Email Ninja Trick: Add A Like Button

Some emails don't necessarily need a reply, but you want to let the sender know you read the email and will act accordingly or approve of the course of action. Most email platforms have send receipts, but they require the sender to set them up prior to sending, and still at best prove that you opened the email.

To solve this conundrum and clear my inbox, I took a page out of my social media habits and saved my own facebook-style "like button."

In the example above, I responded to one of my assistant principal's emails about make-up fire and tornado drills we'll be having next week.

How can I get my own? 
(PC/Mac)

1. Do a Google search for "facebook like button"
2. Save your favorite image by clicking on one and dragging it to the desktop
3. Rename it to something more descriptive (mine default-saved as "imgres")
4. Open any email reply
5. Drag your image from the desktop to your email text field.
6. Send.

(iPad/iPhone for GMail)

1. Do a Google search for "facebook like button"
2. Save your favorite image by touching it until the box pops up to "save image"
3. Rename it to something more descriptive (mine default-saved as "imgres")
4. Open any email reply
5. Click on the paperclip icon and "attach a photo"
6. Select the "like button" from your camera roll
7. Send.

It's a pretty quick process on a desktop/laptop, but you're probably better off just using an emoji on a phone or tablet. 

Tech Tip: Check Your Spelling With Right-Click

Are you a chronically poor speller?

You can right click in most any text editing platform to get suggestions for correct spelling. This is the kind of tool that you probably notice anytime you right-click something for another purpose, but perhaps forget when you really need (like me). This doesn't encourage the practice of ignoring errors in the first draft (sorry comm arts teachers), but if you're like me and want to eliminate your red squiggles as soon as possible, the spell-check-right-click will save you time from spell-checking the entire document.

Forget no more!

Here's what right-click spellcheck looks like on many of your favorite tools -

Sharing a Computer (with your Students/Co-workers/Spouse/Childen) Without Going Crazy

Classroom teacher:
Does the sound of your students asking to use your computer to check their email or print something give you an unrational fear?
Have you ever passed on checking your email because someone else was logged into the computer, and didn't want to log them out?

I hope you're ready to commit to the next half hour logging in to this machine.

Spouses:
 How often do fits of internal rage rumble inside (or outside) when you go to check your email/Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest/Yahoo/etc., and have to logout your spouse? How many times accidentally commenting as *not* yourself before you consider quitting social media?

You know this is you.

One of my favorite aspects of the Web 2.0 - Google/Facebook controlled internet is the ability to use a cornucopia of services without keeping a flashdrive of passwords and usernames at my disposal. It's a great time-saver to seamlessly move from site to site that I think someone under 20 doesn't really appreciate.

The flip-side of that ease of use, however, is that this always-on state of login culture is NOT station-sharing friendly. But no worries, there's hope for you yet. It requires you and yours to have separate opinions on browser preference, but I promise to extend the health of all your personal and working relationships.

Being logged into your GMail (or any service) is only really true on one browser at a time. Here's the setup on the media PC in our living room at home:

You CAN have it all.

Fortunately for our household, although we both cringe at IE, Beth and I happily coexist on Chrome and Firefox, our internet lives (usually) keeping an appropriate separation.

Application to the Classroom:
You CAN allow students to login to their email to print that paper, access a file, or check their grades as long as your IT department has provided you with at least two different browsers. If they haven't, you can work around with a flashdrive, but that's another story. You only need to remember which browser you're using and to ensure that they use the other.

This could even work on a shared class set of iPads or iPods. Most of the third-party browsers are not my favs, but at the very least students could split logins between mobile Safari and mobile Chrome

I've felt so much more freedom with sharing the computer in my classroom since I discovered this a couple years ago. The biggest advantage I've seen instructionally is catching absent kids up faster by accessing previous lessons, and encouraging students to USE the machine for quick internet searches as questions arise. A student USING an instructional computer in the classroom. Go figure. ;)