Blogs as Communication Tools for Administrators

by Renée Cockrell, MAT, NBCT

A blog can be a very useful tool for a school principal, though it also has some limitations. Here are some research-based suggestions for a school administrator's use of a blog to positively impact school culture; family, student, and community stakeholder engagement; and to enrich community partnerships.

Using a principal's blog to lead, inspire, engage, and enrich:

I envision all of the individual posts on a principal's blogs as having a unifying theme. Specifically, every one of the post ideas in this list should include some sort of explicit statement about how it relates to the school's vision, mission, and values. Showing how the happenings, accomplishments, and current initiatives in your school align with the vision, mission, and values will help staff, parents, students, and community stakeholders hold a clear understanding of the priorities and culture of the school. Staying focused on what matters in choosing content for posts as well as ensuring that each post aligns with the school vision, mission, and values can deepen and enrich the school culture as well as inspiring stakeholders and providing a positive leadership example. According to CSU-Global (2019), "the use of social media tools to communicate with parents, students, faculty, and others will not only improve information dissemination, but it will also send the message that, when used appropriately, technology can enhance school culture" (p. 6).

One way to amplify the positive communications created and shared in a blog is to share those posts on a school Facebook and Instagram page. Other social media platforms may also be appropriate, though these two are the most commonly used by high school students and their parents in my school, according to a survey completed last year. Facebook can also be a useful platform because it allows for the sharing of and invitation to events that will allow people who RSVP to see who else they know who is attending the event, to share the event and invite others, get directions, as well as to add a reminder to their digital calendar. For things like the school skill shares we hope to begin to more fully engage our family and community stakeholders as well as to kick off some collaborative community service projects, this is the perfect tool.

• Create posts that recognize, celebrate, and elevate the accomplishments of individual students or staff members. For example, a teacher may have completed a marathon, published a book, or earned a degree -- thereby demonstrating hard work and growth. Or a student may have earned an award inside or outside of school, may have a work of art featured in a local show, may have taken on or completed a community service project, or have begun their next steps after graduation. Each of these accomplishments can be clearly linked to the revised District #11 mission of daring "to empower the whole student to profoundly impact our world" (Ashby, 2019, n.p.). 
• Create posts that highlight the achievements of groups of faculty or students, including the completion of service projects, research or school projects, book studies, implementation of new curriculum, etc.
• Recognize graduates and follow-up on their work in secondary education, licensure program, or in the community.

Photo by Marleena Garris on Unsplash

• Amplify positivity and pride by sharing school newsletter articles written by students that highlight meaningful occurrences at the school, like this article  written by a Bijou graduate that highlights my leadership students' campus recycling initiative and tells about a grant they wrote and received. 
• Share posts from teachers websites (with their permission) to highlight neat projects or lessons taking place in various classrooms on campus. 

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

• Highlight community relationships and partnerships, including service projects, donors, and information on how to volunteer and get involved. 
• Spread the word about resources, opportunities, and events to all stakeholders. For example, sharing information about our FAFSA completion nights for seniors and their parents as well as inviting all students to schedule free SAT/PSAT tutoring. This may include sharing information about reading programs sponsored by the school librarians or community resources through the public library district or local non-profit groups. 
• Invite feedback on school events and initiatives through digital polls or other widgets that allow voting or anonymous responses. This can also be a useful tool for engaging stakeholders in voting on things like the adoption of a school mascot or the winner of a design contest for the new school year's staff t-shirts. Engaging stakeholders in these positive ways will contribute to a joyful culture while also inviting critical feedback as appropriate.

Photo by Goh Rhy Yan on Unsplash

Ways not to use a principal's blog: 

A blog is not an appropriate tool for communicating with individual teachers regarding their performance or action steps. Nor is the right place for meeting reminders, things that belong in a memorandum, or all of the minutiae that goes into organizational or administration communications or day-to-day reminders. 

My prior experiences with blogging as a classroom teacher didn't really include generating content meant to engage students and stakeholders, nor did it provoke a lot of thought. They were honestly more like class websites that I used as a place for students who missed class and their parents to keep up with what was going on in my classroom each day. Here are few blogs I have created and used as class websites in the past:

• Junior College Preparatory English at Cheyenne Mountain High School
• Freshman Honors English at Cheyenne Mountain High School
• English Eight at The Bijou School
• English Four at The Bijou School

Important legal and ethical considerations: 

Posting images on a blog requires consideration and intentionality.

When it comes to posting photographs of your staff, students, and school happenings, you need to make sure you're following district procedures and that you have the consent of the individuals in the photograph you wish to post. Colorado Springs School District #11, for example, has a blanket media waiver all parents and guardians sign when they enroll their students. If a parent or guardian communicates a wish not to have their child photographed and/or not to have images of the child used in district or school communications, including the school website and social media pages, the school office will have that information on file. If you did not take the photograph yourself, you should also give credit to the photographer in a caption of the image (as demonstrated in the captions of photographs above in this blog post).

There are also ethical considerations related to sharing other images you may have found on the Internet. It's a good idea to research open source images related to the content you wish you share and to always cite your source for a borrowed image. Sharing someone else's copyrighted images or artwork is unethical and illegal.

References:

Ashby, D. (2019). Policies, regulations, and exhibits addressed during the 2018/2019 school year [Email communication].

Carlson, J. (2018). Recycling initiative at Bijou. The Campus Chronicle. Retrieved from https://rjwaccampuschronicle.org/4234/student-life/recycling-initiative-at-bijou/

CSU-Global. (2019). Technology leadership [Canvas ecourse]. EDL 550.