LetterPOP and Online Newsletter Tools

[Cyndi Danner-Kuhn]

Teachers from the Trenches: We are learning about LetterPOP (http://letterpop.com). Have you used this or some other online newsletter tool. Could you share some examples of how you use these tools?

Students: Please reflect on your experience with LetterPOP and share the link to your published project as well as the link to your website.

[Shalon Ragnoni]

I decided to do a newsletter for my class discussing what has occurred over the past week and then what is up and coming for the following week. For the students, they like to know so of the fun projects coming up and so I included a heads up on a gum project we are going to be doing. It is an integration between courses

Science 3rd grade 2.1.1 2.1.3
Third Grade 2.4.1

http://www.letterpop.com/newsletters/?id=99317-5bc50d

I think this would be wonderful to use in a class or to even have students create. It is fast and easy, with good templates.

[Christine Cannon]

I know that I struggled more with figuring out what to create than actually creating this newsletter. I really think that it is important to involve parents and keep them informed about what we are doing in school, so I loved this site. It will make it so easy to make monthly newsletters and even quick notes to parents. There were a few limitations that I had to work around, but for a free site I really can't complain. I also think that it will help make my website look more professional.
I created a newsletter about an upcoming field trip. I included some things that we were going to do with what we learn on our trip. One is for the class to create a book of poems about the animals for them to read through out the year. I don't have any experience with standards but I would guess that it would be (for third grade) Standard 1 Reading: The student reads and comprehends text across the curriculum, Benchmark 2: The student reads fluently, Indicator 2. For the technology benchmarks, I would say
2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments: a. design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.
http://letterpop.com/newsletters/?id=99662-b5523c

[Danielle Dinkel]

This was fun, but I did get very very frustrated with the templetes it would of been very nice to be able to move pictures around where i wanted them and be able to undo would of be a nice feature also. I do plan on using this site for my classroom to make newsletters it was and fun.

http://letterpop.com/newsletters/?id=99678-15d369
http://danielleslearningcenter.pbwiki.com/

[Jenny Smith]

Hi Everyone!

I enjoyed using letter pop it made everything look so professional! I did have one problem making an edit. My front page used to have Mrs. Smith 3rd Grade Social Studies on it. I realized when I posted here I spelled Social Studies wrong, when I corrected it, it just deleted and I could never get it back?! I have the lesson plans and standards to go with the assignment. Putting the assignment on a letter pop this way makes it much more appealing and exciting to the student, don't you think!

http://letterpop.com/newsletters/?id=99785-542a90

[Traci Wood]

I found letter pop easy to use. I don't have complaints about moving the templates around. I need direction for my creativity, don't have any is what I'm trying to say. I did have some pictures I wanted to use that were way too big and wouldn't work, but for the most part, it was easy and fun to use. I just made a mock beginning of school newletter.
http://letterpop.com/builder.php?newsletter_id=99694

[Karen Lee Loudon]

I loved this way to create a newsletter. As a teacher, one could be drafted up in no time. I will be using this for many different reasons. I called my mom and told her to get her Christmas letter written because I know what I will do for her. I love this class!!! I can't imagine what all there is still out there to learn.

I had a couple of problems, but I will e-mail them with my problems when I have more time. I got the picture and text switched around and could not figure out how to get it back for a long time.

Here is my address... http://www.letterpop.com/newsletters/?id=100481-f40654

[Colleen Szymaniak]

http://letterpop.com/newsletters/?id=100129-d2a10b

This is yet another really cool tool!! I had some troubles loading clip art to my newsletter but figured out a way around it. I would use this "Fast Fact" newsletter to promote interest in reading books for my students. Sometimes if they can relate to the book or the author, they might be more interested in reading. This would follow several of the reading standards.

[Carrie Schreiber]

I am not overly impressed with this website! It seemed like it would be a great tool when I first began to develop my newsletter, but I grew quite frustrated with how rigid the site is. There was no room to "play" with the layout or to change the pictures that were originally there. I also was not allowed to change the font, font size or color. I am wondering if it is because I use a Mac, but I don't have access to a PC, so I am not 100% sure. I would use this program in a pinch if I wanted something very generic, but would rather use a program I can have a little more control over.

Standards:
Math: Standard 1: Number and Computation
Benchmark 1: The student demonstrates number sense for whole numbers, fractions, and money using concrete objects in a variety of situation.
Indicator 5: Identifies coins (pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters) and currency ($1, $5, $10) and states the value of each coin and each type of currency using money models.
Indicator 6: Recognizes and counts a like group of coins (pennies, nickels, dimes)

http://www.letterpop.com/newsletters/?id=105638-0a8f63

[Brittany Kratzer]

I really liked this website. I found that it was very easy to use, and it would be a great way to publish a newsletter to parents. I liked the use of the templates, but I wish that they weren't so confined. I found it tough to get pictures to fit nicely into the boxes given. I am glad that there were so many template to choose from. In the future that will make it easy to create many newsletters. I think I could also have fun creating a Christmas letter using this!

My project is about the 2008 Presidential Election and is a newsletter to parents telling them about some activities for the semester that include the election. I didn't include standards on the newsletter, but Benchmark 4 of Civics-Government Standard for 5th grade includes the right of voting. I also feel that this is a very open-ended project and can be adapted to many grade levels.
Here is a link:
http://letterpop.com/newsletters/?id=106152-daa2ef

[JENNIFER HILL]

Here is my newsletter. I was amazed with how easy it was to create everything. It was great already having a format there so all you had to do was plug everything in. I can say that I had no difficulty doing this project, yeah. This is something every teacher should utilize.
http://letterpop.com/newsletters/?id=99339-504e38

[Christa Bergmann]

This website was so fun and creative to use that I was very suprised! It so different that you can do almost anything. I wish that there were more options of how your page layout could be but other than that it was great!

http://letterpop.com/newsletters/?id=106450-b7eda2

[Kale Schields]

The following link is to the LetterPop I created. It is a newsletter to the parents in my 6th grade class. It brings them up to date with some of the things we have accomplished the first half of the school year, plus, it gives them a heads up to what the kids will be focusing on learning when they come back from Christmas break and start the new year. I can see myself using this more and more in the future. It really is a great resource!
http://www.letterpop.com/newsletters/?id=106854-976ee5

Here is the link to my website I have created. http://sites.google.com/site/kaleschields/