How to Build Confidence in Students

I watched the movie "Eighth Grade" last night and I found it informative and relatable for teens, with splashes of humor at times. The main character, Kayla, is in her last week of middle school and preparing to transition to the high school. The movie shows the ups and downs of Kayla's week,  from her interactions and posts to social media platforms all the way to her face to face interactions with her peers, high school students, and her dad. I thought the main message was the way that Kayla gained confidence in herself, during a time in life where it is important for young females to begin cultivating and feeling confident. One thing that Kayla noticeably lacked in the movie was the presence of a mother, who often times can help to cultivate this in a young female. The father is tasked with being supportive to Kayla.

There were several reasons Kayla developed the confidence in herself. One way was from within through personal reflection. She did this several times, via vlogging on YouTube and also recording videos to her future self. Another way Kayla developed confidence was from the relationship she formed with a high school mentor who was sweet and friendly towards Kayla and gave really good advice about not worrying about "the small things." A final reason Kayla developed confidence was from the loving and imperfect relationship she had with her dad. Her dad struggled to engage with her in the beginning because Kayla was allowed to be on her phone at the dinner table and they faced challenges in connecting in person. After Kayla breaks down and is vulnerable with her dad about her lack of self confidence (she asks her dad if she makes him sad), her dad's response is full of love and respect and pride in Kayla. His response was perfect, considering he made some poor parenting choices throughout (spying on her at the mall for example; but he apologizes!). He explains to her that her kindness comes from within. This is a really powerful idea to instill in a young person. In my opinion, this is the first step in Kayla becoming a more independent thinker and a large boost in self confidence and deriving from within rather than relying on it from others.

It's often that I hear people comment on younger people and their addiction to technology and it's rare that I hear them see the good in the use of technology. While I don't necessarily love the idea of deriving self confidence from selfies and vlogging for the world, I think in the right circumstance and with balance, they can be powerful tools for young females. One of the ways this works, according to USA Today.com, is that "users remember what they like best about themselves." Some other benefits that the article mentions is that people have found support online in times of stress or sadness and social media has helped to reduce some of the stigma around mental health. Read more here via the article. 

What we can learn about netiquette from drunken pirates ⚓

Prompt: Digital citizenship includes modeling appropriate communication skills and being a productive digital citizen. Locate an article or blog post online written about the importance of digital citizenship, including perhaps a topic of controversy surrounding the use of technology in schools. Your blog post should include:

Link to article: ‘Drunken Pirate’ Lawsuit Rejected (December 2008)

My article summarizes an instance where a Millersville undergraduate student was denied her education degree for supposedly posting photos on Facebook of her dressed as a pirate and holding a red solo cup and was captioned as a “drunken pirate.” The article was written by Lancaster Newspapers from 2008. The true story came to light after the initial headlines where university officials explained that the denial of her degree was not due to the post but instead, due to her insufficient completion of her student teaching. Regardless of this outcome, the article circulated quickly throughout Millersville, where I was attending as a junior in the education major. Many students were quick to clean up their profiles so that none of their photos or posts could be misconstrued. Some went as far to delete their accounts until they have found a contracted teaching job.

The main takeaway for me as a student is different from how I would think about this article from the lens of a school leader. I think it’s critical for school leaders not only to model appropriate use of social media for their staff and school community, but they should also be proactive in educating teachers about how to protect themselves online and especially regarding social media. This is sometimes referred to as “netiquette.” Some may argue that this isn’t the job of a school leader but as times have changed, I think it’s important to acknowledge the changes and help teachers to navigate them, just like we do for our students. This doesn’t have to take the form of exact measure that teachers must take, but there can be recommendations made that are based on educational journals and research that will help teachers protect themselves.

I don’t know of any schools today that do not have a Learning Management System and access to some technological devices. This creates a need for a netiquette protocol that should echo the school’s mission, values, and policies. I think it makes a lot of sense to develop a netiquette protocol for the district, and then plan professional learning for teachers about the netiquette. Schools aren’t on their own in developing a protocol. There are tons of open online netiquette protocols to review what other schools are using, such as Rasmussen College and Duquesne University.

Numbers don't lie 📊

Blog Post: After reading about concepts related to excellence in professional practice, including harnessing the power of digital tools and backchannel communication techniques, summarize in a blog post how you can use one or more of the shared ideas to develop and share more robust communication with your school's stakeholders. How could you transform some less effective or inefficient forms of communication through the use of digital tools?

