Newsletters

Weekly Tips for Teachers by Teach-nology

Teach-nology puts out a great weekly newsletter. It’s a huge newsletter that gets delivered at the beginning of each week. There is a “In this Issue” table of contents list at the very beginning and then the items to follow. Each topic/item is shown below the table of contents with a link and a blurb describing what the focus is and the instructional implications. The topics are the same each week with different materials to go along with it. There is a quote every week and jokes you can tell in class. Both of these are great because teachers need to remember their sense of humor and to laugh every once in awhile. One of the best features of this newsletter is the useful websites for teachers. There is an Electronic Workbook of the Week that links to a theme based group of activities. This is one of the areas of the website that can either be really great or totally not apply. In other words, some weeks it may deal with elementary level themes, and other weeks it will be directed towards highschool. This is true for the whole newsletter. There are also links to teacher workbooks here, worksheets sites, online games, whatever was submitted that week. The only downfall is that a lot of the links take you to Teach-nology Gold Member areas, which means you have to pay to access the areas. The activities are well worth the money once you follow the links. In this newsletter, there is also a message board, a teacher poll and “this week in history.”

Recommendation: If you are willing to invest the money (I think it’s $20 a year) to become a teach-nology member, then this newsletter is totally worth subscribing to. You can also get a membership that you can use with your students so they can access the games and activities as well. To obtain this newsletter, go to www.teach-nology.com/newsletters.

About Education

“What You Need to Know About” puts out a different sort of newsletter. It is for people in education, not just teachers and sent out weekly. Each issue features 3 “spotlights.” These entries some how all revolve around a single topic with resources “from elementary to college, music, art, and of course, books.” At least one usually relates directly to the elementary level. Each “spotlight” has a blurb about the entry, a link to the actual article and the author. Those articles then have links to useful resources for that level/audience. This newsletter also has a “more topics” section along the side, that has a variety of useful links including tips for substitute teachers, study tips for students, educational trends, and elementary level activities. At the end of the newsletter each week, there are “top picks” of various topics such as books or educational toys. I think that aside from the spotlights that relate to the elementary level, the top picks are the best part of this newsletter. Each week, regardless of the topic, I’ve been able to find something useful from this section, and I especially have liked the book top picks!

Recommendation: This newsletter is well worth the space in your mail box. It’s not too much to deal with and quick to look at. Even though some weeks may not have useful pieces to it, when it does, they’re great. To sign up for this newsletter, go to http://specials.about.com/service/community/talk/newsletters.htm