Toddle helps you to stay connected with your school community. As a teacher, you can initiate and engage in one-on-one conversations with students, their family members, and staff members of the school. It also includes useful features like the ability to access your conversations from anywhere on the platform via a platform-wide messaging tray and a powerful search functionality. Read this article to learn in detail about these features!

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As an educator, you can access the Messaging feature directly from your homepage by clicking on the 'Messaging' card or using the platform-wide messaging tray.

💡The card on your homepage and the messaging tray will show only if the Messaging module is enabled by your school administrator for teachers.

💡If you're using the Messaging module on the app, refer to this article.

Within the messaging module, you can view and engage in one-on-one chats with staff, students, and their family members.

💡Please note that you will be able to engage in chats with students and family members only if the Messaging module is enabled for them by the school admin. To learn how Messaging works for students and families, refer to the student web, student app, family web, and family app articles.

In the left pane of the landing page, all your past conversations are listed for easy access, with the most recent ones appearing at the top. You can use the search bar to quickly find specific conversations. Additionally, notification badges alert you to new messages.

You can sort your conversations using the following tabs: ‘All,’ ‘Unread,’ ‘Students,’ ‘Families,’ and ‘Staff.’ This helps you quickly find unread messages or navigate conversations based on user groups. To customise which tabs appear and their order, click the gear icon to select, deselect or reorder them.

To start a new message, click the ‘+’ icon. In the modal that pops up, select the individual you wish to message - be it a staff member, student, or family member. For faster access, you can also type their name into the search bar. Once you have selected the individual you want to chat with, a new chat gets created between the two of you.

💡Please note that as a teacher, you can initiate a one-on-one conversation with any staff member from your school. However, you can only message students you teach and their associated family members.

Within the chat window, you can engage in a conversation using text messages, attachments, emojis, and audio messages.

You can reply to any message in the thread and even add reactions with emojis. Simply hover over a message to access these options.

Additionally, if the setting is enabled by your school admin, you can edit or delete sent messages using the three-dot menu. You will also notice blue ticks appearing next to messages, indicating that they have been read by the recipient.

You can mute chats with specific individuals by clicking on the bell icon on the top right corner.

You also have the option to forward messages from one chat to another. All you need to do is hover over the desired message in a chat and click on the forward icon.

You can forward the message to other students, teachers or family members. At once, a message can be forwarded to a maximum of 20 conversations. Please note that any attachments added to the message are also forwarded to the selected chats.

On clicking ‘Next’, you will get an option to add your own message to the forwarded message. Once done, hit the ‘Forward’ button.

The search functionality within the Messaging module is designed to provide you with quick and efficient access to specific conversations. By utilizing the search bar located at the top, you can perform keyword searches across chats.

To make it easier to refer back to previous search queries or results, you can view your recent searches in the search bar.

For further refinement of search results, Toddle offers various search filters and operators. You can also employ operators like ‘in:’, and filters such as ‘Members’, ‘Messages’ and ‘Files’ to narrow down your search.

When conducting a search, a preview of the search results is provided. The results are categorised based on member names, messages, and files. The preview under messages includes snippets of messages that contain the searched keywords, enabling you to quickly assess the relevance of the results. You can also use the ‘From’ and ’In’ filters to narrow down your search.

Toddle offers a convenient messaging tray that grants you quick access to your chats from anywhere on the platform. In addition, you will also notice numbered badges on the tray, notifying you of any unread messages.

To access the messing tray, simply click on the message icon highlighted on the screen below. This will open the Messaging widget, where you can engage in conversations.

Use the search bar to find specific chats. Additionally, click the expand icon in the top-right corner to view messaging in full-screen mode on a separate page.

When you access the Messages widget through the messaging tray, you will see customised suggestions that help you quickly find relevant chats. For e.g., when you open the Messaging widget while viewing a student’s profile, you’ll see options to start or access an existing one-on-one chat with the student and their family members.

💡 Please note that these suggestions are visible only under the ‘All’ tab within the Messaging window.

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