Recruiting Season

A few months ago, during one of my FMLA principalships, I attended a district principal's meeting where one of the principals stood up, almost in tears, and began to speak about how hard it was to be the principal of a Title campus, that it was harder than other schools (she'd know, her experience runs the full range of socioeconomic backgrounds) and it was very difficult to get teachers to stay and buy into the work that was happening. My apologies, I really can't remember the exact context of the comment, but I recall it very clearly because it was an emotionally charged portion of the meeting.  She was highly frustrated.

While every campus has its struggles and challenges, having taught at Title campuses, I'd tend to agree with her, but my brain immediately shot to what is the identity and brand of this campus?  Why do teachers want to belong, what makes this school an amazing place to be?  I also began to think about how we often speak of student engagement.  Is the difficulty or type of work any different than blaming video

Mattering & Belonging

Enjoyed a great branding chat with some fellow Texas educators at the #txeduchat last evening.  Much of the talk centered around the telling of the story and the tools that help us take a driver's seat position in the telling and sharing of that school story.  These are positive first and necessary steps in developing and refining a school brand!

What is a brand?  If I take the things I've learned from Bernadette Jiwa and Marji Sherman (maybe they'll leave me some feedback!!) as well as the direction that Jamie Vollmer would like public education to move and improve in, it would be something like this:

A Building Again

Another year complete. I remember following my very first year of teaching saying to my mentor how fast the year had felt and she told me that they only seem to go faster.  I replied then I'm going to get old really quick! That has proved to be absolutely true.

As I walk the building, Displays are down, furniture is stacked, paperwork is signed, there is an overflowing shredding box and teachers and kids summers have begun.  I stand by my post from the beginning of the year. School is done for 14-15 and Eagle Ridge is merely a building until August 19 when teachers and students fill it again with the beauty of learning and instruction.  What makes a school a school is the people that fill it!  Parents and teacher pouring into our kids.  The relationships forged, the challenges faced, the achievements celebrated establish a reason to belong.  I saw that George Couros posted a piece regarding innovation and the need for love and

Win Everyday

"We don't win today by reaching the masses, we win by becoming meaningful to the few." - Bernadette Jiwa

I see a current struggle of education in this quote. Political climate (idiocy) and large district bureaucracy where the the bottom line is a test score drive us to focus on one day, one assessment to show the world, nation, community that we are improving and/ or relevant and "deserve" the reward of funding and respect.  

I would assert that is trying to matter to people that don't matter (or at least don't deserve that much attention) What would it be like if we have laser like focus to the folks that do matter? Providing an experience that grows, engages and delights (love that word) that group and mobilizes and empowers them to speak.   

That way we win everyday!  In what ways are you remaining focused on the things and people that matter most?

Happy thinking!

B

Six Edentity Questions

A school with a clear identity is one that people are drawn to, parents and professionals.  They desire to be apart and contribute to the amazing things happening .  A campus identity is instructional and curricular, of course, but we know that education is more than those alone and a successful school has some additional "intangibles' that set it apart from others.  I'm not talking about being different to be different or to put on a show, but special for kids' sake! How we choose to develop and refine that identity is important in how we relate to our community and how they relate to us.  Asking some key questions is important this process!

What are we passionate about? - Is there something as a campus that is an area of strength because of passionate pursuit of practice?  Do you have gurus on the campus (literacy, math, technology, etc.)

Five Big School Branding Questions

Deep down inside, I think we are clear on the need for connectedness within our school and our community.  We know we need to be close to the people we serve.  We understand that the power of relationship doesn't just work for us in the classroom, but for our campus as a whole as we do the important work we do each day!

PBIS and Your School's Brand

We just completed our 3rd marking period and it is always a great celebration as our school comes together to review what makes us Eagle Ridge PROUD and to honor students that exemplify those traits on a daily basis!  It's also great to see kids and teachers let their hair down a bit and dance and play.  Here are a few amazing highlights from the experience:

• 2nd PE award - certainly proud of the recipient, but I loved the spirit of the classmates that surrounded him.  They all jumped up,  congratulated and were so

Your School's Story: A Bigger Purpose

It's interesting that the business branding and marketing scene is finally catching up with having a purpose bigger than a product or service.  We in education have had a lock on this as there are few greater purposes than educating and preparing young people for the future!  However, we have just done a really poor job of marketing it.  This is understandable as sharing what we do does not get the same priority as the doing what we do (it's quite a bit of work if you didn't know), but no longer in the world in which we live.  It is vital for a successful school to let their families and community know, see, share and tell the story of the great things happening at school!

