Last week I met with a Teacher Librarian, Jen, about the idea of a Newsletter Club. The idea of the club came about when a bunch of her students approached her with the desire to create a school newspaper. She and I talked it over and thought, “Wait a second! A digital newsletter would be so much more fun!” Who needs print media these days? 😅
Over lunch, we sat down with the group of Grade 4-6 students and started planning our first issue. Here’s some of the things we did to make this process easy-peasy. 🫛
🛠️ Define Tools:
- Canva – If you’ve read our other posts, you know that we love this tool. We decided to use Canva for our Newsletter because it offers plenty of templates to work off of, graphics to choose from, and it allows all the contributors to collaborate in one space.
- Google Docs – Contributors will be responsible for writing their articles before submitting them to the Newsletter. We chose Google Docs for writing individual drafts and getting feedback. This way, the actual Newsletter design in Canva isn’t filled with multiple people typing multiple drafts at the same time. We tried it … it was chaos. 🤯
🧑🏼🎨🕵🏾 Define Roles:
- Co-Editors in Chief – Two students will be in charge of layout and final edits. This prevents having too many cooks in the kitchen and ensures that the design stays consistent between articles.
- Contributors – The other students in the group were excited about writing columns and will submit photography for their sections.
- Creative Director – In this case, the Jen will be able to focus on creative direction, proofreading, and supporting student efforts.
🔢 Define Workflow:
- Someone has to own the Newsletter project in Canva, so we decided that the Creative Director will be the one who starts the Canva project and invites the members of the Newsletter club to collaborate.
- Decide on a wireframe for the Newsletter. It’s important that the layout is confirmed before articles and photos are added. Fonts and colours, how big the text is, and layout should all be decided on before the content is added. This is the job of the Co-Editors in Chief.
- Add content! Contributors will copy articles into Canva from their drafts in Google Docs or photographs from their Google Drive.
- Adjust layout to work with content. The Co-Editors in Chief makes sure things are spaced correctly, aligned nicely, and are the same size throughout the paper.
- Download the Newsletter and distribute it via the digital channels in the school! The final step is owned by the Creative Director.
Here’s what they’ve come up with so far! Bravo, Newsletter Club! 🙌
Need ideas for what to do with all that leftover Halloween candy? 🍬
Here’s a recipe for Halloween Candy Cookies!