12 text message templates teachers actually use
The hard part of texting families isn't deciding to do it. It's sitting down Sunday night and writing the same message thirty times with a different name and grade in each one.
Bulk Texter Pro fixes the typing. This post is about the other half — what to actually say.
Below are templates teachers use with Bulk Texter Pro, written as mail merge messages: {FieldName} pulls from a column in your spreadsheet, so one message becomes thirty personalized ones. Each includes the columns you'd need. They're ordered by how often teachers use them: progress updates and re-engaging students who have stopped showing up come first.
A note before the list: the templates that work are short, specific, and end with an opening to reply. The ones that don't are long, general, and sound like a form letter — because they are one.
Grades and progress
1. Progress report with the actual number
Columns: FirstName, Subject, Grade
2. Improvement, called out by name
Columns: FirstName, Subject, Grade
Send this one. Teachers tell us the positive texts get more replies than any other kind, and they're the ones nobody has time to send by hand.
3. Test or quiz score
Columns: FirstName, Assessment, Score
Re-engagement
4. The student who has stopped showing up
Columns: FirstName
5. A check-in to the family
Columns: ParentName, StudentName, LastAttendedDate
Missing and upcoming work
6. Specific missing assignment
Columns: FirstName, Assignment, DueDate
7. Advance reminder, before it's late
Columns: FirstName, Assignment, DueDate
8. Multiple missing assignments
Columns: FirstName, MissingCount, Subject
Parents and conferences
9. Conference reminder with the time slot
Columns: ParentName, StudentName, ConferenceTime
10. Good-news home
Columns: ParentName, StudentName
Attendance
11. Absence follow-up with the specific day
Columns: FirstName, AbsentDate
12. Attendance note to a parent
Columns: ParentName, StudentName, DaysMissed
Making them go out
Once your templates are set, the sending part is mechanical. Put your class list in a spreadsheet with the columns each template needs:
| PhoneNumber | FirstName | Subject | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| (555) 123-4567 | Maya | Algebra II | 91 |
| (555) 234-5678 | Devon | Algebra II | 78 |
| (555) 345-6789 | Priya | Geometry | 85 |
Upload the CSV, paste the template, and every student gets their own version:
Everything comes from your existing number — Google Voice, your school's 8x8, RingCentral, Dialpad, or Zoom Phone line, or your own iPhone or Android phone. Each student gets a private thread, replies come back to you normally, and you can schedule the whole batch for 7am Monday.
If you want a student and their guardian in the same conversation, you can do that too — a group text with both numbers on the same row.
A few things that make these land better
- Use the student's name, not "students." It's the whole reason to do this.
- Ask a question. A message that ends in a question gets a reply; one that ends in a period doesn't.
- Preview before you send. Bulk Texter Pro shows you all thirty finished messages first. Read them — you'll catch the row where the grade column is blank.
- Send the good ones too. A class that only hears from you when something's wrong stops reading.
- Watch your timing. Schedule for the morning rather than sending at 11pm.
Get started
Try Bulk Texter Pro freeMore on the school side of things in our guide for virtual and hybrid schools, and the CSV upload guide covers the mechanics. Questions: [email protected].