Made 4 Math Monday: Syllabus/Newsletter Image

I am currently reading The Essential Conversation for the #ClearTheAir chat on Twitter, which focuses on communication between parents and teachers. Newsletters were mentioned quite a bit and so I threw out a question to Twitter.

Question for those who send out class newsletters...how do you do it for multiple preps? And how do you do it for math? Even I wouldn’t to read a newsletter about what math skills are taught each week.

What else would I talk about?

— Elissa Miller 🦄 (@misscalcul8) August 3, 2019

I got a lot of great responses and it really motivated me to try it out. I've tried various different forms of a syllabus over the years but not sure how effective they are. Sophomores-seniors have had me already so they know the rules and routines. I really only need them for freshmen and even then I am not sure they are helpful.

So I created a template that will serve as my syllabus and then my newsletter. I made thiscute Polaroid photo frame that says Happy 1st Day! on it and will take a "first day of school" picture of every student.

I also made velcro speech bubbles for each grade and an arrow that says "My Last" for seniors. Then I will print each photo out and mail it home with this letter to the parents:

Hopefully the parents will e-mail me and then I will use their address to send out a newsletter.

Here is the syllabus:

I made it in powerpoint but saved it as a png file (when testing this out, GIF and JPEG both didn't load correctly on my phone). Now it acts as picture so that I can text it out through Remind or send it as an inline photograph through e-mail. 

Here's how I would change it to act like a weekly(ish) newsletter:

The changes are adding in a quote of the week, celebrating birthdays for that week, and then under each course I would list quizzes or tests or new skills.

I also made a second page where I can attach class photos:

So the first week I would send out the 'syllabus' from the first picture. Then the following weeks after, I would send out the the last two pictures. Gmail made this even easier by allowing us to schedule e-mails. I plan on scheduling it to go out on Sundays, which means I have the whole week to put it together.

If interested, here is the powerpoint link (font is KG All of Me):