So, I realize I’m leaning heavily toward the technology I own, and I’m not giving fair attention to apple or blackberry.  Solution:  Go buy the technology I have.  Then we’ll be phone buddies!  We’ll be phone buddies, and you’ll have cooler toys.  ;) Also, I’m pretty sure you can sync your contacts in blackberry and iphone to your google contacts, so this should work for everyone!

I used to keep all of my students’ contact information in a google doc, and I tred to surf around on it to find contact info.  Now I add my students in their own ‘group’ to my google contacts. I can re-import or wipe that folder and start new every semester too!  Holy contact log Batman, that’s waay better!  Why?  It’s better because when students call me or text me, I have a record with the kid’s name in my call log.  It’s also easier because I have the kid’s cell, parent’s cell, dla’s number, and home phone as well as ALL the emails associated with that kid right on my android phone.  It’s KEY.

Go here signed into your google account:  Google Contacts

That should take you to the page where you can manage your google contacts, which are tied to your google account, which you can tie to your phone!  At first I just got my contacts on an excel page saved as a .csv, uploaded that baby to a ’students’ group, and then WHAM!  My students were in my phone… sort of.  If you’ve tried this, you’ve seen that all the info is in the ‘notes’ section, which makes it useless.  :(

The problem is that google uses a very strict spreadsheet format -very unlike google and disappointing.  Here’s an easy solution though.  Create a new group called ’students.’  Then, add a new fake contact.  Create fields in every blank that you want to enter for your students.
Now export the document as a google .csv file.  Open it in excel, and you’ll see your test info at the top of the columns you’ll actually use.  You’ll see a bunch of useless columns.  Don’t touch them.  Delete the test info, and paste the info into that column for the corresponding student info.  When you have all the info pasted into the appropriate columns, import the doc into google contacts… and WHAM!  Your students are in your phone! I have a video below to help clarify this for my visual and auditory learners!

The detailed directions for NCVPS teachers with Android phones are below as well.  

1.  Got to the NCVPS registration page via the Teacher Boat Dock (in the handbook)

2.  Enter your username and password, and then hit ’students’

3.  Select ‘export to excel.’  This gives you a home number, dla name, parent name, dla email, and dla number.  It’s not enough.  My suggestion -use a google form to gather student cell phone info and parent cell and email info.  That’s crucial contact information!  When you get it, drop it all into one spreadsheet.  It’s time consuming, but it’s worth the trouble.

4.  Open the spreadsheet on your desktop and then go to google contacts.  Create a fake contact with something in every blank you might want to use for your students.  Now export the file as a google .csv file.

5.  Now open the file you just exported.  Copy the info into the google .csv spreadsheet in the appropriate columns.  Leave everything else the same. Note: There is one more thing you’ll have to do in excel to make the columns work correctly so you don’t get ‘unnamed contacts’ in your phone. I have outlined those instructions in the blog post below.

6. Save the file and go to your google contacts here (make sure you’re signed into the google account associated with your phone): Google Contacts

7.  Above the Contacts bar on the top left, hit the icon with a plus and a few heads on it.  It’s the new group icon.

8.  Name the group students, and then in the new screen that pops up, select import from the top right.

9.  Hit ‘choose file’ and select the file you just saved.

10.  Select ’students’ in the add these contacts to box, and check the box.  Hit import.

11.  Make sure in your phone’s settings that you are syncing your contacts with this account.  Wait a while for your phone to notice the new contacts in your google account.  You’re good to go!

I hope that helps!  If anyone else wants to add instructions for how to do something similar to this in other phones in the comments section of this blog, that would be awesome.  I had a problem with this in that it didn’t populate telling me which number is which and which email is which, but it’s still better than having the info in the ‘notes’ section of the contact info.
Shu