In my years as an administrator I've noticed that one of the things that takes up a tremendous amount of time is the phone. I return every call and make every attempt to provide the best service. However, when you think about it, every call that an administrator receives means that someone had to transfer that call; and the amount of time that the person took to take information and offer assistance will vary. Now, multiply that by several administrators if you're at a large high school and now multiply it by the number of teachers at a school... big or small! With such a high call volume, you inevitably end up getting the visit from the unsatisfied parent that someone was rude on the phone or that messages were never passed on, etc.
There are a many well intended educators that provide their personal cell numbers to the class, group of students, or to everyone. For some it works and for others it creates obvious problems and ends up backfiring. There is always email of course, but a great many of us work in communities where email is not always an option and/or parents don't know how to use it. However, cell phones are everywhere and practically everyone sends text messages. According to a 2012 article by the Huffington Post, there are about 6 billion cell phone subscribers worldwide. It looks like the phone will continue to be an important communication medium.
A practical, easy, and free resource to help with this issue is Google Voice. In short, Google Voice gives you the opportunity to select a phone number a phone number and you can make and receive calls and send and receive text messages...all for free. There are rates for international calls but many of us won't have to make those in our line of work. You can modify your settings to do any of the following:
- Forwarding calls and texts to your cell phone without callers seeing your mobile number
- Making calls and sending texts from your cell phone without exposing your mobile number
- Making calls and sending texts directly from your computer with an internet connection
- Allowing callers to leave voice messages and sending texts only (do not disturb function)
- Forwarding calls and texts to your email account
- Transcribing voice messages
- Customize the greeting callers hear
- Create an anonymous hotline
- Create an anonymous feedback hotline
- Have each teachers, counselors, parent group, etc. establish direct lines
- Create a student and parent contact list and send mass text announcements (especially for Domain users)
- Have ELD teachers establish a class line where students can call and practice their language production by having them leave messages in English
As you can see, Google Voice affords you many options to customize the level of privacy you want and still increase your exposure to students, parents, and the community. I have set up my Google Voice number to forward all calls and texts to my email which in turn is synced to my mobile phone. I work in a high poverty area with over 90% English Learners, and this has proven to be highly effective as I have a personal greeting in Spanish and English and I notice that our Spanish speaking parents feel much more comfortable calling and leaving a message directly or sending me a text. Please remember, I stress the high poverty because cell phones are ubiquitous, even in high poverty areas, and parents have easier access to a phone than a computer. When I receive a call or text, I don't respond from my mobile phone, I send texts directly from my computer or bounce into the office to return the call. Just to illustrate a recent example to how powerful this is I'll mention that I received a text from a student during Spring Break and she was inquiring if the computer lab was open (we open our credit recovery lab on Saturdays); she woke up early and had gone to campus. I reminded her that the lab would open on Saturdays during the break. This was all happening while I was on my computer three hours away and she received immediate assistance using the phone she borrowed from the friend she was with.
As I reflect on the power to increase communication that Google Voice can provide, I can envision schools using it to:
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