Classroom newsletter
Sway is a great way to share what's happening in class or around school. Many educators use Sway for a classroom newsletter. Sway lets the classroom educator share more than just announcements and text-based information. With Sway, educators and schools can share pictures of what's happening in class, videos of student activities, embed surveys to gather information, and archive the newsletters for future reference.
Scroll through this sample newsletter to see how one educator uses Sway as a classroom newsletter.
After the newsletter is set up with heading cards (including the school logo), the next step is to add cards with text. This is where people will read the digital story. Text can be formatted for emphasis as needed. Text formatting includes:
- Emphasis - this is the same as putting something in bold
- Accent - similar to italics
- Bullets and numbers - ways to make a list or steps to follow
- Link - link out to other content from the newsletter
Another card type is the image card. This card adds pictures to your newsletter. Images can be added from your device, OneDrive, or by searching online (just like the background image on the heading card). Images can also have captions. Captions are a way of adding to the digital story by describing the image. The same formatting options found on the text card are available for the caption. When the Sway is viewed, the captions can be selected and read by the viewer.
The newsletter now has headings, text, images, and other content to make it engaging and meaningful to its audience. But nothing is less impactful than a newsletter that is not being read. To know if your audience is being reached, Sway includes analytics. Analytics let you know if your digital story is being viewed by parents or students. Select Analytics from the dashboard to view all your Sways and their viewing data. You will learn if people have glanced at the Sway, gave it a quick read, or spent more time giving it a deep read. This data can help you when preparing future newsletters.
Professional journal
Go back to the Sway you were creating and add text and images to the "Who am I?" section. Have one text card that gives a brief biography. Next include image cards that contain pictures of you. For each picture you add, include a caption describing the picture. Once you add the content, view your Sway by selecting the Play icon in the top right corner. How does your story look so far? If you want to make changes, select the Edit icon and continue editing.