Text Messaging Students??

Ever had a class leave the room, then suddenly remembered you forgot to tell them something? Or that you assigned the wrong homework? How about when there's a snow day and you just KNOW kids are going to come in and say "Well we didn't know the quiz would still be today!" Because this happens to me frequently, I was excited when I heard about a number of programs that allow you to message students while keeping all numbers private. After talking with colleagues and doing some experimenting, I decided to give "Celly" a try with my classes. The program is very similar to Twitter, but it allows you to create groups called "cells," which is helpful when I only want to send a message to one class, or only to parents, etc. Celly allows me to send a message to any individuals who have joined my "cell." I have one cell set up for each of my 8th grade classes right now, but plan to expand to my other classes and perhaps parents in the future.

I told all students to bring in their cell phones and to make sure they had EITHER a cell phone that could use text messaging, or a device that could download apps (iPad, Kindle fire, etc). I did not have any students who had neither - shows how prevalent technology is now!! Students had to text a number with the name of the "cell" I had set up for their class (or they searched for the cell name within the app). Celly would prompt them to enter the password I had set up, and then they were in! We did a test run and all students were able to receive my message.

Celly allows you to set up your own preferences in terms of what you want "cell members" to be able to do within the group. You can have students "chat" with one another with or without teacher moderation, you can allow students to only message the teacher, or you can set it so that the teacher can message students but they cannot reply. Right now I have it set so that students can receive my messages and send messages to me if they have a problem, but not message each other. I made it VERY clear to students that only expected them to contact me if there was a question or problem. Below is a screen shot of what I see on my phone when I use the Celly app:

The bottom two are messages I sent to my students. The top block is a message from a student earlier that day. I was able to click her message and select "private message" to reply to her without replying to everyone. So far I LOVE this program!!