Parent communication and involvement is a HUGE help in the classroom. My belief is that most parents DO want to be engaged in their child's education journey. However, they either don't know how to be engaged or they have extenuating circumstances that keep them from being able to do so. A newsletter can help in both of these situations.
A newsletter is a tool that can be used to communicate what they students are doing, have done or are going to be doing in the classroom. They can also include information for parents to come help in the classroom or information that will help the parents know how to engage with their student at home about the material they are learning at school. A digital newsletter can save a lot of headache for the habitually irresponsible child. It can just be emailed to the parents to avoid the black hole that is the book bag. A digital communication can also provide a quick turn-around time with information. Instead of waiting to send home a newsletter, hope that it gets there, wait for parents to see it, and the communicate back, which could take more than a day, an email or other electronic newsletter is delivered in normal circumstances, instantly and can be replied to instantly.
There could be real benefit in teaching children how to create a newsletter also and about the elements of graphic design. One benefit that comes to mind is having each child create a newsletter that showcases what they individually learned that week, which could then be copied back to back with the teacher's classroom newsletter. This would be a way for them to showcase what they know and keep them engaged in what they are learning. It would also help them to have something to dialogue with their parents about that is more personal and meaningful than what the teacher may offer.
When our students know how to make newsletters, they are able to create them for the class instead of something that you create for the class. It would provide a way for them to take leadership in and ownership of the classroom. If all the students know how to make a newsletter, they could take turns working in small groups to create the classroom newsletter.
Teaching students how to make newsletters could also provide them with a way to present information for other classes. They could take the information learned in science and create a newsletter with it.
Having a collection of newsletters would also provide a snapshot of what each week of that grade was like. This is something that could be helpful for the reflective parent who likes to archive each school year. It could also be helpful for the me as a teacher to see what I am teaching this year compared to last year.
Overall, I think newsletters, whether formal paper printed format or contemporary electronic format, are a valuable and necessary tool that teachers can use to connect with parents and caregivers of the children in their classroom.
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