Week Three

Communication is a skill that is vital to the health of a parent-teacher relationship.  Parents want to be informed of activities, tests, field trips and events going on in their child’s classroom.  The easiest way for a teacher to let all the parents of her class know about these important things is through a class newsletter. 

I took an Introduction to Education class at my local community college last semester.  I wanted to begin working toward my teaching certificate but didn’t have the ability to start right away.  I figured that taking an introductory class would help me decide that education was indeed the right field for me.  I started that class and I began substitute teaching part-time.  I have absolutely loved being in the classroom.  There is never a boring day like I used to have in my accounting job.  The students are eager to learn and eager to please, for the most part. 

As a part of my class I was required to create a class newsletter for a fictitious classroom.  I worked hard on my newsletter and took great pride in creating that.  I dreamt of what I would want my future class to be like and the activities I would want to have for my students.  I used Microsoft Word to create the letter.  I will now look back at this newsletter and review it based on the things I’ve learned in my Educational Technology class. 

          The thing that I see as most visually appealing in this newsletter is the fact that it is in a newsletter format.  The titles are in large print and easy to read.  They are red to catch the parent’s attention.  All the work is neat and there is colorful clip art to add to the theme.  I believe the parents and students will appreciate the photos included.  That will be fun for parents to watch for their student on the newsletter. 

Looking back at my old newsletter I see different fonts that may be confusing for the reader.  I corrected that to an easy to read font and made all the fonts the same except for the spelling words.  This will make it easy to distinguish the spelling words quickly.  By making the fonts the same I am conveying the message that I want this newsletter to be neat and to the point. 

I streamlined this newsletter and made it easy to read for parents.  I also added the calendar to give parents a quick way see what is up next for the classroom.  This helps communicate quickly and straight forwardly with parents.  I believe the messages I want to convey are being conveyed. 

Here are the front and back pages of my newsletter: