Reflection on Goals for the 2018-19 School Year in December

So way back in August, I started a post on my goals for the new school year.

My goals:
  • blog once a week
  • better website skills 
So how am I doing with these?  (insert laughter here)

ha ha ha

Well, if you follow this blog, or follow me on Twitter, you know that I haven't blogged hardly at all since the school year began.. so we know where I am in that goal. 

My goal of better website skills ... well.. that became a different goal - the goal of communication. And it sharpened into 2 goals - better communication with the staff at my school and with our community. 

My first goal stemmed from some complaints that information was hard to find, since it could be housed in a variety of places, based on who created it or its content. Also, there were a lot of files on our school server, but those are not reachable when you are at home and you can't open them if someone else is editing them.  One of my assistant principals floated the idea of a staff Google Site. I loved the idea because it addresses the main issues we were having.  Thinking about it, based on conversations, the staff really likes it. When I get asked about it, usually it is just for the location of certain information.  It is at a point where I think it needs a little organization and beautification, but it has definitely achieved its goal.



Second goal was to start Instagram and Twitter accounts for our school. Last year we did a decent job of using Facebook to showcase what is happening on our campus, but we need to reach those who don't use Facebook, especially our students.  Both accounts were pretty easy to set up.  Managing the separate school social media accounts was my first struggle - 3 can take up a bunch of time. Luckily I figured out that I could connect Twitter and Facebook to Instagram and then use Instagram to post everything. Only big downside - I can't schedule posts.

Each social media account is trending in the right direction. The Twitter account is helping us connect to other schools in our district, especially those in our Vertical Learning Community. I feel like I can do more with it if I give it more time and focus. There is an additional downside to my social media management process - hashtags at the end of my posts don't always appear on Twitter, where they are the most useful for visibility.

The Instagram account already has 190 followers, after only being in existence about 4 months.  I have noticed that students are started following it... hooray! Now I need to talk to some and see what they think and how I can improve what I do.  Lots of great things are happening here and I want to share it with the world!

How are you doing with your school year goals? 


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