3 Tech Tips for Parent Newsletters

How do you share information with families during the school year? A parent newsletter is a great way to keep parents in the loop about what is happening in your classroom. A newsletter can include classroom stories, details about upcoming events, and suggestions for how families can support their children's academic growth at home.

Technology tools can make it easier for teachers to create newsletters that showcase the work students are doing in the classroom. Digital newsletters can also be sent directly to a family's inbox or smartphone and provide a more dynamic experience than a sheet of paper. The technology tips in this post are designed to help you explore the power of creating newsletters with technology tools.

1. Choose the Right Tool

There are different ways to create newsletters using technology tools. Take a moment to decide on your goals for your next newsletter. Do you want to show a gallery of photos from student projects? Do you want links that parents can click on? Do you want to share updates on a weekly or monthly basis? Do you want to create a newsletter that's friendly for parents with low or no technology access?

These questions can help lead you in the right direction when choosing a tool for your newsletter. Here are three of my favorites:

2. Continuously Capture Media

Sitting down to write and reflect about your month in school for a newsletter might feel intimidating. To make this task less daunting, set up structures for capturing media in the weeks leading up to your next newsletter. Snap pictures of student work with a smartphone or collect moments from a field trip with an iPad camera.

Invite students to be part of this process by asking them to submit a story for a newsletter or send their own digital pictures. Not only does this make your work of capturing media and stories easier, it also gives students a clear audience for their work. Of course, make sure that all of the appropriate permissions are in place for sharing student photos and work outside of the classroom.

3. Make a Plan to Share

Once you've created a newsletter, you want to make sure that it gets into the hands of families. Technology tools like Remind let you send home a link to a webpage (like the one you created with Spark Page) or attach a document (like the one you created with Pages). Remind also gives teachers the option to open communication so that parents can respond or ask a question about what they've read.

Another plan for sharing is attaching the link to your newsletter to a QR code. You might print out this graphic representation of a URL on sticker paper and attach it to a magnet or take-home folder. Families can scan the QR code with their mobile device to access your online newsletter. I'm a big fan of #ScannableTech and the strategies for using it in and beyond the classroom.

You might decide to send a newsletter home at the beginning or end of each month, or maybe you'd rather update a class website more frequently. Keeping parents in the loop about upcoming events and celebrating special moments is a wonderful way to bridge the home and school gap. If you've created a fantastic newsletter, share the link in the comments below!