BLOG 3!!! (Due NLT Monday, July 19, 2010)

Comprehensive Assignment:

For your comprehensive assignment, add a new posting to your blog in which you reflect on your learning this week. This posting should be between 400 and 500 words.

Review the different documents you hand out to your students and/or their parents (e.g., flyers, newsletters). On your blog, address the following:

• What makes the item visually appealing? What distracts from the message you are trying to communicate?

• Use a word processor or desktop publishing program to recreate the item and make it more effective. Save the file as a .jpg and upload it to your blog. (Note: You can change addresses, phone numbers, and names for your blog item.)
• If you are not yet teaching, you may use something you have developed for another purpose or you may make something new using what you have learned in this lesson.

I would say that the ideal newsletter needs to be simple, clear, and to the point. Adding extra little inspirational quotes and funny pictures and such will distract your targeted reader from the point of the newsletter in the first place. When I first started teaching, one of the first things I decided to do was produce a weekly newsletter. I spent a lot of time working on it, but I didn't get a lot of positive feedback from parents, and in the end, I gave up on the whole idea. I transitioned to communicating to my parents directly, via e-mail or letter. I'm willing to give newsletters another try in the future, but to be completely, unabashedly honest, no one expects a Special Education Teacher to produce a newsletter unless their students are in a self-contained, resource-type setting. The homeroom teachers usually produce the best newsletters for parents to use as a resource, and we really don't need to expend the extra energy with a duplicity of efforts.

Microsoft Word is probably going to become a thing of the past, as Adobe Acrobat has many awesome features for creating--and sharing--PDF documents.

I have tried a number of different formats for sending newsletters home with students. Students have also been given opportunities to write their own newsletters in a manner similar to a newspaper article.

I love the fact that there are so many different fonts and text features to utilize. Nevertheless, I do realize that some fonts are just too ridiculous to be practical, and I try to limit my students to one of the more easily legible fonts.

Text size makes a big difference. I usually use size 14 or larger, only because a 10 or 12 font is just plain way too small for most people's fatigued eyes. I am 32 years of age, but even I buy large print books just to alleviate or avoid eye strain.

The available options are truly a double-edged sword. On the one hand, you want to be creative and original. On the other hand, too much creativity will lends itself to confusion and frustration on the part of the reader. You want to be able to clearly and succinctly articulate yourself without the person reading your message to get distracted by all the fluff.

Newsletters usually look better/more professional if they are printed in color, although I would advise against using colored paper. Nearly every color I've used tends to diminish the clarity of the black ink text.

I learned a lot about Word Processing and Desktop Publishing this week, and whenever I learn something, I consider the lessons worth-while. I'm going to have to go back and re-read much of the material, though, for fear that I may have missed something. There's just so much to learn!

I realize that this blog posting may have gone beyond the required 400-500 words, but I felt that I had a lot to share on this particular topic. Plus, I'm gunning for an "A." ;o)