Communicate 3.2.1 The Newsletter

In recent posts I've discussed effective methods of communication including personal phone calls and mass communication via twitter and remind.  I also modeled two awesome digital tools- canva and mail chimp- for designing beautiful graphics, email newsletters, and other communication campaigns. In my attempt to showcase a variety of resources for effective communication in the virtual classroom, I am excited introduce three more tools today!

1. The smore Newsletter
Its easy interface featuring drag and drop tools makes smore a great option for building a newsletter.  What I especially love about smore is the ability to embed your digital flyer onto a website and share it across multiple social media!  I've been using smore in my own classroom for a few years now and it is an extremely effective medium for mass communication of course information as it translates beautifully on all devices and computers.

Click the following link to see my smore flyer live: https://www.smore.com/m04w1

2. The Homepage Scrolling News Reel using emaze

Using the same information and graphics as my smore flyer above, you can see how different the appearance is with a scrolling news reel.  Two features that I love about emaze is their ability to embed the autoplay presentations onto a homepage and their good selection of cool themes and templates.  I like how versatile the scrolling news reel is and how a virtual teacher has the capacity to change the theme without necessarily changing the mode of communication.

3. Interactive News using thinglink

For my final newsletter tool I am excited to showcase thinglink!  Although hesitant at first, when I began to work within their interface I was very pleased with how easy and straightforward it was.  I also like how you can link websites, images, videos, and more with the simple copy/paste of an url!  I believe thinglink would be an excellent way to communicate with students on your homepage... when the picture changes, students know to check out the news and updates.  Pretty cool!

***Special Note of Consideration:

Although I've showcased a variety of tools for effective communication, it is important that a virtual teacher be committed to whichever mode of communication they choose for the term or year.  In order to be truly effective and foster good communication with parents and students, a teacher must be consistent in how and when they share information.