Stay Updated with Newsletters!

Well I had so much fun creating my newsletter. Click here to see it! I chose to use a blog to keep parents and guardians updated on the happenings in my classroom. Communication between parents and teachers is so important. Teachers need to keep parents and guardians aware of what is going on in the classroom, not only so they know what their child is learning about, but also so they can implement activities at home to help support the learning that is going on in school. Communication is also important to keep parents informed about student progress, achievements, areas of concern, and what the parent/guardian can do at home to help their child overcome these obstacles.

I love the ideas of newsletters to keep parents informed, as I use them in my classroom presently. However, I like the idea of using a Web 2.0 tool (such as a blog) better because it reduces the use of paper and because it allows parents to stay informed whenever it is convenient for them. For this project, I used Blogger to create a newsletter. I chose it because it was pretty simple to navigate to first start out. Next time, I will try to get more creative and explore further. I think it would be fun to try a program like Scrapblog, where I could actually include pictures with my updates. That would really allow parents to gain deeper insight into classroom activities. I think students would also get very excited about the use of this as well and this would maybe help students remind their parents to check the newsletter.



I think the use of technology adds to the appeal and effectiveness of the newsletter as well. I think I will try to use a blog or even a website to communicate with my parents in the upcoming academic year. I also try to send home notes to inform parents of any positive behavior or concerns that I have. However, sometimes these letters do not make it home or get lost in transit. I am going to make an effort to e-mail parents rather than send notes home.