katybee
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Post by katybee on Nov 4, 2017 2:15:35 GMT
So it's a team website for all of the kinder teachers. It's for our common information (we are a very unified team--so almost everything is common). Off the main webpage, each teacher has their personal page for pictures, videos, etc. Once a month, I post a video of our class...I edit it and set it to music...it's the cutest thing ever. I just checked, it has 35 views...so at least people watch it. But I would never know since no one ever acknowledges it! No thanks..or "awww....that's so cute!" Just crickets. We also have to maintain a Class Dojo account. I send reminders about library books and due dates through that (text message). And at least 2-3 times a week I send pictures. Those get likes, so I guess people just prefer text message format. Oh yeah--we're also required to have a twitter account. But I don't. I refuse. I do enough.  There is a school wide newsletter (PK-5) that has info pertaining to all grades. But it's very generic. Sounds like a possible reason why parents aren't reading the newsletter is because its overwhelming. Between the various newsletters, websites, emails, texts, etc., it's information overload, and that is just for the kindergarten students. Imagine what parents with multiple aged students are receiving. Any way to consolidate all of this so that parents aren't receiving so many different forms of communication so often? It would take about 5 minutes a week--MAX--to read everything. I just don't get how that's asking too much... |
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Post by pattyraindrops on Nov 4, 2017 2:15:44 GMT
How can teachers get you to read the monthly newsletter? Warning...this is mostly vent. I understand that none of you have kids in my class (at least I don't think so). But I am curious....do you read your child's teacher newsletter or website? We we are required, by my principal, to maintain a grade-level website and update it by the first Friday of every month with a newsletter. I spent 2 hours working on the November edition after school today. I include important dates, reminders, announcements (book fair, Veteran's Day ceremony info, food drive info, Thanksgiving Lunch info, literacy night info...there's a LOT going on this month), etc. Then I include a little blurb about what we are learning in each subject and how parents can help at home: In math, we are learning blah, blah, blah. If you want to help at home you can blah, blah, blah. I always include helpful videos, links, etc. I write it in SHORT paragraphs and include lots of visuals. I understand that people are busy. Tonight, after I published November, I went to check october's stats. NINE people read it. NINE. We have over 100 kindergarteners. We send an email with the link---all parents have to do is click. We have a well-educated, even affluent community. What is even more frustrating is when parents email me and ask questions that were ANSWERED in the newsletter. I already work 60 hours a week. It would help if you would just read the FREAKING newsletter and I wouldn't have to spend time answering your questions. It it takes about 5 minutes to read the newsletter. A little longer if you explore the links (but I wouldn't want anyone to have to actually devote any time to their child's education).  Only nine people cared enough to read October. But I'll do it again in a month...because I HAVE to. As a cub scout den leader I've found email will rarely be read. I have to send things text or at least text that there is an email. Email has really become information overload for most people. I will often wake up to find 20 new email in my inbox and I have many, many other things sorted into other folders like "grocery ad". If it doesn't need to be done immediately or I can't take care of it very quickly it sits there in my inbox much longer than I ever mean it to. |
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Post by utmr on Nov 4, 2017 2:20:34 GMT
TL;DR. Honestly that’s how I feel. Too much info, too much to click through, too much. It’s not personal. But by the time you combine a job, multiple kids, multiple activities, dinner, laundry, bills, then multiple newsletters from multiple teachers all in different formats is simply overwhelming.
What I love is text messages. Picture day is Friday, wear your class shirt. Library day is tomorrow, bring your books back. Spelling test Friday, here is a link to the words. Project x is due Thursday, here is a link to the instructions. Short and sweet - data plus action item.
But if people reply to your message, for the love of Pete reply. Even if it is just to redirect them to the info. The teacher who answers gets all the love.
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Post by epeanymous on Nov 4, 2017 2:24:18 GMT
I do enjoy when teachers include pictures from class. I open newsletters anyway, but that does make me look through them more closely, I will admit.
A couple of things that I will say as notes: One, I find that once-a-week communication, *always on the same day*, is helpful. I am more likely to register an email if I expect it around the same time every week. Two, I appreciate it if the newsletter seems aimed at adults. Use too many !!!! and cartoon fonts and I will skip through the email for important dates and avoid the paragraphs.
My students are adults and I get a lot of questions that are answered in my syllabus or by emails that I send, so I feel your pain. I do think that one of the problems with our modern constant-communication-email-text-reminder-update system is that people assume that if it's really important, they'll get 10,000 notices about it, so they don't read any one thing closely.
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katybee
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Post by katybee on Nov 4, 2017 2:26:12 GMT
TL;DR. Honestly that’s how I feel. Too much info, too much to click through, too much. It’s not personal. But by the time you combine a job, multiple kids, multiple activities, dinner, laundry, bills, then multiple newsletters from multiple teachers all in different formats is simply overwhelming. What I love is text messages. Picture day is Friday, wear your class shirt. Library day is tomorrow, bring your books back. Spelling test Friday, here is a link to the words. Project x is due Thursday, here is a link to the instructions. Short and sweet - data plus action item. But if people reply to your message, for the love of Pete reply. Even if it is just to redirect them to the info. The teacher who answers gets all the love. What people forget is that teachers have lives, too. Teachers have a job, kids, activities, dinner, laundry, bills. I promise you, communication is done outside of school hours...we barely have time to pee during school hours. Why is the onus on the teacher to make it easier for parents? (Again--I'm venting. I'm tired and burned out). |
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Post by pattyraindrops on Nov 4, 2017 2:26:55 GMT
Another thing I thought of that was successful with my group. We sent out a separate email with dates and hyperlinked them with the ability for the recipient to be able to add it to their calendar from from the link. That was it, no paragraphs, no other links, just a list of dates/events with the links. It had a much higher open rate than our normal newsletter. People don't want to read, they want info in short, quick to scan blocks. Another thing to look at is what the information you send out looks in mobile devices. When I left my job, the tide was turning from people viewing the information on a desktop to mobile devices. If your info is not optimized for mobile viewing and can't be read, many people will not return to your info once on a desktop. So keep that in mind too. We have a google calendar tab with all the upcoming events. Parents can add it to their own google calendars. We use blogger. It is automatically formatted for mobile devices. I read it on my phone and iPad and it looks great. The problem with adding a whole calendar is that I don't want everything put on my calendar. I'll want parent teacher conferences. I won't want spelling tests. You can copy individual events, but that just starts to get time consuming. If there is a way to do individual events I would be all on that. |
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Post by pattyraindrops on Nov 4, 2017 2:28:29 GMT
TL;DR. Honestly that’s how I feel. Too much info, too much to click through, too much. It’s not personal. But by the time you combine a job, multiple kids, multiple activities, dinner, laundry, bills, then multiple newsletters from multiple teachers all in different formats is simply overwhelming. What I love is text messages. Picture day is Friday, wear your class shirt. Library day is tomorrow, bring your books back. Spelling test Friday, here is a link to the words. Project x is due Thursday, here is a link to the instructions. Short and sweet - data plus action item. But if people reply to your message, for the love of Pete reply. Even if it is just to redirect them to the info. The teacher who answers gets all the love. What people forget is that teachers have lives, too. Teachers have a job, kids, activities, dinner, laundry, bills. I promise you, communication is done outside of school hours...we barely have time to pee during school hours. Why is the onus on the teacher to make it easier for parents? (Again--I'm venting. I'm tired and burned out). I'm sorry. I didn't catch the vent. I was hoping we could give you something that would help you. Hugs. |
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katybee
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Post by katybee on Nov 4, 2017 2:30:41 GMT
What people forget is that teachers have lives, too. Teachers have a job, kids, activities, dinner, laundry, bills. I promise you, communication is done outside of school hours...we barely have time to pee during school hours. Why is the onus on the teacher to make it easier for parents? (Again--I'm venting. I'm tired and burned out). I'm sorry. I didn't catch the vent. I was hoping we could give you something that would help you. Hugs. No...it's all good info. I appreciate it. It's just frustrating that I try and make everything accessible and communicate and it's either too much or not enough and how can I spend more of my own time so parents don't have to spend their's... |
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Post by redhead32 on Nov 4, 2017 2:51:24 GMT
