E-MAIL TIPS AND TRICKS

Remember to start small when introducing e-mail activities. Give yourself and your students time to learn, fail, regroup, and succeed.

Students often get so excited about e-mail that they e-mail one another at inappropriate times -- during lectures and tests, for example. Decide beforehand how you will control such e-mailing. Some schools have wireless networks that can be disconnected by the teacher. Check the Start bar (Windows) or the Dock (Apple) as you move around the room to see who's hiding (minimizing) their e-mail program. Determine how you will discipline rule-breakers and be sure to spell out the discipline policy before beginning e-mail use.

Some simple activities you can use to encourage e-mail use among students who have mastered the basics include:

• E-mail students a pop quiz of five questions. Have them complete the quiz and e-mail the answers to you.
• Take an e-mail survey of student reactions to a particular lesson, activity, or event.
• At the beginning of a class, ask students to e-mail to you a brief statement describing what happened during the previous class.
• E-mail homework assignments to absent students -- or ask another student to do it for you.
• Use Think.com's group feature, or your school's e-mail conferences, bulletin board, or chat features to create supervised online discussion groups on relevant class topics.

Note: Most of the activities in this techtorial also can be completed in one-computer classrooms. Simply post the assignment on the chalkboard or bulletin board, and have one student at a time complete the assignment. You can establish an assigned rotation or have each student tag another student when he or she finishes the assignment.

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