Hi everyone! I was recently hired as a 5th grade teacher. I just graduated so this will be my first year teaching! I have a lot of ideas I want to incorporate into my classroom, but I am struggling to figure out specific details of all of my plans! I want to create a monthly newspaper for my classroom so that families are kept up to date with everything going on during that month. This will also serve as an engaging way to have students looking forward to writing, as they will take turns creating the different articles that will be featured in the newspaper. Writing skills are one of the weaknesses my students face. I was wondering if anyone has done a classroom newspaper before and would like to offer any tips you have for me! How many articles should be included? A fair way to decide who writes in each issue? Specific article topics that could be included? (I was thinking one on each main subject... math, reading, writing, ss, and science.. then also an article featuring "my favorite activity this month was..." and "Next month, I am looking forward to...") Any extra advice or comments would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks in advance.
I'm actually starting a classroom newspaper myself this year. I found a ton of resources on the web that were helpful by just searching "making a classroom newspaper". Here are some: http://www.naafoundation.org/CreatingAClassroomNewspaperNAA.pdf http://www.avln.org/resources/projects/ITC_Bobbi_Blanzy.pdf http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=249 Hope this helps.
I love this idea. I have been wanting to do a monthly newsletter but couldn't seem to fit everything on there I wanted! Thanks!
Thanks for the links! I tried doing this a few years ago and it never seemed to come together the way I hoped. I would spend the first week of the month to put together the newspaper that would talk about what students did the previous month. I had sections on all the content areas and then there were ones where students would interview a couple classmates, talk about our character trait of the month, discuss projects that we were working on, share the ways we were using technology in the classroom, etc. I could never get enough of the articles published by the end of the week and it just became a huge nightmare most of the time. So I gave it up after a couple months. I have decided to have a classroom blog this year where either myself or my students will type up a paragraph talking about what's going on in the classroom. I haven't figured out the specifics on how that will work yet. I got the idea from Mr. Coley's website.
I do this too (original idea from Mr. Coley) . My kids are called "Jensen's Journalists" and everyday one person is required to report what happens throughout the day. You can see our blog here: http://jensensjournalists.blogspot.com/
Do you find that some students don't do their write up if it's their day to do so? My concern is that some students wouldn't do it and then I would have nothing to post for that day.
Yes, that definitely happens. I was thinking of having two Journalists a day next year for cases exactly like that. Than we would also be able to compare what they wrote and get two points of view. However, they must also remember that this is for a grade. :unsure:
That's my concern with doing the daily blog ... that some kids just won't do it. I guess I'll have to give some serious thought as to how I want this program to run if I do it this way. Thanks!
I'm actually going to be a new teacher too and wanted to do something similar to a newsletter to send home. I think for the sake of having already a TON to do that I might hold off for a year and get settled with my curriculum and procedures. I'm wondering if perhaps it would be easier to have a web-site newsletter... but then I'd have to worry about posting up classroom pics on the internet... that can get messy.
If you're worried about posting pictures, get parental permission before you post any on your site. I have found that there might be one or two parents that don't want their children photographed but the rest never seem to mind. Just make sure to not post student names with the pictures to protect their identities.
