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!