Gmail for school

I'm the secretary of an elementary school. So my use of gmail is a little different than in a classroom. But I can, and do, use it to connect with parents as well as staff. New ways that I found that I can use it will be:

1. Translation--We have 10 different languages in your school so communicating with parents with a different home language can be difficult. Gmail is a great way to help with that communication with language translation in an email. Although not all translations are perfect this will help.

2. Contact Groups-- Making contact groups that only I use; Social Committee, PTO group, Paraeducators, as well as Non-Classroom teachers.

3. I admit I did miss using outlook. After learning the different ways to label, nest and star emails, I think I will like gmail even better.

4. Filters will come in handy so I can have unimportant emails filtered so I don't have to read them and file them before the important emails. I can get to them when I have a moment. I can also up the emails as important by looking for a keyword. This will help we find emails quickly pertaining to a certain student or group.