TEACHERS | TalkingPoints Hack 8.104.4 + Redeem Codes

I have used this app all last year and was very happy with it. However, the latest version is absolutely terrible and as much I used to love it I may have to stop using it altogether. My messages never load on the app on my phone and I can only check them on the computer. Today I have carefully selected two groups of families and send them two different reminders with specific information. When a confused parent got back to me a few minutes later and I looked at what she actually received and realized that one of the messages meant for some people went to everybody. So, some families received two mutually excluding messages within minutes. How did something that used to be so good got so messed up? Now I am nervous about using it because I don’t want my parents receiving messages that are meant for somebody else. Please return the old version!!!

I like using this TalkingPoints because I don't need to share my personal mobile number with families. I also like the possibility to have the message translated to the parents language of preference. I could also see using this with older students who are English Language Learners. The information gets to the person who needs it, and they can respond immediately or later now, just like text messaging.
However, it is not the easiest to use for families who are not "tech savvy." I don't know if the parent version of the app is set up the same as the teacher version but my explanations of how I use the app did not help the parent.
Also the English to Korean translation may not be the most faithful or accurate. A parent mentioned that my message was confusing and requested to get English messages. It may be that my message have too many English conventions that are difficulty to translate to Korean. A "tips and tricks for making your message/ announcement translation ready" would be nice. And stronger translations.
Overall, I would recommend TalkingPoints. And if they continue to improve it, will recommend it to any school system I am in.

I have used Talking Points this past school year to communicate with parents of English learners and it’s been the most parent-teacher communication I’ve had. Some parents mentioned that the translation is confusing and in same cases they preferred English, but overall, it has been very very handy! I definitely recommend it to any teachers, but especially those in ESOL.
I’ve had only 2 challenges with it:
A. Many times I can tell that I’ve gotten messages but they do not load on my IPhone. Most school days I leave the website open on my work laptop for quick texting with the parents, but if I want to see the messages on my phone, sometimes I can’t read them.
B. Sometimes I receive a message that appears as 2 lines long and I think I’ve read what the parent said. At random times, I’ve clicked on the parents’ original message (some languages I understand) and discovered That their message was actually much longer, and a good part of it never got translated.

I am a third year science teacher in a 100% English Language Learner campus. This means 100% of my students come to our campus with zero English and learn English while at my school. That presents a different challenge when trying to communicate with parents important information from our school. This app translates to Spanish and Swahili (which is primarily what is spoken at our campus) and it is so helpful to communicate with families!! This is an absolute game changer and life saver. I would recommend this app to anyone who likes the idea of the Remind app, but needs it to be accessible to ALL parents. My only complaint is that it doesn’t have access to all languages, but I think that would come with time as they become more known with time.

This platform is one of the best forms of communication for parents and teachers. I highly recommend it. Not everyone checks their email but most people check their text messages because most of the world has a cell phone. After 23 years of teaching, I am convinced this is one of the best tools for communication. My parents usually respond pretty quickly and they’re able to initiate contact with me as well. This makes it easier than checking emails that are often littered with junk mail. Again, I highly subscribe to this form of communication. #ThankYouTalkingPoints

This app has been a game changer when it comes to communicating with parents of my students who have complex needs - I wish I knew about to sooner! I’ve been able to not only communicate with my Spanish speaking families but easily form relationships with them as well! I felt kind of weird having the app on my phone but I have my school email on my phone too, I just sent boundaries when I check it. I love that you can add other members like related services (speech, OT, PT) too. Overall all TalkingPoints is a fantastic app that is user friendly and has made communicating with families much easier!!

Even after “bug fixes” I am still getting notifications of unread messages that do not exist.
Also, I scheduled a message, noticed a typo, and there was no way to edit it without hitting cancel and retyping it as a new message. It wouldn’t even let me copy it.
One last thing, they should let us know what phone number is used for us to send the SMS messages. If a parent wants to send us a message, but doesn’t have the app, it is impossible for us to give them directions to initiate contact with us. It seems a little off.
It is great app for keeping contact relevant to your classes, but, honestly it lacks some basic functionality.

The app used to be ok but glitchy. To be fair, the website is pretty slow too. The concept is amazing but 1. often times messages come to me from parents out of order 2. I’m the building ESL teacher and we have over 200 families so it’s frustrating that I can’t send the information to everyone I need to. 3. I used to be able to bypass this by having two accounts (teacher email and personal) but now I need to verify it and cannot. It feels like the 200 limit is on the low slide because there have been years I have had 180 students. Some of our elective teachers have far more. My district would never shell out money for the paid version making this app more hassle than it’s worth now.

As a teacher, this app is pretty easy to use and a good way to keep in contact with parents. Although the one thing I do not like at all is the word count limit per message/announcement is only 600 words. I sometimes have to send multiple announcements to parents instead of just one, and if I schedule the announcements they sometimes will send to parents out of order. I try to keep messages and announcements short and simple, but sometimes there is a lot of information to send out, and my parents do not appreciate getting multiple messages. I’d love it if there was a bigger word count than just 600 words.

I am a kindergarten teacher and have used this app for 2 years now. It has been a gift with being able to communicate with my parents. I love that there are options to translate messages into my parents’ home languages. There are so many benefits to this app...sharing pictures, read receipts, polls, sending classes to other teachers (PE or Music teacher), and sending messages at a later time is one of my favorites features. I would highly recommend this app. I was able to teach myself how to use it pretty quickly and it’s user friendly!