Dear Teacher...
Now that much of school is virtual, it is a lot more difficult to ask teachers questions. You will certainly have occasions to email or call your teacher, which can be intimidating! We can avoid a whole lot of stress by planning out our emails and calls before we have a homework emergency, so we can pull up a script or template in the moment.
You want your emails to teachers to be:
Polite
In professional tone
Spell-checked and proofread
Using the same grammar you use on school assignments
You want to make a good impression with your teacher as well as express your question as clearly clearly as possible (so you are more likely to get a helpful response). Here are a few tips to make sure your emails meet your teachers’ expectations - and save yourself time and stress every time you have to write one.
Get a professional email address that is some version of your first and last name. You can get a free email at gmail.com.
Address your teacher the same way you would in person, whether it’s first name or last name, titled or untitled. If you know me as Dr. Satty at school, please address me as Dr. Satty in an email.
Write using the same tone and grammar you use on school assignments. No txt speak lol.
Use spellcheck (you can easily do this by drafting the email in a Word or Google document) and give your email a quick proofread.
Consider using a canned response so you don’t have to think about all this every time you have a question. A canned response is an email template you can save so you only have to change a few details before sending.
Your email might look something like this (don’t forget to consider your own teachers’ or school’s email policies):
Subject: Question About [class, section, and assignment]
Dear [Teacher],
I hope your day is going well. I have a question about [specific assignment or question] in [specific class and section]. I reread the instructions and reviewed my class notes, but I am still having difficulty [specific area of difficulty]. [Question].
Thank you for your time.
Have a good [evening, weekend, week, etc.],
[First and Last Name]
Phone
Calling a teacher can be scarier than sending an email, but can get you an answer to your question more quickly. It also allows you to ask follow up questions as needed.
You can take away some of the stress by having a script in front of you. I strongly recommend scripting out your phone call before you start. Your script will look a lot like your email template, but please (please!) give your teacher a chance to answer or respond in between sentences.
Your phone call might sounds like this:
Teacher: Hello?
Student: Hi [Teacher]. This is [First and last name] from [class and section]. How are you? [ Wait for teacher to respond.]
Teacher: Fine, thanks. How are you?
Student: Fine, thanks. I have a question about [specific assignment or question] in [specific class and section]. I reread the instructions and reviewed my class notes, but I am still having difficulty [specific area of difficulty]. [Question].
[Wait for teacher to respond.]
Student: Thank you so much. It sounds like you’re saying [summarize answer]. Is that correct?
[Wait for teacher to respond.]
Student: May I ask one more question?
[Wait for teacher to respond.]
[Repeat as needed.]
Student: Thank you so much for your time [Teacher]. Have a good evening.
What tips do you have for communicating with your teachers? Comment below or email robinsatty@stemsmartconsulting.com.