Again, originally read courtesy of the Kindle Unlimited trial that I ended up upgrading to a six month one with the Prime week specials (just for the PD books because you really have to search to find the good fiction. It's hidden).
Chapter One The Power to Connect / Location 142
"it was time to take back education and lead with our passion for kids and our belief that school should consist of learning and fun."
Learning and fun! Well that's pretty cool.
Chapter Two The Video Newsletter / Location 191 & 199
"educators must do a better job of engaging students' families."
"trading a paper newsletter for a video newsletter is the greatest shift schools can make."
Oh, heavens. Video. Hard. Out of comfort zone. #doIdare
Location 210
"Keep your video newsletter under three minutes. Any longer and you'll lose your audience's attention."
Short and sweet does make it easier.
Location 230
"If kids are telling their parents nothing special is happening at school, that is the parents' perception whether or not it is accurate."
Perception is perceived truth. So we work to change it.
Chapter Four iMovie Movies / Location 419 & 449
"We also use these video messages with our staff to generate excitement and to remind them of our philosophy to make school about learning and fun as we focus on the most important thing: our students."
"Meeting students and parents where they are requires flexibility on your part, the payoff is an engaged community."
Chapter Five Facebook / Location 489 & 504
"Parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents--a large part of the audience schools need to reach--all appear to be flocking to it. If we are not targeting them with our communication, we certainly should be."
"My school's Facebook page currently has 584 likes, so I know when we share information, a photograph or a video, 584 people have that information in their Facebook newsfeed."
Now, that's not entirely true. The algorithms will only show it to a fraction of those people. Viewers have to do more than like the page to actually see all content ... they have to comment and like specific posts. But they all COULD find it if they went to the page. Which is easier to find if they've already liked it.
Chapter Six Twitter / Location 628
"Twitter exposed me to more than I had ever learned in a class or workshop--and created doors to educators, their ideas, and best practices, thereby increasing my personal, professional development in ways I had never thought possible."
Totally true. Why mine don't ... match. When I first joined I just used an old email address from my Spanish teaching days because it was mostly silly pop culture. Then it got much more interesting with authors, illustrators, and fellow educators. By then it was too late to change the handle!
Chapter Eight Instagram Photos / Location 720 & 739
"connecting with 20 percent of our students' families--10 percent of them every day."
"reach potentially one in five of our families by doing ten seconds worth of work, the decision was easy--yes, it is worth it!"
Taking decent pics takes practice, though. And just remembering to do it!
Chapter Eleven Instagram in the Classroom / Location 910
"educators can use Instagram to throw out a hook the night before to excite students about upcoming learning opportunities."
As an elem teacher librarian I'm not looking for student followers ... I know some of them have accounts but those are the exception. But I could see how this would be super powerful for middle and high school, especially with the "hooks" from location 913.
Chapter Fourteen The School Blog / Location 1074, 1097
"I routinely ask them to write blog posts."
"You don't have to be the one to write every post. Invite students, other teachers, even parents to be guest bloggers on your site."
Chapter Sixteen Bringing It All Together / Location 1229
"Just as there is power in a positive phone call or short written note, we are finding the power in positive messages sent through social media. The difference is that social media allows that message to be shared countless times."
