This year as a district we have entered the realm of social media. We have a district Facebook page (www.facebook.com/mgsd70) and a district Twitter feed (@D70Super). We also have a newsletter that goes out to our entire community (not just our parents) three times a year with information about what is happening in the district. It is a three page newsletter with photos and plenty of “white space” with just a couple of key stories each time. Over the course of the year we have begun to tell our story of the great things going on District 70/Park View School.
A few times this year, I’ve been asked by staff and parents why we do this. I’ve always believed that it was important to share what was going on in the district in any way we can but I’ll admit, there have been times when I’ve wondered about the impact when we only have 223 people who have liked our Facebook page and our district Twitter account has 135 followers. A few things have happened recently that have re-energized our move in this direction.
Over the past couple weeks, the number of our staff who have joined Twitter and begun to use the tool to either share information about their classroom, connect with other professionals or extend opportunities for their students has increased from 3 or so to over 20! Many of them are just getting started but the fact is…they are getting started! It has been exciting to watch them start to explore. I’ve seen some tweet about professional articles they have found that they want to share, some tweet photos or videos of what students are doing in their classrooms and one who has been able to connect his students with the author of the book they are reading so his students can directly interact with him!
Here are the current District 70 staff who have joined Twitter:
Chris Kennelly - @MrKthirdgrade
Tracy Paskiewicz - @MrsPaskiewicz
Kelli Murphy - @Kmurphy3rd
PE Teachers - @PVPhysEd
Justine Reich - @reich116
Laura Matug - @pvkindermatug
Brian Hood - @pvpeteacher
Ivy Sukenik - @D70Principal
Kate Dougherty - @PVlibrary
Kat Harrison - @pvtechteacher
Brian Galuski - @brgalus
Paula Steil - @steil95
Terri Willis - @WillisK206
Christine Pellum - @cp2780
Julie Coyne - @JuliecoyneJulie
Elizabeth Schommer - @ElizabethSchomm
Marci Heymann - @MarciHeymann
Tari Rubenstein - @TariLRubenstein
Mindy Debes - @debes312
Sue Jonota - @PVMrsJ
Juli Wicinski - @JuliWicinski
Phil Collins - @D70Super (I use to share district happenings)
Phil Collins - @philc4115 (I use for my own professional learning and sharing)
I’ve also had the chance to read some of the work of Eric Sheninger (@NMHS_Principal) and the thoughts of Tony Sinanis (@TonySinanis) about the importance of telling your school/district’s story and branding. I just bought Eric’s book “Digital Leadership” so I haven’t read it yet but I’ve seen a few excerpts from it and I can already tell it is powerful. Eric says “When we don’t tell our story, someone else will. When we don’t tell our story 9 out of 10 times it’s not the story we want told.”
I’m determined to not let someone else tell our story. WE will tell our story and share the great things that are happening in District 70/Park View School. We will continue to tell others about our use of social media so we can increase our likes and followers. We owe it to our students and staff to tell the story of the awesome work that they are doing!!
I appreciate you taking ownership of the D70 Story and working with teachers to embrace many forms of technology. That said, I'm not sure public Twitter accounts are a great way to go. By chance, I noticed a PV teacher in my stream this morning, and it caused me to do a double-take. It looks like many teachers are just getting started, which is a great time to think about WHY they are on Twitter. It appears that several teachers are posting what I term "classroom selfies." Pictures or videos of the kids and what they are doing.
ReplyDeleteAs a PV parent, I can tolerate my child's picture on the school website and while I understand it can be copied and pasted, it still feels different and uncomfortable to see their picture on a social media channel. In an increasingly selfie-oriented culture, I think it's important that teachers model the enriching conversations that social media can allow, rather than sharing for the sake of self-promotion (unless that's what you mean by storytelling...). Today's kids need to learn to think about what is worth sharing and with whom it should be shared.
Then there's the issue of a teacher's attention. I'd like to think it's focused on the classroom and students, not social media sharing. (For reference, see this tweet abt multitasking: https://twitter.com/MarciHeymann/status/400003844819943424; she seems to have a good grasp of Twitter, BTW).
