Newletters are a good way
to keep current in areas of interest. There are thousands of
newsletter to which you may subscribe. I have subscribed and unsubscribed to many newletters over the past several years as their usefulness to
me no longer existed.
I have begun to
develop my own selection criteria for educational internet subscriptions. The
first thing I look for is content relevance - how will
the newsletter help me enhance my teaching practices. If I
have to take valuable time to read the material, I want to be sure my time is
put to good use - that not only will I benefit, but so will my students.
Next, I want the information I receive to be current. Reporting on
information that is no longer relevant is a waste of time. I subscribe to
several newsletters which are sent on a monthly basis.
This is my personal outer time limit. Anything
published less than monthly contains old news which I
have more than likely already read. I prefer to
receive weekly editions. Daily newsletters are difficult to read due to
personal time constraints. The volume of material to sift through is
overwhelming. Weekly publication is best for me. The
news is current and the amount of information is manageable.
The last criteria
I have for newsletters is links. The newsletter is to only be a brief piece of information, a teaser if you
will. The links allow me to access further
information, if I want. I don’t want to have to slog
through masses of information to find the parts in which I am interested. I look for short annotations followed by links for more
information. The exception to this is in regards to the main topic or theme for
the issue. I have no preference as to whether or not
the main article is contained in the newsletter or a link is provided for
further reading.
Let’s look at the two
newsletters I chose for this assignment. The first newsletter is Jan Brett’s.
It is published by children’s author, Jan Brett on a
monthly basis and contains information regarding new updates to her webpage. The information is timely, it contains links to
various places on her website, and there are lesson plans on how to use her
books as part of instruction. The lesson plans are from teachers who have
developed and used the lesson plans. In addition there are monthly craft ideas,
which are interesting ways to help students perfect their skills in reading to
perform a task. The information disseminated is appropriate for use by students
and teachers. There are no links to past issues, as the purpose of the
newsletter is to update what’s new on the website.
The other newsletter is Carol
Hurst’s, published monthly. There are links to areas of interest on the
website. The website is dedicated to showcase recently
reviewed children’s books and providing educators with activities using
children’s literature within all curriculum areas. In addition, the site
contains a listing of all books reviewed by Carol Hurst. Each newsletter has an
article regarding the monthly featured topic.
I find both of
these newsletters useful to instruction. Both newsletters are relatively short
and easily read. The information contained is current and related to children’s
literature. Links to further information on the websites are
provided. Each newsletter provides links to monthly teacher created
activities. I read both of these newsletters monthly
and have found a wealth of information I have used in my classroom. If you haven’t run across either of them, I suggest you take the
time to explore what they have to offer.
