“Will you take over the School Newsletter?”
Initially, I was over the moon at this proposition and accepted without thinking too much about how challenging it might be. It ended being quite an endeavor, but one of my favorite adjunct duties as a teacher to date!
I was an English major in college. I love to write. I really missed that aspect of my education and was elated to take over this duty in particular. However, I learned that writing a newsletter was much more then just the writing piece! I enjoyed every bit of the challenge.
First off, I inherited what was a lovable, but outdated template. I decided to take what was there and update the fonts and put in our new school logo, using Microsoft Word. Looking back, I would have used Adobe InDesign, but I think it turned out well enough!
I also noticed something that would need to be advocated for. There was no section describing what our Special Day Classes were up to! I reformatted the pages to fit a section for their classes.
The process:
After a very basic refresh to the look the newsletter, I created the first page with the help of my administration. I wrote and edited the first page sections on my own, and had my principal check for any thing else she would like to add.
I then collected all entries from grade level leads on updates for what their scholars had learned so far during the year. Some teachers formatted their entries into paragraphs, some gave me a few bullet points, and some let it slip their mind and gave me a verbal run down as they walked their kiddos in from recess. I communicated the end product to them to be sure it was accurate. I took what was given minimal or not, and molded it into what you will see below!
After gathering all the information, I then began the editing and copy editing process. This took the longest amount of time. I wanted to be sure to convey to community members all the achievements of our hard working scholars. I also was sure to find a translator to allow our Spanish speaking community to engage with our updates.
After all of that, it was finally finished! Can you believe I did this three times a year? It was so satisfying to receive that fresh stack of newsletters I wrote come in from printing. In my next role, I hope to be able to put my writing skills to use!
Here’s an example!
Alyssa Macedo 