There are some great services that makes it quick and easy for you to contact all of your students and/or parents and for them to contact you, yet keeps your personal phone number private.
I just discovered WDWDT (What Did We Do Today). This app allows mass texting for teachers. You can create lists for each class. Click on the link above to read about all the great features. Also, note at the bottom of the WDWDT page for another app created by this same company: Cover It Live. http://www.coveritlive.com/ I think I need to check this one out and get back to you on it, but you may not want to wait for me.
A favorite for a lot of teachers is Remind 101. This texting service keeps the teacher and the students numbers private while communicating through texting.
Google Voice has lots a great features. If you create a phone number through Google Voice then you can group text and no one has your real phone number. This number does not take voice phone calls, only texting messages. When you are sent a text (SMS) message you will also receive an email message which makes it nice when you are at school if are not allowed to have your phone out.
I did not create a Google Voice number, I synced to my actual phone number and I use Google Voice as my voice message provider. I set it up through the website and downloaded the app to my phone. When I miss a phone call I and the caller leaves me a voice message I get an email and Google Voice attempts to turn the message into text. There are usually several mistakes, but I can usually get the idea. However, I have not found a way to use group texting since I used my own phone number. If you know how, then leave a comment on this post. We all want to know.
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