Gmail in the classroom

As a classroom teacher, I have found labels helpful.  It allows me to organize the emails I get and send by year and topic.  Every email I send to a parent is saved.  I also set up a contact list at the beginning of each school year for each period I teach.  Students that move into/out of our district can be easily added/deleted. It makes getting information/links out to a class quick!  I also learned about the "mute" button and how to hide that conversation that is not so important anymore.  But as they mentioned, there often times is a reason that something was important that I didn't realize at the time.