Is the newsletter for the entire school or specific to each teacher? I can tell you that when my son was at his K-8 school, it was difficult to read each teacher's web page, especially when he was in 7th and 8th grade and had multiple teachers. In addition, each teacher had various links to click on for different info. It was information overload and too fragmented IMO, especially as a parent with multiple children at the same school. In high school, we receive one monthly email that contains the newsletter. All important information is right there, easy for me to scan and read through. Additional links are included for specific topics. It's simple, concise and a way more effective form of communication. It's the kinder team newsletter. It's mostly stuff that is specific to kindergarten. There is a school wide newsletter (PK-5) that has info pertaining to all grades. But it's very generic. This could be contributing to the problem. In my case, I have 5 kids: 1 highschool, 1 middle school, 3 elementary. I get all of my newsletters electronically. So, every Friday, this hits my inbox: 1 highschool newsletter + 3-5 varied attachments 1 middle school newsletter + 2-3 varied attachments 1 elementary school newsletter (done as a smore newsletter, so no attachments) 1 5th grade newsletter, for the whole grade level at the school (4 sections) 1 3rd grade newsletter, for the whole grade level Last year, my daughter was enrolled in a private school. So add another 2 newsletters each week to that list. I read them. Well, I skim. And I know that all parents don't have 5 kids. I look for dates and then move on. But I'm not a huge fan, because it is so much. I will say that our elementary teachers use Remind, a texting app. A lot of our organizations use it too (soccer, knowledge bowl, etc). They text out a message when there is something to remind parents, and that is super useful to me. Our school also has an online presence, and we can find photos on on FB and Twitter but it is district wide (for the most part). Our actual web site stinks and I only go there to check grades and missing assignments for the middle schooler - so add that to my electronic weekly routine, because I do it at the end of the week to make sure he isn't falling behind. |
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Post by mrssmith on Nov 4, 2017 3:03:53 GMT
My son's teacher uses Class Dojo (1st grade). I like that OK. She also specifically asked us at conferences if we liked that method of communication.
My dd's teacher (4th grade) sends a weekly email about what they'll be doing during the week. Then our school has a brief email newsletter (one paragraph by the principal, a short calendar, 2-3 bigger reminders like about the fundraiser,etc). Then there's an FB page and a separate FB page for my DS's grade that one parent set up. We also get some flyers sent home.
Totally agree with making sure it can be read on a mobile device. If it's the kinder team's newsletter, can the teacher's rotate who is doing it each month?
You'll never get everyone to read it. If other teachers view it as too time consuming/not read, maybe join forces and share the stats with the principal.
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moodyblue
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Post by moodyblue on Nov 4, 2017 3:07:17 GMT
I get the vent. I used to send home more info than I do now. And I'd tell myself that at least I did my part, so that if someone wanted the info, it was available to them. I knew I couldn't make them read it or do anything with it, but at least I did my part. Now? I'm lucky we aren't mandated to do things like that, but I'm not a regular classroom teacher, so there isn't the same expectation of me.
I will also say, as the editor of print and electronic newsletters for a statewide professional organization and member of several others, I get a lot of emails with either newsletters or links to them - and I almost never click to go to a newsletter. I read it if the newsletter is IN the email, as is the one I edit, but don't if I have to click to another site.
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katybee
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Post by katybee on Nov 4, 2017 3:15:29 GMT
So I'm going to keep doing what I do.
I will publish my monthly newsletter. It will continue to have reminders, announcements, dates, and what we're learning. Parents can click on the link in the email or sign up to have it delivered directly to their email. I will also send the link via a Class Dojo text. That's it. Parents can choose to read it or choose not to. I already think I go above and beyond in order to communicate.
I will continue to update the google calendar,
I will continue to send pictures 2-3 times a week through Class Dojo. I will continue to send small reminders (like when library books are due, picture day, permission slips due, etc) through Class Dojo texts.
I will continue to post videos whether parents appreciate it or not.
I think that's enough. I've done my part. Now the parents have to do theirs,
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caangel
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Post by caangel on Nov 4, 2017 3:32:04 GMT
The video sounds very cool. Do you share it with your class and tell them you are sending their parents a link/copy? I could totally see a kid bugging their parent to see the video at home.