A famous musician once said, “my hips don’t lie,” and the same goes for numbers when it comes to social media. According to a PEW Research Center study, approximately 74% of internet users who are parents are on Facebook, compared to 25% on Instagram and 23% on Twitter (2015). It was challenging to find data on the number of school districts that have a Facebook page, so I thought about how the data from PEW measures up to my particular district. Currently, my district has a Communications department and they operate a Twitter account. The principals in the district I work in have taken the initiative to manage their own high school specific accounts. These Twitter accounts are great ways to quickly share out bites of school information. The use of Twitter is a great way to start out embracing public relations in public schools, however, “Successful public relations initiatives deliver three main objectives regardless of the channel: (a) increase awareness, (b) shape perceptions and attitudes, and (c) influence behavior” (Born, 2013).

To really be influential, I think it’s important for the district to operate on the platforms where they can have direct communication with the largest possible audience, and right now that is Facebook. “Since Facebook tabulates 1.11 billion users each month, creating a presence on the site for schools and school administrators seems most reasonable. Facebook through informal communication maintains richer personal relationships with stronger social networking ties than face-to-face meetings” (Born, 2013). This data informs school leaders that Facebook is still THE place to be when it comes to social media. Before school leaders rush create Facebook school pages, Born advises that it’s highly important to carefully plan a district Facebook strategy and involve the stakeholders in creating the plan. School leader and published author, Eric Sheninger, also advises that there should be a robust and intentional social media plan for any school social media account (2014).

Before a school district creates a Facebook page, they need to establish their brand. Sheninger refers to this as “Brand-ed thinking" (2014). Here are some of the questions he advises to consider as a school leader before starting a social media account:

What is my professional brand?

What is the school’s brand?

How can I align my school’s brand with my leadership brand?

The school and leadership brands should guide in the creation of the social media account, including the title, profile, and thematic messages such as hashtags. Once the account is ready for posting content, it’s important to be intentional about the types of posts made to a school’s social media account. There are four types of content that Born suggests for school social media accounts, including (1) celebrate success, (2) offer updates, (3) share or coordinate events, and (4) mobilize the community in times of need (2013). Sheninger also advises readers on content to post as well and lists student achievement, quality of teachers and administrators, innovating instructional practices and programs, and extracurricular activities (2014). Born also advises to keep the tone conversation and represent the school’s position respectfully.

While Facebook has been around since 2004, it’s popularity has only grown, especially amongst parents. As schools consider transitioning their social media communications to this platform, there are important steps to take and questions to consider and answer before setting up the account. For starters, a great way to develop a plan is to see what other schools are doing on Facebook right now. West Allegheny School District’s Facebook page is a great place to start. Their brand is clear in the banner and their posts align to the four types of content that both Born and Sheninger recommend. An interesting aspect of Facebook pages are that they provide recommended lengths of time for responses to direct messages. As schools migrate to Facebook, they will need to consider who will be the person answering these direct messages and depending on the size of the school, this may create a need for additional staffing.

Another consideration before making the move to Facebook is how school leaders will train staff on using and interacting with the page online. Some staff members may choose to comment on the school district’s posts, which opens their accounts to other stakeholders. It will be vital to provide staff training on how to utilize privacy settings specifically for Facebook, recommendations on friend requests and interactions, in addition to netiquette that is geared towards teachers on social media.

While all of the data points to Facebook, I anticipate that there will be stakeholders who do not support the use of Facebook by the school district. It will be important to remind all stakeholders that schools are modeling accepted societal behaviors. One of the greatest challenges will be to set up the social media expectations prior to moving onto Facebook in addition to managing the direct messages that may be sent to the account. This being said, the powerful benefit of having a school with a Facebook page models how to use social media to benefit the community and help stimulate positive local change.

References

Born, C. (2013). The technology-ready school administrator: Standards-based performance (2nd ed.). Morrisville, NC: Lulu Enterprises, Inc.

Duggan, M., Lenhart, A., Lampe, C., & Ellison, N. (2015, July 26). Parents and social media: Mothers are especially likely to give and receive support on social media. PEW Research Center. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/07/16/parents-and-social-media/.

Sheninger, E. (2014). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

The Power of "I Don't Know" 🙊 & Reflective Blogging

Prompt - Find and read at least one blog of a "connected" educational leader (use this list to guide you). Examine the blog's organization, topics shared, and read several posts. Comment on at least one of their posts. On your blog, write a post that shares your thoughts about the benefits and uses of educational and reflective blogging for the school leader.

