cc licensed flickr photo shared by larbelaitz
Recently, I read an article by Simon Sinek (I love his blog and this video) talking about how advertisers are failing more to focus on the needs of their customer.
“The reason we hate advertising is because the ad industry has no idea who its customer is…”
This is sometimes my fear with education. Sometimes we forget that our “customer” (using that term for lack of a better word) are our students. Parents could also be considered customers in schools but I believe that if we want schools to become transformational, they will be included as partners in the learning process for their children.
Building upon Simon Sinek’s article, if we are to advertise our school solely on what our students need first, would the parents not ultimately be satisfied as well. How do we do this though? Coincidentally, on the same day I read Sinek’s post, Michelle Baldwin also wrote an excellent post about how we need to advertise the great things that are happening in our schools. She does not talk about anything complicated in promoting our schools, but has a simple plan:
- Contact the media more often. Invite them to my classroom (again). Share, through multiple methods, what it is we’re doing.
- Bring parents into the classroom more. The parents in my school are already welcome in my classroom, although not many of them take our offer to visit. I want them to share their expertise in my classroom more often.
- Bring more attention to other teachers and students who are doing great things. Not every teacher has a powerful network where he/she can share successes. I have a great learning network of people who love to share ideas, collaborate, and celebrate with each other.
It would be imperative that we discuss these great things that are already happening within our school communities and how they are meeting the needs of students.
Ultimately, the best advertising for your school comes from your students. The word of mouth that comes from them can either make or break the reputation of a teacher, principal, or a school. I am not saying that we should go out and start selling our schools. Our time should be focused first and foremost on serving our students. If we focus on serving them first, the rest will take care of itself.
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George,
I may be making a mistake on this, but I tend not to call the papers as much because of all of the blogging I do. Ironically, I get calls from the reporters based on blog posts that they read on my blog. However, I think that I will make a concerted effort this year to e-mail them links to my posts and call them to make this more of a two way relationship.
In regards to students and parents playing a more significant role, I believe you are spot on. We have compliant students in our classrooms in most public schools and we need to have engaged students who know they have an important voice in their schools.
Parents in most schools are also not engaged in the conversation. They are involved, coming into our schools for shows, volunteer opportunities, graduation ceremonies, concerts, etc. But they are also not engaged. It is no wonder since they were students in schools that probably taught them to be compliant and just do whatever was asked. We also need to show parents that they have an important voice in shaping their child's education.
We have a lot of work to do, but it is a lot more fun when we have our students and parents working with us!
One thing that really stuck out in my mind during a discussion with Dr. Stephen Heppell was that we need to bring the "outside" in. In other words, if we want community support, if we want the public aware of what we are doing, if we want to "advertise" for our school, we have to bring people into our schools. Dr. Heppell mentioned several ways that this could be done, some of which were:
-contact local media regularly (as mentioned above)
-host community activities, showcasing students and student work
-some how let the "outside" see what's going on at any point in the day (keep blinds open, invite public to visit regularly, etc)
I'm sure you can think of dozens of other ways of bringing the "outside" in, but you get the idea.
At the end of this past school year, we completed a Photo Journal project. As a culminating activity, we published the students journals, displayed them at the county library, invited the local news outlets, and had the authors (our students) share their work with their families and those that attended. Huge success (http://bit.ly/ck927t), but why not include the community aspect DURING the process–build support and anticipation for the final products.
You also mentioned this, George, "Ultimately, the best advertising for your school comes from your students." So very true. You know you've made it as a teacher when your students go home and the first thing they want to do is talk about their day at school. If a student goes home excited about coming back the next day, you've not only done your job well, but you've earned the trust and support of the parents. There is no better way to promote your school than by sending students home at the end of the day talking their parent's ear off about what they did and what they'll do tomorrow. Engaged and motivated students engage and motivate parents.
Great post.
George -
I think I have mistakingly gotten away from calling the newspapers since I post so much on my blog. In fact, I have gotten a number of calls from reporters for follow-up to things that they read on the blog. But I think I have to do a better job of reaching out to the press next year and not expecting them to just find out the information on their own.
In regards to students and parents becoming more involved and having a significant voice in moving things forward, I am hoping to make some significant movement on this next year. I feel like we talk about it a lot, but we still have a great deal of involvement without much engagement. By this I mean parents and students will show up and do whatever we ask, but they are not yet playing an active role in helping us move our agenda to change our schools.
It is no surprise that parents are so compliant since their experience in public education was one where they were not granted a large voice. It is a struggle to change this mindset, but it is awesome when you see that parents (and students) get the fact that we genuinely we appreciate what they have to offer.
George, You are right on with your article! Loved it. I would like to use the last paragraph of the article in my welcome back letter to our staff, giving you a by-line of course. Congratulations on the newbie nomination and love the travel tweets.
Absolutely! Go for it; I am honoured that you would even consider it
George, this is an excellent post, but I think that it's the last line in it that gets me most of all: "If we focus on serving them [the students] first, the rest will take care of itself." I absolutely agree!
I believe very strongly in working with parents to best meet the needs of all students, but at the end of the day, it really is the happy, engaged, motivated-to-learn child that matters the most. When my students leave the classroom excited to come back to school the next day, I cannot imagine a better feeling in the world!
Yes, sometimes I find it hard to think of school as a "business," but if it is one, then I ALWAYS want the "customers" to leave happy!
Thanks for writing another great post that really made me think!
Aviva
In my school we argue over who "has to" contact the media
I think a lot of schools (most?) prefer to not have much "intrusion" into the schools. Having outsiders come in sometimes makes the administration nervous. I do agree that we need to be pro-active at our schools. I especially like how you emphasize bringing attention to those teachers that are outstanding but don't get the recognition they deserve. I find it awkward to talk about any recognition I receive with the other teachers simply because they have little opportunity to receive any of their own.
Great post! We are here for the students first! I love that you always put your students first…even over test scores!
Thanks for making the connections from my blog post to advertising. While some celebs think you can never have bad press or publicity- "it's all good"– schools generally tend to be more reactive when it comes to publicity. I watch (and squirm) when I see a local news team cover a negative incident at a school, because there's another reason for people to think badly about kids and schools in general.
I agree with William above… many teachers and administrators are nervous to bring people into the schools. I don't understand why transparency is such a scary issue with some educators. Call me an exhibitionist (the good kind, of course), but I love giving my kids a stage where they can show what they can do. Maybe it's the nature of being a performer and music teacher, but our kids can do amazing things!! Why hide that within the confines of a classroom? Bring them out to the world so they can see how great our kids truly are!