Influence Thinking, Reason #2

Reason #2 for Administrators to Blog

Have you ever had a story come back to you that was nothing like what you know for a fact really happened? Unless you’re an administrator in a one room school house with two kids who both belong to you, I’m guessing you’ve had this experience.

Blogging is one way to get your word out, answer questions, influence thinking. I guess I look at it this way, we can either tell people what’s really happening in our districts or they’ll piece together the random information they do receive and draw their own conclusions. Which do you prefer?

I’d rather our school community have good, solid information in a place where they can ask clarifying questions, challenge my statements and let me know what they’re thinking. They’re going to do all of those things anyway, why not get in on the conversation?

What about some specific examples? Well, I’ve written much on the blog as a superintendent about our need for an improved bus mechanics bay. Not the most interesting subject but also one that people won’t know about and understand unless we get the facts out there. Why does that matter? I can’t get a capital project underway without voter approval. How can I expect support if I don’t let people know how we want to spend the money and why?

I’ve also written on the blog to explain the smashed school vehicle in our parking lot, how we landscaped our new addition, and to inform the public about our BOE retreat. I used the blog to let parents know what I was thinking about President Obama’s speech and about an exceedingly annoying door to door salesperson who was blanketing our district.

My hope is that the information is helpful and the best thing about it is the timeliness. No one has to wait for the newsletter to be published or the local newspaper to pick up the story–if they have access and interest they can learn about it here. And better yet, they can tell me what they’re thinking too. Now that’s valuable information for us. We don’t change our course based on every comment we read or hear, but it certainly is helpful to know what’s important to our community in making meaningful decisions. Influence thinking? That goes both ways here.

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