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Alabama, United States
Educator and Lifelong Learner, Asst Principal at @cmslions, #NBCT, #EdD from @ucumberlands, @Google Educator Lvl 1 & 2, Google for Education Certified Trainer

Thursday, July 12, 2012

But, My Students Don't Have an Email Address!


We all find these great websites where our students can play games, create projects, or collaborate with each other.  The problem is that many sites often require an email address for registering and/or logging in, but our students don't all have email addresses.  Here is an easy way to solve that problem while maintaining privacy and control.

1. Create an email address using Gmail.  I gave mine an easy to remember name (4mrswhitehead).
2.  When creating accounts, students will simply use this email address with a + and their name or number before the @ (4mrswhitehead+tom@gmail.com).
3.  Gmail recognizes this as a separate email address, but all correspondence goes to the original email address.  This way, students are not allowed to email using this address, but they can register and login in for websites. Also, if anyone tries to contact a student, you have record of it.
4.  As far as passwords, my students all had the same password (school name and number). The email account had a different password that they did not know.  You may have to confirm accounts sent as emails since your students don't have access to the account.

This works for most websites.  I have found maybe one or two that do not recognize the addresses as separate accounts.  It has saved me a lot of hassle and provided the ability for all of my students to enjoy great sites.
~Cara

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh.my.gosh! Thank you!! I've run into this many many times...thanks for sharing the solution!

Primary Inspired

Unknown said...

This is a great and simple fix!!! Thak you.

Mrs. Johnson said...

Cara, I tried to do this and Gmail will not let me create an account with a "+" in it. Any ideas?

Dr. Cara Whitehead, NBCT said...

You will first need to create a generic email address without the +. The plus is only used by your students when registering for sites and then logging into them.

Anonymous said...

Can you tell me if I understand this correctly?
You make an email (4msferrell@gmail.com) with gmail. Students make an email (4misferrell+StudentName@gmail.com).

When students receive or send an email, it will show up in YOUR inbox not theirs. Is that right?

Will they see your inbox?

Anonymous said...

Can you tell me if I understand this correctly?
You make an email (4msferrell@gmail.com) with gmail. Students make an email (4misferrell+StudentName@gmail.com).

When students receive or send an email, it will show up in YOUR inbox not theirs. Is that right?

Will they see your inbox?