My biggest timesaver? Grouping my students and parents with specific labels. Doing this allows me to quickly type just a keyword (the label title) and I can then easily BCC every parent and student an email.
While this takes some time up-front, it is definitely worth it in the long run! I create two labels. One for parents and one for students. This way when I send parent emails, I can also include my students easily and I know that both students and parents are receiving the same exact information and I only send one email! Yet, I also have the option of emailing them separately as well.
Go to contacts.google.com
Your contacts should already be listed - or you can CREATE contact for each if they are not already saved in Google. Note: My school domain has all contacts available in a saved directory for easy access. If you are a GSuite for Edu school then you should be able to access the student directory as well.
Create label - I usually use something like this: 6 Parents and 6 Groups. I use the digit 6 because it is 6th grade.
Make sure all contacts have been added to the label and your group has been created!
Now, you can send a BBC email to all parents and students by easily typing the group name into the BCC box in gmail!
⬅️ The side panel view to use on your contact page looks like this.
✨Use these buttons to create your contacts and to create labels for grouping.
✨Choose labels that make sense for you and are easy for you to remember.
✨Contacts can have multiple labels attached in they need to be part of different groups for email purposes. For example, you can also create a label for a school club and add students to that label as well!
✨Use the directory tab to select from your domain and then just edit - add label!