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Post by redhead32 on Nov 4, 2017 3:36:05 GMT
So I'm going to keep doing what I do. I will publish my monthly newsletter. It will continue to have reminders, announcements, dates, and what we're learning. Parents can click on the link in the email or sign up to have it delivered directly to their email. I will also send the link via a Class Dojo text. That's it. Parents can choose to read it or choose not to. I already think I go above and beyond in order to communicate. I will continue to update the google calendar, I will continue to send pictures 2-3 times a week through Class Dojo. I will continue to send small reminders (like when library books are due, picture day, permission slips due, etc) through Class Dojo texts. I will continue to post videos whether parents appreciate it or not. I think that's enough. I've done my part. Now the parents have to do theirs, Katybee, I'm going to say this as gently as I can. I'm a parent, and within the next year I'll be a teacher. If the parents who are reading your communications pick up on your attitude, it will shut down communication. And for the parents that aren't? You don't know their situation. We do the best we can. Some of us are juggling school, work, church, volunteer work, or other stuff. I don't think any parent sets a goal to be uninvolved or to make you feel bad. If anything, your issue is with your admin for requiring you to do this in a format that isn't targeted to the parents. Have you ever looked at Smore? If you do something like that, where you can combine the photos and the info (parents click a link to see it, and they will probably do it if you are including photos every week). You could combine a couple of the things you do, which might help you simplify. |
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Post by utmr on Nov 4, 2017 3:50:12 GMT
TL;DR. Honestly that’s how I feel. Too much info, too much to click through, too much. It’s not personal. But by the time you combine a job, multiple kids, multiple activities, dinner, laundry, bills, then multiple newsletters from multiple teachers all in different formats is simply overwhelming. What I love is text messages. Picture day is Friday, wear your class shirt. Library day is tomorrow, bring your books back. Spelling test Friday, here is a link to the words. Project x is due Thursday, here is a link to the instructions. Short and sweet - data plus action item. But if people reply to your message, for the love of Pete reply. Even if it is just to redirect them to the info. The teacher who answers gets all the love. What people forget is that teachers have lives, too. Teachers have a job, kids, activities, dinner, laundry, bills. I promise you, communication is done outside of school hours...we barely have time to pee during school hours. Why is the onus on the teacher to make it easier for parents? (Again--I'm venting. I'm tired and burned out). I’m not trying to pick on you, and I’m sorry if it came across that way. My communication frustration is related to the teacher who is not responding to emails after multiple emails over multiple days. She told another class to tell their parents to stop emailing her, so it doesn’t seem to be isolated. I’m sure this is not you. :-) It seems like the teacher with the text messages has them set up in advance to send at a certain time. It seems like she composed them at her convenience and sets the send time for the appropriate timing. I assume this is some sort of program they have. I don’t know what would be best. Personally, short simple and frequent would seem to work, at least for me. I hope you find a solution that makes your life easier. |
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Post by candygurl on Nov 4, 2017 4:09:14 GMT
My nephews kindergarten teacher sends out an email every Sunday night and there is a link right under her name. I check it when I can. Also, it’s not always right when she sends it but usually the next day or so. Hers is more of a weekly what we did and covered, not anything super important like field trips or parties, etc.
I don’t know how you can get parents to read more. Maybe mention it more or send home a paper reminder. Sorry!
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Post by crazy4scraps on Nov 4, 2017 4:30:49 GMT
I think you’re doing a lot! I can totally understand why you’re frustrated. I’m the parent of a second grader, and her teacher sends a weekly class specific email (usually on Fridays, but sometimes a day later) that outlines what they worked on in class that week, any upcoming important dates and events, that kind of thing.
I *REALLY* appreciate it, and yes, I actually take the time to read it every week because I do want to know what my kid is doing all day at school and what I can do to help continue that learning at home. Her teacher sends it out to the parents directly with a BCCed email so there’s no link to click, it’s all right in the email. I also check my kid’s take home folder daily and send back anything that needs signing, take care of money that needs to be paid online for field trips, etc. promptly. She sent home a hard copy of the newsletter for maybe the first couple weeks, and then stated in the newsletter that it would be switched to email only so look for it every Friday. One thing she did was asked all of the parents to actually reply to the first email so she knew everyone received it and read it.
The principal sends a weekly email that has more general school wide information so a lot of the info that pertains to my kid is repeated there, but I still read it. The school sends home a physical Friday folder with other flyers for school wide after school activities, STEM night, the walk-a-thon info, etc. that goes home to all families.
The PTA sends out an email once or twice a month with info that pertains to the PTA events, some of which are fundraiser things like which nights various local restaurants donate a portion of their sales to the school, community outreach stuff, etc.
Our school and our PTA both have school specific websites where all of this info can be looked up if anyone missed anything in the weekly emails, people can sign up to volunteer for different things like the book fair or the book swap, etc. The district also has a website with a calendar that has all of the important dates for the whole district in one place.
I personally wish our school used the ClassDojo site because not all teachers include photos in their newsletters but they all take them. My kid’s teacher last year included tons of photos in the weekly newsletter emails, this year her teacher doesn’t but she’s new to the school after a major district reshuffle so I’m giving her a pass on that. I appreciate what she does do to keep parents informed. I’m not on Facebook and wouldn’t want text message notes from school. I prefer something I can save and/or print out if needed for future reference, and I wouldn’t want to look at stuff like that on my phone because it’s just too small of a screen.
