Activity Guide
No one knows better than you do what positive stories need to be told about your school. Social media gives every school principal or designee an opportunity to tell his or her school’s story. Use social media platforms to keep the school community informed of your successes and events and to build support in the community for your school.
Resources
- Reading: “Building Bridges, Making Connections,” Principal Leadership, May 2015, pp. 26–28.
- Webinar: “Digital Tools to Increase Communication,” January 13, 2016.
Materials
Process
All participants should review the reading closely and highlight pertinent information about how social media can work for your school and help you streamline your internal and external communication. To increase participation in the discussion, table groups should contain eight to ten participants. Follow the question prompts and begin the conversation. Substantiate your answers with specific information from the article.
Continue the Conversation
Set up a viewing station with a computer and internet connection for the webinar. If needed, add a projection screen to accommodate a larger audience.
As a group, view the webinar and see the variety of online tools—new and familiar—that will improve communication with staff, students, and your community. Lead a collaborative discussion about which digital tools will be consistently used to provide community updates of school events. Determine who among the staff has had experience with social media and who on staff needs capacity building. Identify staff members willing to lend support to the project. Establish protocols for the use of social media as sanctioned by the school. Investigate district procedures and review your protocols with the district designee. Remember, “When a series of [posts] are strung together, they tell a powerful story” (p. 27). Establish a process that can be consistently maintained.
Use the digital networks and the variety of social media sites available to create or update your existing communication system with your staff, students, and school community. Designate which sites will be used for external communication and which will be used for internal communication.
Use the Discussion Guide Planning Templates to establish or refine your communication protocol. Have your design and/or instructional teams collaboratively review and discuss your process and provide input.