaves. This makes it difficult when we have new leaders every year. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Recommendations to others considering Remind: Remind meets all of our needs for large group communication. It is moderately priced and works well for our educational setup. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Remind solving and how is that benefiting you? We are solving the problem of getting messages and links out to everyone quickly. This allows us to avoid large group texts, especially with and without iphones. It will enable us to send messages without bothering everyone with responses.

- Caleb N.

"Two-Way Communication Messages with Remind" What do you like best about Remind? Remind allows our school and district personnel to communicate with parents and other community members through text messages. I like that the product can auto-translate messages into other languages based upon the end-user's preferred language. I also like that the product enables me to schedule outgoing messages. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Remind? I wish the product allowed me to schedule messages at the district level. I can currently schedule outgoing messages at the individual schools, but that requires me to copy and paste my content into the platform several times if I want to broadcast district-wide. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Remind solving and how is that benefiting you? We can communicate with our stakeholders via two-way messaging, giving us the ability to send messages and answer any questions related to that outgoing content. Since Remind uses SMS text messages, we can often contact parents and caregivers who we could not reach by phone or email in the past.

- Chris S. Director of IT

Wonderopolis could be a useful tool for any inquiry-based elementary classroom. With a new question posed and answered every day, you'll have an engaging and relevant resource to spark students' curiosity. Just plan on scaffolding for your not-yet-proficient readers or for your kindergarten and first- and second-grade students, as the content is not differentiated. The Common Core search option mostly helps narrow the search of the 1000+ questions; the site might help teachers better by offering clearer connections to the standards and explanations. Each question and its response is accompanied by a variety of resources: video teasers, an audio option, comprehension checks (literal-level), vocabulary terms with linked definitions, and a word-match exercise. Also of note, there are some open-ended extension activities that are more experiential in nature, and bound to engage students.

- Amy Lauren B.

I love using this site because of the accessibility features. It allows all types of learners to understand the text. The images are rich and the content is engaging. Since it identifies the vocabulary it helps the students better understand the content. If you want a great science article this is it. Along with the article there is a section called try it out. This section explains to the students how they could work with family or friends to dive into the topic more.

- Melissa Z.

This is a great tool for research on many topics. It incorporates visuals, interactive quizzes, vocabulary, and much more. It could be used to study science or social studies type topics with literacy intertwined for presentations, writing, and reading. The video could have the option to be read aloud, but other than that, it is a great addition to the classroom.

- Meredith Portis