I decided to check out Kristen Swanson’s blog because EdCamp was listed with her profile. I have participated in some EdCamps and have had mostly really positive experiences so I was interested in reading her writing because she works for EdCamp! Her post on The Perceived Costs of Saying “I Don’t Know” was the first post I clicked on because I noticed the inspiration from one of my favorite podcasts, Freakonomics. Her post was about reading their book called Think Like a Freak and focused largely on our ability to admit when we don’t know something. This is something I really struggled with my first few years of teaching high school science. There is SO much to know when teaching science, especially when one is teaching more than one subject (think physics, astronomy, and environmental science). I was in over my head. Reading her post resonated with me a lot, especially in my newer teacher years. I am now in year 10 and I feel like I finally feel okay to admit when I don’t know something. I think this is largely attributed to the growth of my own content knowledge over the past 10 years, and my own acknowledgement of being okay with not knowing everything. I used to attribute this not knowing as a weakness but see it much more as a strength. As my mindset has changed, it’s allowed me to be okay to admit when “I don’t know” something, which is still a lot of the time!

Photo of me from 2012, teaching physics while pretending I know physics.

Being able to admit the “I don’t know” is an important strength for leaders to have. By writing and maintaining a reflective blog, leaders can not only share their “I don’t know” moments but also model their growth in these areas. For the audience, it can be relatable and for the leader, it can be a really cool artifact that shows one’s growth over time. Another one of her posts that caught my eye was on the concept of Blended Leadership. I thought this was really relevant to the principalship in connection to communication the use of technology. I visited the Blending Leadership site and was immediately intrigued by one of their newsletters on Costco Rotisserie chickens so obviously, I had to subscribe. Long live bulk shopping and great deals!

Visionary Leadership 💭

Prompt  Think about a leader who exemplifies one or more of the visionary leadership characteristics listed in ISTE standard. Provide a brief description of his/her leadership style and an example of how he/she inspires, engages, and/or advocates. How does your leadership style compare to the visionary leadership characteristics? 


The first person that comes to mind is one of the university professors I had during my time at Millersville University. When I think about why, the first thing that comes to mind is his strength in pedagogy and content knowledge. He was very knowledgeable on the topics he taught, including building relationships with students, being sensitive to students with unique challenges, integrating educational technology, and always "made me think." His instructional strategies for getting me to think were always simple but engaging. I learned the most in his classes by learning from others, and his ability to "give up the reins" of the class so that his students could flourish was especially noticeable. I cannot recall a class where he did a full direct lecture and I loved that aspect of his courses. Finally, he is extremely skilled at technology. I attribute my own interest in this to his and my experiences in his classes...so much so, that I have taken a number of graduate level courses with him too so that I can continue to learn new ways of teaching! In a nutshell, I believe that this professor fits directly in the center of the TPACK model, which is no wonder since he actually teaches this framework and has written blog posts on it himself! I've included an image of TPACK below. His photo belongs in the center with "TPACK."

Another aspect that makes him visionary is that he is excellent at "lifting others up." He is constantly providing the students opportunities to shine. For instance, he had our class attend and present at the PSAT conference. If you are interested in viewing the footage of this, featuring a young Laura Vogel, click here (194 views to date). He also writes about other professors on campus and highlights their innovative approaches to teaching. I know this because he writes about it on his personal/professional blog that I still follow (10 years later!). The fact that he notices he is in tune with what other professors on campus are doing and is highlighting and praising their work, shows that he is a great observer/listener and also open to learning from others. These are all other signs of visionary leaders in my opinion.

Additional qualities of visionary leadership that were highlighted in this week's content included:

• Ability to see the big picture
• Ability to think ahead for the future
• Ability to work and take recommendations from other professionals and stakeholders

I value these three qualities of visionary leaders the most, which is why I identified my undergraduate professor as a visionary leader.

Hi! I'm Laura 👋

And thanks for visiting my blog! I teach high school science and provide instructional technology support to high school teachers. Here are my strongest feelings on technology related to education:

• Stay hungry...or in educational jargon, be a lifelong learner.
• Be selective...the technology should support or enhance learning.
• Walk the walk...modeling applicable uses of technology is sometimes the best way to teach it.
• Balance is key...and in some cases, less is more!

A few other random facts about me:

• One of my favorite blogs is The 8 Blog, written by one of my favorite undergrad education professors.
• I love podcasts and some of my favorites include Freakonomics Radio, Hidden Brain, & Still Watching by Vanity Fair.
• One of my favorite movies is Rocky.
• I recently traveled to the equator and became an "eggmaster."
• I'm a Costco *Executive* Gold Card member.
• I work as a "Ultimate Hoops Statistician" on the side where I keep stats for a basketball league.