I've been on Twitter since 2009. It can be a great tool for connecting with colleagues, building a PLN and even making friends around the world. Twitter chats like #EdChat, #libchat, Scichat #GTchat, and others can be enriching and eye-opening, even with the limit of 140-characters.
But knowing where to draw the private/public line can be a tricky one, esp. when the needs of students and families need to be taken into consideration.
Speaking of which, this is an anonymous comment not because I'm hiding from you, but because of my own effort not to publicly identify online with institutions that are part of my offline life, especially ones involving my children. We're only one public comment and Google search away from having a stranger show up on our front door--something that really happened to me once!
Although I support an institution taking charge of telling its story, keep in mind that the institution needs to live up to that story-, not just give it lip service by posting pics of cute young learners.
Thanks again for your efforts to move Park View along.
If you care to reply, feel free to do so in the comments.
Hello, Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I’m happy to respond. One of the advantages I see to my blog and Facebook and Twitter is the opportunity to engage with our community and the larger community beyond our district. Through my own use of Twitter the past couple years, I have come across educators suggesting multiple uses of Twitter. The development of a Professional Learning Network is definitely one of them, but not the only one.
ReplyDeleteA key use that I have seen suggested by several blogs and articles is to use it as a communication tool with parents and community. While you may see some of the images as selfie’s, I see them as an opportunity to give parents and the community a chance to see what is happening at Park View. Could we post these on our website? Yes we could, and in a number of cases we have put them on the website. The challenge with that is that our website depends on people going to look for the information. We are trying to a better job of delivering the information and pushing it out. I don’t see this as self-promotion on any individual teacher’s part but rather us doing a better job of painting the picture of what we are doing at Park View.
In the almost two years that I have been at Park View, I have come to realize that Park View has a great story to tell to our parent community, the Morton Grove community and the education community. I am working to do that and I am encouraging teachers to do that. I fully agree that we need to live up to our story. I believe we can and we will. That doesn’t mean that we are perfect but it does mean that we will continue to learn and grow as educators and as a system. I look forward to the continuation of this journey.
Again, thank you for sharing your perspective and allowing me the opportunity to expand on mine.
Thanks for your expanded thoughts.
ReplyDeleteThere's a difference between "pushing out information" (broadcasting) and engaging/conversing, which is what ultimately makes Twitter most interesting and valuable.
More to the point though, is the difference between tweeting as an individual and tweeting on behalf of an organization. If you are simply encouraging teachers to explore the tool for personal/professional development they can choose any handle they want, no matter how silly or fun or even use their own names. Let them loose to explore on their own. They can tweet whatever they want, but I think it's legally sketchy to be tweeting out classroom pics and other photos of students who are, after all, minors. I'll let the D70 attorneys advise you on that one. Was the issue of posting to social media was covered in last fall's waivers? I can't recall the specifics of it.
On the other hand, if the purpose of the Twitter accounts is to support the Park View brand and tell the PV story, then there should be a standard handle like @PV(teachername) or D70(teachername) to make it clear that it's a professional account. Changing a handle is a quick fix and they needn't start new accounts to do this. Also, because the teachers are tweeting on behalf of the school to some degree, it's important to train them on the district's social media policies. (Can they connect with students? What if the students are not legally old enough to be on the service? How do they handle parent complaints that might be made through the platform? What are their legal responsibilities and restrictions?)
I talked with a teacher-friend who has a private Twitter account just for her classroom. Only parents are allowed to follow the account where she shares pictures and whatnot. Other friends have told me their schools use Edmodo or private Flickr account to share photos. Classroom blogs are not only a great way to share stories, but the students can play a role in creating content.
I'm just not convinced that sharing student photos or videos in public via Twitter is a good or safe way to go and there's nothing in your initial post that suggests you clarified expectations and did training with the teachers (which, as I noted is fine if their accounts are for personal use).
Also, due to changes in Facebook's algorithms, the chances of Park View reaching its fans via a status update are increasingly small, so there's a good chance that a person will need to make a conscious effort to seek out information about the school whether through searching Facebook or bookmarking the site on the web. Any sense of why the number of fans and followers is so low?
I'm glad we're having this conversation and I appreciate some the fresh ideas that the new administration is bringing to the district.