In the past few years, the political make up of our schools has been changing a great deal. The way schools are funded and the amount of local control in schools has been changing. There has been a huge push from our state government to consolidate school districts and push some of the local control to the district level. This has resulted in many fears from parents, teachers and community members about losing their local, small town elementary schools. They are rightfully afraid that these schools will be closed and our children will be sent to larger regional elementary schools. I get these fears from the perspective as a teacher who works in a small school and as a Mom who loves the small school her own kids attend. 
In our school, so many wonderful things happen that the general public is not aware of. Some parents who are well connected to the school have a pretty good idea, but I often think the community in general lacks specifics about the good things happening in their school. Thinking about the change in political climate and understanding the fears of other teaches and parents about our small school being on the chopping block in the next few years, I have been thinking a lot about how to promote our school and share all the wonderful things happening here.
1. Video
Last year, when I was researching ways to get out message out to parents, I stumbled upon Your School Rocks... So Tell People. This book was full of great ideas that really helped me see the potential to up our game in several areas, including video. Last spring, I challenged myself to create at least one video a week showcasing something going on in our school and after a few weeks, it got to be part of my routine and the response I have got is amazing. I use the iMovie app for iPad to edit video clips, add text, etc. We have been loving using video so much that this year, I have many students so excited to create their own videos that we are doing a trial of WeVideo which seems to be the go to video editing software for use on Chromebooks. We are working on creating videos highlighting out behavior expectations for PBIS, math how to videos, trailers of upcoming events and so much more. We share these videos on social media, the school website and on teacher blogs.
2. Social Media
Our school district has a Facebook page and a twitter account that previous to reading this book, I hadn't paid much attention to. After reading this book, I immediately looked into who was providing content on these platforms and made sure to send content their was as often as possible. I am also working on organizing teacher take over days where different teachers get control of the account for the day/week and provide a detailed look into their classroom. Since I work in an elementary school, we are trying to reach parents on social media, and Facebook is definitely the place where we can find most of the parents. The book had an excellent chapter on using Instagram to reach your students which I think would be perfect for middle and high school age kids.
3. School/Teacher Blogs
It is the expectation in my school that all teachers maintain a classroom blog where they share pictures, videos and updates at least a few times per month. These are linked from the school website and it can be hard to see how much they are getting viewed or how helpful they are to families and the community. They are a huge asset when someone new is looking into working at or sending kids to our school because they give a great flavor of what we have to offer. My own blog is also used to curate online resources so it gets a lot of views at school and at home. When I started adding videos that featured the students and videos that students helped create the engagement on the main page of my blog went up by 500%! Video is so powerful!
4. Alert the Press
When something special is happening at your school, let the local press know. Our smallest local paper is always interested in reporting on events happening in our schools. They sometimes send a photographer & a reporter and other times they ask for more details and a picture that one of us took at the event. Just a quick email to let them know what is happening in our school has resulted in positive press for us multiple times. It is free and requires minimal effort.
5. School Website
Is your school website kept up to date? For many folks, your school website is the first thing they see when they search for you and you want to make sure you have enough information posted that they can really get to know your school. Also, you want to make it a place where students and families return to over and over again to get the information they need or to catch up on the news. Make sure your school website is updated at least weekly to get the most out of it. Regularly sharing pictures, videos, newsletters, etc is a great way to keep things fresh.
6. Get Folks Inside the Building
7. Class Dojo
Class Dojo is an app that another teacher in my building began playing around with last year and I can't say enough about how much it improves communication with families. This year, we have several teachers using it in my building and my own kids' school is using it school wide. I love it so much from the perspective of a teacher and a parent. It is a communication app that lets teachers and parents share videos, pictures and messages. A teacher can post to the class board where all families can see it or to each students' individual stories. It is enough like Facebook, that parents seem to figure out how to use it quickly and it can really improve communication. I have not yet found a way to use it to communicate to the community at large but it cannot be beat for communicating with parents. They also have GREAT videos about Growth Mindset!
How do you share the good things happening in your school? Please respond in the comments below.
As long as I had videos and lots of cute kid pics on my classroom blog my parents were very happy :)
ReplyDeleteYour tips are great!