Having now worked at five schools, one of the biggest challenges that I see is with communication. An email blast is fine, but what happens when people don't always check their email or only check it once a day. What happens with messages that are much more immediate? Well, let me introduce you to Celly. Celly allows for group texting. Let's say that a teacher wants to send all students a message concerning homework or wants to do a group poll. Now they can just text everyone. It's easy and it's immediate. Many students are already texting. Why not use that to your advantage. Celly isn't just for students. It allows you to give parents updates about your class or governance councils. It allows principals or other staff leaders to send messages to an entire faculty. It allows club or ASB sponsors to send messages to all its members.
It's very easy to create a group or "cell". Interested members can join by sending a text. You can join or leave a group if you so choose. Owners of "cells" can set the cell to be public or private and if they want cell members to respond or simply as a one-way alert system.
Whether I'm able to stay in the library or not, I plan on using this right now and in the classroom. If you are interested in joining my cell then text @cclalibrary to 23559 (celly). I encourage all teachers and administrators to use this really cool tool.