Your School's Story: Created with Intention

Back in high school, I was not a fan of the English classes.  Diagramming sentences, old &moldy literature (although, I do remember thoroughly enjoying Lord of the Flies my freshman year) and writing papers on who knows what did not hold my attention and interest.  The literature bothered me more than anything, especially when we talked of satire, foreshadowing, symbolism, etc. because that indicated design and an intentionality in the writing and I didn't believe that anything the likes of Jane Eyre was planned.  For whatever reason, I was operating under the delusion that all those great literary devices happened by chance!

Your School's Story

Why do we tell stories?  Story telling has been a practice for generations throughout history.  Sharing, teaching, entertaining.   We sit around the dinner table with family at Thanksgiving and reminisce stories of the past.  When buddies from college get together we retell stories and share the new life stories that have come.  With Veteran's Day having just past, I always enjoy listening to veterans share their stories and experiences.   They are often thrilling and scary, but make me more thankful in the telling!  In many cases, the is how history was passed down, via the spoken or written story!  Christ spent his ministry telling stories that gave examples, clarified understanding and challenged thinking.  Among other things, His stories are what brought people to him because it was understandable and relateable.  In every one of these examples, at the very heart of the act of story telling is opportunity and desire to connect!

The purpose of stories is to bring people into connection and community.  That is what we should desire for our school's story to be and/or become.  The fact of the matter is that we don't have a story to tell unless our students and families are not apart of what we do.  We're not learning, sharing, growing, etc.  That is the nature of our business.  The story we tell must be one that inspires our students and families to become a part of and take part in the telling!

What are the elements of your school's story that draw people into community and help them find connection?

Happy telling!

B

Your School's Story: Rooted in Truth

I love the word "story".  Over the next few weeks I'd like to explore the idea of story and story telling based on this Bernadette Jiwa post entitled The Characteristics of Great Brand Stories.  I want to take her insights and place them in the context of schools and what it means for us as we share and develop our own school stories that ring true to the identity we wish to create!

For me, it was a word that came up when I opened Timberview Middle with Carrie Jackson in 2010.  It was a rough road, as most openings tend to be, but this was different.  As I shared in this post, we sat in our leadership meeting with some district folks and we came to the conclusion that there was a group of passionate people out there that were telling our story and we had no voice in it.  We had begun a journey to transform teaching and learning, but that disruption to the norm was not taken well and there was a very negative and one-sided story being shared.  We needed to be more involved and it needed to be rooted in truth.  We knew we had to tell a story that was about the great things happening on campus and it had to be authentic and bring people on board!

Feelings & Trust

Branding is not merely of differentiating products; it's about striking an emotional chord with consumers.  It is about cultivating identity, attachment and trust to inspire customer loyalty.   - Nirmalya Kumar

There is quite a bit to unpack here!  Maybe it is my nonbusiness brain, but I remember branding being a logo.  A graphic that identified who you are, creating an association between a symbol and what you do or sell.  Truly taking that ranching practice and making it work for whatever industry.  This quote as well as the writings of other marketing gurus makes branding almost necessary for schools.  Branding has moved quite a ways from the ranching practice to something very afftective in nature (which the cow would probably much prefer).

Social Media & Schools: Why?

So why should we be part of social media?  We could look at one of a number of areas and have a great reason to jump in and each one is worthy!  Let's make a quick list:

• As an additional communication platform - get your message out in every way possible!
• Because you were told - hopefully this means you have a boss or administration that values innovation and using current and relevant tools!
• To connect with parents and/or students where they interact - the saying is "build it and they will come".  Well, in this case, it is already built, people are there and we need to go meet them there!

Social Media & Schools: The Hashtag

From the outside looking in, the idea of the hashtag is a pretty silly thing, but has become almost a staple of pop culture.  At some point in time, down the road, we will all have some pretty interestesting conversations about our recolllections of the hashtag.