I think if I was a teacher and had such dismal open rates for the emails I was required to send and which are intended to be the primary means of communication, I would bring it up specifically during conferences and stress the importance of checking the weekly emails for pertinent classroom information. Since that ship has probably sailed, I would send home a physical flyer in the kid’s backpacks one more time and let the parents know that they really need to read the email every (whatever) day it’s sent because it includes important information about their child’s class and activities. I can’t imagine not wanting to take the time to know what is happening in my kid’s classroom especially in the younger grades where good study habits should be fostered and problems caught early.
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Post by betty on Nov 4, 2017 4:44:45 GMT
Lots of good advice on here. Just as an example of why parents don't participate and in no way saying this is why you have low participation, just another example. As a parent have NEVER participated in my middle school and high school kids' parent web sites to check grades and assignments because they require a SSN for the child as part of the sign up. I won't give out the SSN and I'm out of the loop.  |
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Post by mymindseyedpea on Nov 4, 2017 5:11:41 GMT
That's got to be frustrating. When going deeper into this (because, you know that's where I always seem to be  ) I'm feeling that the energy of obligation that's being put into these newsletters is not attracting others. Therefore I don't think it would matter what would be in them, even if it was the winning lottery numbers. There's a difference between reading something you "have to" read, and reading something you "want to" read. I'm not sure if I can think of anyway you can put a "want to" energy into your newsletters if you don't enjoy writing them. Maybe add something that you would enjoy sharing to shift this energy of it a little. Expectations may also create an unattractive energy too. It seems to go with obligation. So maybe something that goes with the "want to" energy when it comes to how you are looking for the newsletter to be received. I hope you find something that works out for you. |
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katybee
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Post by katybee on Nov 4, 2017 6:00:56 GMT
We have a google calendar tab with all the upcoming events. Parents can add it to their own google calendars. We use blogger. It is automatically formatted for mobile devices. I read it on my phone and iPad and it looks great. The problem with adding a whole calendar is that I don't want everything put on my calendar. I'll want parent teacher conferences. I won't want spelling tests. You can copy individual events, but that just starts to get time consuming. If there is a way to do individual events I would be all on that. In google calendar, all you have to do is click on an individual event and say add it to my calendar. It's super easy... |
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Post by dasmith2 on Nov 4, 2017 10:04:57 GMT
I love getting my son's weekly newsletter. (7th grade) each teacher has a breakdown on what they are working on that particular week, as well as important school information. It is my go to to stay informed because I sure don't hear anything from my 12 y/o lol. Our school and teachers are really great about keeping lines of communication open and parents informed. It's up to the parents to take advantage of that!
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wellway
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Post by wellway on Nov 4, 2017 10:33:48 GMT
When my DD was in primary school(UK) we got a weekly newsletter, every Friday, the children got a hard copy to bring home, a copy was emaied to parents and it was also available on the website. I loved getting it and reading it. I would even forward it to my parents when it featured my DD.
It was a small school, less than 200 pupils from 4 to 11 so the newsletter covered the whole school, it was never more than two sides of an A4 sheet of paper. It featured photos of the chldren doing various activities, who had visited the school, projects the children had completed (come and look at them in the hall)etc. It had diary events down the side for the upcoming months and it even celebrated parents who had completed fundrasing events. The diary events were coded, anything in bold was a new addition to the diary and anything in blue was happening the following week.
Extra photos were added to the website by class.
If a parent didn't know what was happening in school it was not for the want of trying on behalf of the school. The school secretary pulled the newsletter together.
Honestly, I would monitor the stats and suggest others do the same, if the numbers do not increase you then have a case to suggest to the head that a new method of communicating should be explored. As a parent I would be concerned that so much of teachers time is spent on this task. As a head he/she should be concerned that a communication method is not effective.
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Post by *sprout* on Nov 4, 2017 11:22:19 GMT
As a parent, I rarely read class websites. There's her regular class, library, music, art, and the school. I would love for her regular class newsletter to be sent to my inbox. I don't want to click on the link. I don't want to have to add my own email. I just want the newsletter.
Here's an idea -
DD's school librarian had a reading contest on his website this summer. Super simple, super easy with a fun prize but I missed it. Why? Because I did not read the website. Guess what I'll be reading all summer long? His website.
