Connect with Students and Parents Through Email

Sarah McBride — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:18:00 GMT

After enjoying the retirement life for two years, my dad decided to return to teaching this year. Today was his first day with students, and I know he's excited, but it can also be a bit overwhelming to get going with the school year again (especially after having a substantial break from teaching).

As teachers try to get their classes and lesson plans together, it can be challenging to find time to connect with their students, let alone their students' parents. Fortunately, the optional module NetMail helps facilitate communication by giving teachers the convenience of ...no snail mail here; we're talking about email!

If you have NetMail, you can grant teachers rights to email directly from FAWeb (BB254948):

On the Administration page, click Set up system security.
Open the appropriate security group, such as FAWeb Teachers or FAWeb Advisors.
On the Group screen, in the System Components box, mark the Shared Components checkbox.
In the Shared Components box, mark the NetSolutions checkbox and click Options.
On the Security Options screen, mark the NetMail checkbox and Undeliverable Mail checkbox (to allow users to view undeliverable mail).
Click OK and then click Save and Close.

Once teachers have rights to email, they can open the door to communication with their students and their students' relations (BB255752):

In FAWeb, click Email on the navigation bar and select Create New Email from the list on the left.
On the General tab, select the appropriate academic year and session. (If you teach in multiple schools, also select the appropriate school.)
In the Send email to field, select Students, Student Relationships, or Both. If you are a teacher and an advisor, the Create email for field appears. Mark Students in classes or Advisees.
If sending email to students or relations, select the Classes tab and mark the checkbox for each class to include. All classes are automatically included for advisees.
Select the Students tab and mark the checkbox for each student to include.
On the Compose tab, enter your email address and the email's subject line. In the Email type field, define the email address type to use (such as Email Business or Email Home). If you do not select a type, the program sends the email to the first email address on the primary address record.
In the email box, write and format the text. To include merge fields (e.g., student first name), select from the Available Fields list on the left. (Note: Select only fields you know are consistently populated in your database; otherwise, if a selected merge field is blank on a record, the email will include a blank space where the field should be inserted.)

Whether you use email for assigning homework or to simply provide periodic updates, you make yourself more accessible to your students and their parents by keeping your communication going beyond the classroom. Hope it helps you get the school year off to a great start!

The Book Bag : NetMail

Connect with Students and Parents Through Email