Online Newsletter/Handouts

[Cyndi Danner-Kuhn]

Teachers from the Trenches: My students are learning about an online Newsletter program called LetterPop. http://letterpop.com/ Have you use this tool and if so can you share any examples. Or if not do you have a tool you use. The PDF of the actual assignment they are completing is below.

TECS 390 Students: Post your reflection , link to your project and tell what standards it meets.

[Mathew Needleman]

I use Apple's program Pages so I don't find LetterPop useful to me. However, it does have comparable templates and makes good looking documents, much better than word.

[Michal]

Our first grade teacher sends me her newsletter weekly to put on her webpage. She uses MS Publisher, which is a very powerful program. http://www.usd492.org - go to classes, 1st grade. Likewise, I use MS Publisher to put my city newsletter online http://skyways.lib.ks.us/towns/Potwin - realize I live in a SMALL town and not much "news" happens! I can see where Letterpop could have it's uses - I may have to try it with my own class when they have to create a step-by-step tutorial on a Photoshop project.

[Mathew Needleman]

I'd add Printshop to the list of newsletter makers. It might be a little bit "old school" but it still makes very attractive newsletters and I've used it several times.

[Kara King]

I really liked this letter pop thing. It made some really cool newsletters, or you could use it to create other things as well. I know in my classroom right now that I'm doing my student teaching in, my students do monthly writing journals and I think this would be a really neat thing to use with them. The only thing I wish that it had was more pictures that you could use. The templates are wonderful and really neat. I am so glad that I have been introduced to letter pop. I am acutally going to share it with my cooperating teacher tomorrow morning!!!

http://www.letterpop.com/newsletters/?id=83357-60b0f9

[Jacque]

LetterPop Reflection

http://letterpop.com/newsletters/?id=82575-7ff213

This is a really cool free tool. I got on and played around for a little bit before beginning to create my project. For my project I decided to make a back to school newsletter. In this newsletter I included the rules, consequence system, and reward system for my classroom. I also included the website for the parents to see what standards and topics we would be covering during the school year.

It is pretty easy to use, but I think it helps to play around a little bit first. I like the templates and how easy it makes the process. I do not like however that the font sizes are set and that you can’t really adjust the font size much. Sometimes this makes it tough. I also wish that we could add more clipart than what we can. I also wish that we had a little bit more freedom in where we placed clipart and pictures. Overall, I like this tool, there are tons of backgrounds and different templates to choose from, and this will definitely make it much easier to make newsletters and handouts. I can’t wait to use this when I student teach and when I start teaching.

[Kristine Hepner]

I choose to make my newsletter a handout about Kansas history and facts. It can be used when you are beginning to study Kansas history. The front of the newsletter gives some brief information on Kansas history and facts and the back is information for the short assignment that I came up with that meets state standards. The standards that my newsletter meets is the history standard for grade 3: The student uses a working knowledge and understanding of significant individuals, groups, ideas, events, eras, and developments in the history of Kansas, the United States, and the world, utilizing essential analytical and research skills. Benchmark 2: The student understands the importance of the experiences of groups of people who have contributed to the richness of our heritage. Indicator 1: compares life in his/her community with another community. (e.g., population/location, jobs, customs, history, natural resources, ethnic groups, local government).

I really enjoyed making this newsletter with Letterpop. I think that it is fairly easy to use and there are a ton of options, which is nice! It is also great that it is free. I can see many uses for Letterpop for teachers. I will be using it more.

Link to newsletter: http://letterpop.com/newsletters/?id=82831-232810

[Angela Zordel]

I enjoyed using letterpop.com to make my newsletter. This is a great resouce for teachers and it's free. For my mini lesson in social studies I had my students go on a virtual field trip to Dwight D. Eisenhowers house in Abilene, KS. This is the standard for this lesson. History Standard 1: The student uses a working knowledge and understanding of significant individuals, groups, ideas, events, eras, and developments in the history of Kansas, the United States, and the world, utilizing essential analytical and research skills.

http://letterpop.com/newsletters/?id=83398-cd7794

[Ashley Sperry]

This was so fun to use and so easy to use. I plan to use this when I actually have my own classroom and need to send out newsletters to parents.
http://letterpop.com/newsletters/?id=83909-909be8


STANDARD 2: PHYSICAL SCIENCE Grades 3-4

PHYSICAL SCIENCE - The student will increase their understanding of the properties of objects and materials that they encounter on a daily basis. The student will compare, describe, and sort and classify these materials by observable properties.

Benchmark 1: The student will develop skills to describe objects.

[Amber Simon]

http://letterpop.com/newsletters/ambers/84164/

The above link takes you to my newsletter. I created the newsletter as if I was a third grade teacher. I decided that I would send out a newsletter every month to let the parents know what their child/ren are doing that month in school. My newsletter that I created was for the month of October so my theme was Halloween. Within the newsletter I let the parents know what we were going to be doing that month as well as the timeline for the Halloween Party. The standards that my letter addressed was writing standards for third grade as well as the art standards for third grade. In my letter I talked about how they had been creating a short research project on the different types of Pumpkins and the artwork the students had been working on. Overall I really enjoyed creating a newsletter online. It was very easy to use and the options for the background were endless. I can definitely see myself using this in the future.

[Amber Simon]

So the above link does not work for some reason so I created another and have tried it out and it works. Here is the link

[Amber Simon]

http://letterpop.com/newsletters/ambers/84366/

[Danielle Kocher]

Newsletter Reflection

I absolutely LOVE this website!! What a convenient way to make a newsletter for FREE!! WOW! I always avoided making newsletters because I didn’t want to deal with the margin settings using Microsoft Word. There are a variety of templates to choose from for almost any occasion. I chose to make a newsletter about a back to school picnic. I could see myself using a similar newsletter for my first teaching job. Older elementary school students could create their own newsletter to send out as well.

http://letterpop.com/newsletters/?id=84336-2ad572

Danielle Kocher