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Kerri W
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Post by Kerri W on Nov 4, 2017 11:53:39 GMT
In the example you shared you gave the parents MORE to do. Try phrasing it as an option not directing them to do it. I tell this to my DD (who is a teacher) all the time " you're using your teacher voice." What I mean is that I'm not a kindergartener. You don't need to give me a list of directions to follow. 'You might find this interesting' or 'children seem to love'... are good phrases.
I receive a lengthy newsletter with multiple links from the parent association for my college student. I'm interested. I have conversations regularly with him about what's going on. I very very briefly skim the newsletter and then use it as reference. I don't read it thoroughly and it's not a sign I'm uninterested. My middle school student's info comes from an all-call every Sunday night at 6:00. LOVE this! Our elementary mainly communicates through a classroom Facebook page, Dojo and some teachers text. Much better options. I rarely use email personally or professionally.
You stated many times you're burned out. It shows. Stop blaming the parents and realize you're not using the most effective tool for communication. Try other options--several good examples in this thread. Approach your principal and show them the stats and see if they're on board with finding a better option.
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Post by Linda on Nov 4, 2017 12:06:20 GMT
Lots of good advice on here. Just as an example of why parents don't participate and in no way saying this is why you have low participation, just another example. As a parent have NEVER participated in my middle school and high school kids' parent web sites to check grades and assignments because they require a SSN for the child as part of the sign up. I won't give out the SSN and I'm out of the loop. yeah - I don't have access to the grade portals for either of my kids because they require a notarised form...and with kids with straight As, I can't be bothered |
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peabay
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Post by peabay on Nov 4, 2017 12:22:15 GMT
Dude, you are preaching to my choir. I could write a book on all the stupid questions I've received (and attacks) as PTA president that could've been answered if someone had just 1. read an email or 2. subscribed to an eblast. I produce our high school theater productions and the emails I get would make your head explode ("how dare you not advertise auditions for the play. It's obvious you just only want all the 'theater kids' to audition and no one else." "Um, there were posters all over the school and audition announcements ran for three weeks in the e-blast and on the announcements." "Oh. I guess I should sign up for the eblast. How do I do that again?")
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Deleted
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Aug 18, 2025 21:00:38 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2017 12:27:07 GMT
We always have but we are the minority not majority.
Remind is a great app and the middle school teachers use it a ton. We get messages from our daughters team all the time. Test tommorrow, spirit week, study vocab and so on. It a quick text message and they do them whenever they need to.
It's way simpler for some than to go search a website or find a piece of paper.
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Post by Merge on Nov 4, 2017 12:29:43 GMT
I hear you! I have a beautiful class website and blog that show regular updates about what we're doing in music class, including information about upcoming programs. The website is linked from my listing in the staff directory. I get a handful of visitors, and a ton of questions about where/what time at program time (and yes, I also send home paper copies of all the information because I know some of my families don't have internet at home).
I use Remind to send text updates, including links to the website, to choir parents, and get complaints that I don't communicate enough.
I think people are so bombarded with information these days that it's impossible to reach many of them.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2017 12:38:45 GMT
I used to have the same thing with the monthly newsletter I’d send. Some people just never bothered reading it. After a while I stopped doing the newsletter and just listed hw online. If if it’s any comfort, the nine people who read your newsletter are very appreciative, I’m sure.
As far as that nice mixed media presentation you make - I found people loved all the extras I used to do and fought to get their kids into my class but seldom thought to say thank you. I’ll bet you are a popular teacher!
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ellen
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Post by ellen on Nov 4, 2017 12:39:28 GMT
I'm also a teacher. I just don't know that it's a good use of a teacher's time to keep up a web page. I honestly think that parents just forget about it. You have evidence to support that websites are not an effective way to communicate with parents. I'd share that with your administration. Teachers at my school use Class Dojo or Remind to send out reminders to parents. I use Remind. It's slick and doesn't take up much of my time to use. I think your school should look into something like that. You'd like it.
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) I'm feeling that the energy of obligation that's being put into these newsletters is not attracting others. Therefore I don't think it would matter what would be in them, even if it was the winning lottery numbers. There's a difference between reading something you "have to" read, and reading something you "want to" read. I'm not sure if I can think of anyway you can put a "want to" energy into your newsletters if you don't enjoy writing them. Maybe add something that you would enjoy sharing to shift this energy of it a little. Expectations may also create an unattractive energy too. It seems to go with obligation. So maybe something that goes with the "want to" energy when it comes to how you are looking for the newsletter to be received. I hope you find something that works out for you. 
