GMass: A Mail Merge Extension That Will Make Teacher Life Easier

 When you're reaching out to parents via e-mail, do you ever feel like you're messages are falling on deaf ears? Chances are that's because you're writing a generic e-mail. Something that starts with "Hi families!" or "Hello Parents!" or something equally as all-encompassing. No shame, I've done it too. I've done it for years. But recently, I read that these e-mails go unread because they're not personal. It doesn't use the names of the parents or the child. Until recently, I thought the only alternative was writing many personalized e-mails, which was a no go because who wants to do that? Well, it turns out GMass will do it for you.

GMass is a Gmail extension through Google Chrome that allows someone to write "personalized" e-mails the same way a mail merge will plug and chug information into a document. A free tool to use up to 50 e-mails a day, GMass is an excellent way to disseminate the same information to people but with a personal touch.

GMass is simple enough to use. You start with a spreadsheet where you plug in all the information you need. For me, this includes my students' names, their parents' names, and the e-mail address it's being sent to. Next, you open up GMail and you connect this spreadsheet to a draft and begin writing your e-mail. Where you want to the personalized information, you use their brackets to insert it. Once you click send, GMass does it's magic and inputs the information and sends individualized e-mails out for you. You can even get analytics including whether or not your e-mail was opened/read or whether any links was clicked. AND you can schedule e-mails making your work more efficient.

Here are some ways you can use this as an educator:

This tool has been so handy and I hope it's something you can use, too! What else could you use this tool for?