Encouraging Good Email Etiquette

​This week, I have been sharing some tips to help teachers start the year well with classroom technology. In this Blog, I share some advice about establishing good email etiquette in your students.
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Student email is common in schools and can be a fantastic tool to facilitate collaboration between teachers and students. Often students are provided a school email address without really being taught how to use it. Spending a little time teaching students the following expectations will help communication flow a little more smoothly for the year ahead.

1. Have them use the subject line – what is this email about? Some teachers have many classes and a little more information can be very helpful.
2. Show them how to begin and end an email correctly - "To Mrs Bain" and "From Thomas Smith" is all you need. You may like to help your students create an email signature that does some of the work for them.
3. Advise students to NOT WRITE IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS as this is the email equivalent of yelling.
4. Set the expectation that emails written to you should be similar to the way they speak to you in the classroom. Advise them to avoid using abbreviated or the type of language they might use when chatting to friends on social media. Remember punctuation, correct spelling and capital letters too!
5. Remind students that manners still apply in emails. Please and thank you can change the tone of an email considerably.
6. Teach students the difference between reply and reply all. Everyone in the class may not need to see their reply to the teacher. Knowing this can prevent embarassing situations. 
7. Teach students to manage their emails well. Do you need to keep this email or can it be deleted? Check out this blog post about managing your emails. These are good approaches to teach your students too.
8. Set time expectations – If you send an email to me after 9pm, you are not likely to get a response until the next day.
9. Encourage students to keep their school email addresses for school only. Remind them not to use it for social communication or to sign up to websites or mail list that are not related to school. 

It is important to model these expectations in your own emails to students. Good email etiquette is a valuable skill to develop in students and one that will continue to serve them into the future. It is worth spending a little time on it at the start of the school year.