Twitter sniffs and #complimentday
Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2025 5:05 am
Choose your media strategy, which services are you going to use? Find out which services and programs are available. Look at the art of fellow schools or ask which platforms parents are on. Let your objectives guide you; which services offer the best opportunities for this? If you mainly want to profile your school, Twitter, Facebook and Hyves can be suitable for this.
Choose your message. What do you want people to know about your school and what do you want them to think about you? Tell your story in different ways, but be consistent in style and tone. Also realize that social media is about interaction and try to get reactions and input from others.
Choose your people. How do you make sure that you actually achieve your goals? Divide the tasks, make people responsible and decide whether or not you need to hire external support. Provide an introductory meeting for everyone involved and set some rules about what can and cannot be made public.
Celebrate your successes. Set fixed evaluation moments. Do not only focus on what could be improved or what the next goal should be. Focus specifically on successes and good experiences, which can then of course also be shared via social media.
Practical guidelines
In addition to the step-by-step plan, the book also provides more practical guidance. For example, each teacher in the examples consistently answers questions such as 'How long will the project take?' and 'What do you need?'. Additional tips from the editors and relevant links are also provided for each topic. Furthermore, the book contains the 'Social media ABC' and a summary of this in the form of a poster, a proven means for (permanent) visibility in schools. The reactions of fellow teachers and parents are discussed in many places in the book. It then becomes clear that they were not always enthusiastic about a project, that they were sceptical or showed little interest. The makers of the book want to motivate teachers to get started with social media. In my opinion, it would have been strong if they had discussed this in more detail and given tips on dealing with resistance and unfamiliarity with social media.
LED lights for Kenyan peers
A nice project from the book I think is ' Social with Media' from the Voorwegschool in Heemstede. Here children from group 8 collected money via social media, from which Kenyan peers received LED lights with solar panels. This allowed them to read and learn longer in the evening. A short film was made to draw attention to the project. Well-known Dutch people were approached to tweet and retweet. The school organised a dance flash mob and via Hyves, Twitter and the school website pupils generated attention and collected money.
This project taught the children how to use social media for a good cause and called upon their creativity and inventiveness. Without realizing it, they were also working on language, for example, how do you best formulate a catchy tweet?
Schoolyard on Facebook
Two class parents of OBS De Dijk in Zaandam ensured more involvement lebanon telegram data between parents and with the school via a closed Facebook page. Many parents were already present on Facebook, the class parents invited the other parents and also teachers for this. On the page, parents can find photos and videos of excursions and other activities at school. Parents also use the page as a forum and post questions to other parents, for example about the usual bedtime in other families. Practical information about, for example, information evenings of secondary education can also be found on the page, so that parents no longer have to find all this out individually. Thanks to this virtual schoolyard, it has become easier to mobilize parents for school activities and parents are better informed about everything that is happening at school thanks to updates, photos and videos.
Twitter sniffs
Teacher Maarten Hendrikx from Belgium gives his students assignments via Twitter, the so-called Twittersnuffels. This happens both during class and outside school hours. He wants to teach them how to deal with social media and increase their media literacy. The students also receive interesting links or facts via Twitter or make their own Twitter poems. If the atmosphere in the class is not so good, the teacher introduces #complimentjesdag and during the work week at the seaside, the parents who stayed at home are kept informed of what happens during the work week. The students do not use personal accounts, but sub-accounts of the class account, so that the teacher retains control over the account.
Twitter proves to be simple and effective; mutual contact becomes more direct and better and, for example, password aspects and netiquette on Twitter are automatically addressed.
Choose your message. What do you want people to know about your school and what do you want them to think about you? Tell your story in different ways, but be consistent in style and tone. Also realize that social media is about interaction and try to get reactions and input from others.
Choose your people. How do you make sure that you actually achieve your goals? Divide the tasks, make people responsible and decide whether or not you need to hire external support. Provide an introductory meeting for everyone involved and set some rules about what can and cannot be made public.
Celebrate your successes. Set fixed evaluation moments. Do not only focus on what could be improved or what the next goal should be. Focus specifically on successes and good experiences, which can then of course also be shared via social media.
Practical guidelines
In addition to the step-by-step plan, the book also provides more practical guidance. For example, each teacher in the examples consistently answers questions such as 'How long will the project take?' and 'What do you need?'. Additional tips from the editors and relevant links are also provided for each topic. Furthermore, the book contains the 'Social media ABC' and a summary of this in the form of a poster, a proven means for (permanent) visibility in schools. The reactions of fellow teachers and parents are discussed in many places in the book. It then becomes clear that they were not always enthusiastic about a project, that they were sceptical or showed little interest. The makers of the book want to motivate teachers to get started with social media. In my opinion, it would have been strong if they had discussed this in more detail and given tips on dealing with resistance and unfamiliarity with social media.
LED lights for Kenyan peers
A nice project from the book I think is ' Social with Media' from the Voorwegschool in Heemstede. Here children from group 8 collected money via social media, from which Kenyan peers received LED lights with solar panels. This allowed them to read and learn longer in the evening. A short film was made to draw attention to the project. Well-known Dutch people were approached to tweet and retweet. The school organised a dance flash mob and via Hyves, Twitter and the school website pupils generated attention and collected money.
This project taught the children how to use social media for a good cause and called upon their creativity and inventiveness. Without realizing it, they were also working on language, for example, how do you best formulate a catchy tweet?
Schoolyard on Facebook
Two class parents of OBS De Dijk in Zaandam ensured more involvement lebanon telegram data between parents and with the school via a closed Facebook page. Many parents were already present on Facebook, the class parents invited the other parents and also teachers for this. On the page, parents can find photos and videos of excursions and other activities at school. Parents also use the page as a forum and post questions to other parents, for example about the usual bedtime in other families. Practical information about, for example, information evenings of secondary education can also be found on the page, so that parents no longer have to find all this out individually. Thanks to this virtual schoolyard, it has become easier to mobilize parents for school activities and parents are better informed about everything that is happening at school thanks to updates, photos and videos.
Twitter sniffs
Teacher Maarten Hendrikx from Belgium gives his students assignments via Twitter, the so-called Twittersnuffels. This happens both during class and outside school hours. He wants to teach them how to deal with social media and increase their media literacy. The students also receive interesting links or facts via Twitter or make their own Twitter poems. If the atmosphere in the class is not so good, the teacher introduces #complimentjesdag and during the work week at the seaside, the parents who stayed at home are kept informed of what happens during the work week. The students do not use personal accounts, but sub-accounts of the class account, so that the teacher retains control over the account.
Twitter proves to be simple and effective; mutual contact becomes more direct and better and, for example, password aspects and netiquette on Twitter are automatically addressed.