One of a principal's most important roles is to advocate for their school. That includes sharing information with staff, students, families and community. Communication occurs in many ways but increasingly various forms of social media technology are used to spread the "good news" about your school. One tool is a blog, basically a website that functions as an online journal. What's good about a blog is that you can control the content and make it what you want.
Partrick Larkin, 2012 NASSP Digital Principal, identified reasons for beginning a blog. Principals are generally pretty proud of their school. They want to share newsworthy things about students and co-curricular activities. They have great teachers who are doing great things in their classroom. And they want to improve communication with both families and community. Once you begin your blog you can add a link from your school's website and you can share it with teachers and other staff. Here's a link to Larkin's article about how to get started. And here are some other examples of blogs maintained by school leaders.
- A Principal's Reflections - Eric Sheninger, New Milford HS (NJ) - http://esheninger.blogspot.com
- Learning in Burlington - Patrick Larkin, Burlington (MA) - http://LearningInBurlington.blogspot.com
I'd enjoy learning from you about how you communicate with families and community and what you think about starting a principal's blog.
