Sustaining a FIRST Team

[Carolyn_Grace]

It seems that communication via email is something that many teams struggle with. I'm running into a similar issue with my students regarding email, and I've talked to a few other teams who have the same problem.

It's interesting to me that this generation of plugged-in, tech-savvy students rarely uses email.

Even more mind boggling is that probably 1/3 of my students aren't even on Twitter or Facebook. This leaves text messaging. ...which obviously is not a great way to send a large amount of information.

What I have been doing with my team, with growing success:

1. Emailing the team with important updates 1-3 times per week, to help them get used to checking it.
2. On super important emails, I make sure to BCC all parents and politely ask them to remind their children to check their email.
3. Include "ACTION REQUESTED" in the subject line of emails that require responses (this suggestion was given by a parent who deals with emails in the business world on a regular basis).
4. Use the app Remind101, which sends out a massive group text message. It's super easy to use!
5. Include Google Forms in emails when I need to know who is going to attend what event, or who is interested in leading up an event.
6. And lastly, I have been starting every meeting with, "Raise your hand if you received the email that I sent out on (fill in the date). If you have not read your email, log into a computer now and respond to anything you missed."

Gradually, all of this has helped my students remember to check their emails and respond in a timely fashion. It's still a work in progress. There are still some kids who come up to me at meetings and say, "I just don't check my email."
I usually respond with, "Well, that's the main form of communication for our team, and when you get to college you will need to check your email multiple times a day, so let's help you get in the habit now."

Also, like your mentor, I was super frustrated with this mentality at first. And then I just started looking at it as a game. So far my score in this game is increasing every week. I'm confident that come the start of school, my students will be well-trained in the art of communication via email.