"Read All About It!"

Hi Again, 

I just want to start by saying that their was another page to this letter that did not attach when I converted from PDF.  I worked hard on it, so I'm attaching PDF to our discussion forum.  Here's a link that will bring you to both pages I created--letterpop--check it out! 

Designing letters like these to communicate with parents and other people in the academic community is a good way to show you are a caring and superb teacher.  Making something like this shows that you a serious about getting students and parents involved.  I'm not teaching yet, but many of the teachers I've interviewed have suggested that keeping a dialogue with parents is very important factor that determines how a student will do in school, and their class specifically. When a parent has information about what their child is learning, they will have more of a chance to ask that students how their learning is coming along.  

I think that something like this is a good way to communicate with parents because it is not derogatory, and is not trying to convey something negative about the student. Many teachers only call home if something bad has happened, such as a discipline or academic problem. We as teachers have to find avenues that create a positive relationship with parents.  Other ways we could do this is by writing a letter that says something positive about the students.  If they do well on a project or some other assessment. Other ways to communicate by phone, e-mail, or ever teleconference.  Phone or in-person is probably better than e-mail.  E-mail is so impersonal.  New ways to communicate would be skype, teleconference, or even a WiKi.  As a teacher, you can give parents your personal website address and post information about your class on the web.  Of course this newsletter is also a great way to enhance communication with parents, principals, and guardians. 

I chose Letterpop mainly because I liked their background templets. Scrapblog seemed only geared towards family photos and vacation templets. They were not that professional to me.  I also had an account already established with Letterpop from a prior assignment.  Letterpop just seemed more compatible for designing a newsletter.  The next time I do this I want to figure out how to design templets better, especially adding more slots for images and other features.  If I were to do this more frequently, I would gather parents e-mail address, so that I could mail them a letter every time we begin/end a unit.  I would do this on the first day of school, and keep the parents informed more often. Overall, I think that newsletters are a good way to establish a good dialogue with parents and guardians.