Extra! Extra! Creating & Coordinating an Elementary School Newspaper – Publishing
Written by: Jim Jeffries
Hopefully you have read the first three editions of my blogs about how to create and publish an elementary school newspaper. If you have not, please read those blogs first, then come back to this one. This edition is about how to publish the newspaper for your school and community.
My elementary school’s newspaper, The Fairview Review, is published each month on copier paper. I have seen other schools use an outside printing company. A school newspaper that actually looks like a real printed newspaper would be amazing. However, my school newspaper has zero budget. Using the school copier is one of the easiest things to do, but it can be very time consuming.
When I first started using Google Slides at Fairview to publish the newspaper, I would send 300 plus copies of the paper to the copier and walk down to the copier to get the printing started. I would sit down with a stapler and hand staple each of the 300 plus copies. Yes, hand staple!!! I tried multiple times to mess with the settings to have the copier staple each copy. But, I had zero success. I even contacted our technology department, and still no success. I hand stapled each month’s newspaper for the first two and a half years. In the middle of the third year, I tried again. This time, jackpot! I found a way to get the newspaper stapled by the copier. This cut my publishing time down immensely.
As the copier is printing the stapled copies of the newspaper, I gather a pile and start distributing them into each teacher’s mailbox. We send home communication folders each Monday, so I try to have the paper published by the last Monday morning of the month.
“ With the emphasis on sharing things on various social media platforms, I encourage you to turn your copy of the newspaper into a PDF file and share it on your school’s social media pages.”
With the emphasis on sharing things on various social media platforms, I encourage you to turn your copy of the newspaper into a PDF file and share it on your school’s social media pages. This is a great way for parents and guardians to stay connected with the school. I share my school newspaper with families on Classroom DoJo, the communication app our school uses to get information out to parents. Another bonus of using social media is families get to see the newspaper in color, instead of a black and white printout.
“Running a school newspaper does take a lot of work. But, this is a valuable experience for students, especially high ability students.”
Well, that’s it. By now, you should have already started your elementary school newspaper or are planning to start it next fall. Running a school newspaper does take a lot of work. But, this is a valuable experience for students, especially high ability students.
My school has a grant which pays teachers to conduct extra curricular activities. Check with your building principal to see what funds might be available. Please do not make this the reason why you do or do not start your school newspaper. To me, this is just an added bonus for doing something important for my students and school.
After you publish your first newspaper, please share it with me. I would love to exchange monthly copies of our newspapers to help me gather ideas to make my newspaper better. My email address is jjeffries@rcs.k12.in.us.
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