Rewards and Pitfalls of Student Emailing

Friday night I sent this email to teachers:

Please check often for emails from your students. I will work with them on not using so many emoticons and using a salutary and closing signature. They will be enthralled at first and email you often, I'm sure. Only 5th-8th graders will be able to email and they can only email each other and the teachers; restrictions have been put into place so they cannot email outside our domain. Please report any emails that cause you concern. The 6th graders began on Friday and I think by Monday evening they will all be actively emailing.


I was prompted to send out this email because by Friday evening I had several emails from students that were very excited to have the opportunity to use email. ("I love Google!" "Thank you for giving us Google!") I could tell that they would soon be spending a lot of time making contacts to establish camaraderie with fellow students and teachers alike.

This knowledge is quick-step with trepidation. From my past experience using Moodle with students, most of them want to create digital relationships, but they haven't figured out quite yet how to do that. Some will send repetitive messages that are mainly aimed at getting a reply. If I answer, they have touched base. It doesn't really matter that we are not saying anything new in the back and forth; it matters that they are heard. This, I think, is the heart and soul of why we need to give students email. The opportunity to understand how human relationships work, and the very deep need to give students a voice with current technology is necessary. They see their parents using email and they want to use it, too. It's my job to see they use it properly by addressing etiquette. I want them to represent themselves in the best light possible.

By Friday evening I understood that some students didn't know what the email subject line is for. How great is that feedback? Emailing means they must examine the purpose of the missive and let the receiver know the purpose on their subject line. Casual SMS doesn't offer that. This is a great precedent activity for writing topic sentences; a learning activity already in place that will help me later. I hadn't realized that by-product.

Other topics for which I must rapidly make decisions: How will I address using emoticons and English standards? Should I use behavior standards or grade standards for emailing? Should that even be an on-going directive? Will I directly contact them if they send me emails over and over again about the same message, or will I just discuss it in class?

If you have any suggestions, please make your comments here. I'd be interested to hear your opinion and/or your experience.