This is probably going to sound like the dumbest post ever, but you never know. I've seen bloggers say that and then I look at what they did and think they are the most brilliant person I've ever kinda sorta met.
If you have an iPhone app and you don't use your Reminders App there is probably something wrong with your brain. Ok. Maybe not. It's just the easiest thing in the world for me and I don't have to have a ton of papers running around. Plus, the app comes standard. My obsession started with students that were leaving my class to go to other classes. Maybe they had speech or reading with another teacher or maybe they were getting extra assistance. Some days I would have five or six students leaving my room at various times and that wasn't including the students that got pulled for reading intervention. I am TERRIBLE at remembering to send kids. Some of mine automatically remember, but the majority don't. What else to do, but use my phone to set reminders. My first year I used my iPhone's calendar, but then it cluttered up my calendar and that irritated me. When I discovered reminders it was like the heavens opened up and angels started singing. No lie. There were lots of happy dances involved.
Here is how reminders work (mine may look slightly different because my phone is ancient and due for an upgrade):
Once you are in the Reminders App you can Add a List. I have a list for "Special Classes" that encompasses speech, pull-outs, and resource classes. Once you have your list setup, just go to the list and click on the plus sign or a blank line to make a new reminder in the list. I usually put my student's name and where they are going. Here is an example of what a list might look like.
The best part is you can also set alarms. For my ancient iPhone I click on the arrow out to the right. For updated phones or iPads just click on the i that is on the right side. You will come to a screen that looks like this:
To set an alarm you turn "Remind Me On a Day" to the on setting. Then you can change the day and how often it repeats. If a student goes to the class every day I have it repeat daily. This means the alarms go off on the weekends too. If that bothers you (I don't really care), you have the option to do it a little bit differently. Just set it up where you have a reminder for each day, Monday through Friday. Here is how that would look for one student daily:
If they only go a few days a week, I do set it up where they have a reminder only for the days they go. For example, most of my speech students only go to their speech class a couple times a week. If they went to speech on Monday and Wednesday I would set two reminders for them. I would make one reminder for Monday and one for Wednesday. Then I would set those reminders to go off every week. This lets them go off only on the correct day of the week instead of every day.
I'm also going to use my reminders app this year for another purpose. My weekly checklist of things I need to finish to be ready for the next week. Last year I was constantly writing a list and marking things off. I've seen teachers create a printable list or laminate their list and use a dry erase marker. I'm going to use my reminders app. Once you are done you can check it off and you can see what you have left. Plus, once you have completed it the item will actually disappear and go into the completed category. That way, your list gets visibly shorter. That motivates me. Once you are ready to reset the list you just click on the Completed and uncheck the boxes. Then they go back to your list and you can start fresh.