Here is what Twitter has to say about the hashtag:

5 Ways to Mobilize Your Silent Majority

A couple weeks back I posted about mobilizing your silent majority as part of ensuring that the school brand and identity is being portrayed accurately and developed positively.  I shared a middle school story in that post, but at Eagle Ridge we had a related experience as well just his past year with our end of year district survey.  Out of an 800 student campus we had less than 80 responses on our survey.  While we thought communication was a strength due to amount and variety, this was indicated as a weakness!  We could analyze all day, but this was feedback we had to work with and it was valuable because for those that responded, this was their frame of reference.  I am positive you probably have a similar story or at least a relatable experience as well!

In ensuring that I am never "that guy" that pontificates on a topic then stops short of at least an idea to get the party started, here are 5 ways that you can grow your community's voice!

Social Media & Schools: The Celebration Post

There are few things that people, in general, enjoy more than a good celebration!  Celebrations evoke so many positive feelings & emotions and have the effect of bringing people together!  We have so many things to celebrate and be excited about in schools!  Whether it be learning, social, or milestone, celebrations are a huge part of the story we tell and we should be proactive to ensure that our families have the opportunity to take part in these because these are the events and happenings that can have the greatest effect on our family engagement and brand building experience!

Folks like myself, Tony Sinanis & Joe Sanfelippo, as well as my own district's superintendent, speak regularly about taking control of the narrative being told in regards to school.  The celebration post on your campus and/or classroom social media pages should be an important part of what is being shared!  These celebration posts speak directly to all of the wonderful and positive things that happen at school daily and should highlight individuals, groups, clubs, events, learning, service to name a few!  All that said, the celebration post was a very natural progression after beginning with the information posts!  Here are some great places to find celebrations on your campus.

Social Media & Schools: The Information Post

The next few posts regarding social media will dig into five (5) post types I have identified after meticulously sifting through a year's worth of posts (yup, that's how I spend my time :))!  Time consuming yes, but I believe there is value in knowing how we use the tool of social media so that we can use it more efficiently to build the level of engagement with families and brand that we desire!

The first post type that we'll tackle is probably the one that most got into the social media scene to use and probably why you chose to start a social media page for your campus or classroom.  The information post is pretty self explanatory.  Information posts can be:

More to the Story

I am knee deep into the idea of branding.  I think I would really enjoy a 21st century marketing course!  Social media has changed the game in how marketing takes place and organizations are able to interact with people and vice versa.  It has also, in a dramatic fashion, leveled the playing field and allowed a new level of competition for the "little guy" if the right tools are used correctly and you are passionate about your product and/or service!  Branding is also a current hot topic for schools and reading about branding in business has become a favorite pass time (and blog topic) as I think about the school I want to lead.  I read this article The Power of Branding a couple days ago and enjoyed it finding myself nodding along with everything it had to say.  I also found that I had a number of points and elements included in my upcoming presentation.  I won't lie, it's nice to see others seeing and coming to similar conclusions!  The article really focused on the power of telling and getting the narrative of schools out their in all of the various ways that we communicate.

Social Media & Schools: Norms

This post takes me back to the summer of 2010 as a group of instructional coaches and administrators from the yet to be opened Timberview Middle School sat in an Alan November session at the Texas ASCD Technology Conference.  Honestly, the topic I cannot recall, but in our think tank there towards the back of the ballroom we decided that a Facebook fan page would be a brilliant idea as a platform to connect with our people.  Of course we all had our own experiences with social media.  Most of us were on the Facebook so we had an awareness of the various behaviors that occurred, so we didn't step into this social media adventure completely naive.  Our bold and brilliant leader,Carrie Jackson, sat down and developed some norms for interaction and use so that page became the positive platform we wanted it to become!

Social Media & Schools: The Series

Social media has been a powerful tool for us at Eagle Ridge to share the learning and experiences of our staff and students!  I believe in its ability to help us connect with our families and community! Over the coming weeks, I want to share my learning and experiences in using social media to share the unique narrative of learning organizations!  I hope you'll join me in the journey!

Keep posting!

B