We are using the Ed Tech Challenge website as a framework for our educational technology professional development at our district. It is a highly personalized course that provides training on relevant topics such as collaborating with students, providing information to students, using Open Educational Resources in your classroom, forming your own PLN, and more.
The personalization is achieved through teachers taking a self-reflective survey. The results are then merged with a report that explains their strengths. Using the Autocrat Add-On in Google Drive, one can have the resulting merged reports directly emailed to the person (very cool).
However, in order to provide context for the teacher, it is best to either meet in person or send an email with recommendations on where to start. That's where the tricky part comes.
My novel-length email is pretty important. But it's a pain to retype it for 300 teachers. I am also customizing the email based on their scores. Google Mail Canned Replies to the rescue!
Check out this tutorial to learn how to enable the Canned Responses Lab in Google Settings!
