Texting_Parents_with_Gmail

The purpose of this tutorial is to learn how to send short text messages to parent cell phones using Email. Today many adults no longer have a landline phone at home, but utilize a cell phone for many purposes. What most people do not realize is…when done correctly…many cell phone providers like AT&T, Verizon, and Cricket allow text messages to be received when the text was actually sent through an email program like Gmail. In the classroom, this would allow teachers to communicate with parents in a manner that is very efficient to both teachers and parents. This is fairly easy to do and once you create your contact list, you may not have to do it again for the school year.

For this example, I’m using Gmail to demonstrate SMS texting from Email. You can use other Email programs for this purpose, but each will have slightly different directions. The first step is to acquire the 10-digit wireless number and cell phone provider from the parent. Each cell phone provider has a domain name for its network; the domain name is what appears after the “@” sign in an email address. For example a cell phone of 615-594-9310 with AT&T as the carrier would have an email address of 6155949310@txt.att.net. Here is a list of common wireless providers and their domains...

AT&T--"@txt.att.net" Verizon--"@vtext.com" Cricket--"@sms.mycricket.com" For a larger list or domains, click here

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To start this project using Gmail, click “Contacts” in the upper-left corner, then “New contact” below that. In the New Contact screen, type the student’s name into the “Add name” field. Next is the important part…in the Email field, enter the parent’s 10-digit wireless number, followed by the “at” sign, followed by their carrier’s domain name. In the “Notes” box to the right, enter the parent’s name and any other information you would like to have easily accessible, like contact records. You can complete the other fields if you like, but it is not necessary. When finished, click the “Save now” button in the lower-right corner.

You are now ready to text Little Johnny’s parents to tell them how much you enjoy having him in class! To do so, click the Mail button in the upper-left corner, then click “Compose mail”. To send a text to just one child’s parents, start typing the student’s name into the “To” field and click it when displayed. Type a short subject into the subject field, and your short message into the main Email field. This method of parent contact is meant for short messages only…longer messages should still be sent to a regular email address! When finished, click the “Send” button. That’s it! Go ahead and try it with your cell phone. After you send your test SMS text message, reply back to it from your phone. Notice the reply shows up in your Email inbox, providing you an organized reference of parental communication which can be printed out if needed.

To send an SMS text to multiple parents at once, watch the second video in this two-part tutorial on “Parent Contact with Email to Text Message”.