This wonderful, FREE, web-based service is intended to help people consolidate lots of phone numbers into one that always stays the same.
That is nice, but that is not what I think makes Google Voice an absolute must-have for a teacher.
I just signed up for my google voice phone number. With a little bit of trying, I managed to find a local-area code number available that spells out "mrs. w" after the prefix - SCORE!!!
Within a few minutes, I had:
- added my school email to my google account as an alternate email
- linked the google voice phone number to my school email
- set the settings so that my mobile phone will NOT ring when incoming calls happen unless I click to activate the ring-through and so that any voice mails will be transcribed and sent to my school email.
WHAT THIS MEANS:
- I have a phone number that I can freely give to students, parents, etc. I can even generate a clickable badge for my website that will allow someone to type me a text message if they do happen to be on a computer.
- Parents who don't have a computer or easy access can still send me an email by calling and leaving a voice mail message that will be transcribed and sent to my school account.
- I can choose to receive calls from school during hours I choose. For now, I'm going to decide as I go, but I can forsee establishing "office hours" at key times when I will be availble to answer calls (like the night before a big test or on prom night).
- I can make a phone call to a parent without sending my personal phone number to anyone using caller ID. What I do instead is I sign in to my google voice account, type in the phone number and google calls me and then the number. The person I'm calling sees my google number on caller ID.
- I will finally feel comfortable making as many phone calls as I know I should be making.
I haven't even started using this (other than a few test calls) and it is already one of my very favorite things for the new school year.
Go - right now - and sign up for GOOGLE VOICE
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