Principals and Blogs!

by Jim Forde
principalspartnership.com

(Click here for a print friendly version.)

(A photo from our 2006 Summer Leadership Institute.)

What is a blog?

     Blogs really aren’t anything innovative or new. They are simply “web logs” (or blogs for short) that allow people to place their thoughts in an organized and easy manner on the internet. Often, blog entries can be commented on by others who visit the blog. This leads to other postings, and an asynchronous dialog ensues. Blogs could be considered an interactive diary that allows others to comment on the author’s entries. They function very similarly to the old bulletin board concept that has been part of the internet since its early years.

    Recently you probably have been hearing a lot about how celebrities and presidential candidates are using blogs to reach their audiences in a more informal and interactive way. But blogging belongs to the masses, too. Technorati.com is a blog tracking service that currently has 75.2 million blogs in its sights. My quick search of their directory using the key word “education” yielded over 33,000 hits. That’s a lot of electronic conversation going on!

Why have they exploded recently?

     It seems that with each passing month blogs get easier to produce and maintain. They are also very inexpensive to create. I have experimented with the use of blogger.com for a blog called Road Warrior Tips that I update infrequently for my team.

     Blogger.com is free and easy to use and may be a good starting point for someone interested in experimenting with this format. My minister even learned how to use it to create postings for a recent trip to help victims of Hurricane Katrina (http://www.louisiana3.blogspot.com/). It kept everyone connected to the relief work they were doing.

     Also, it is becoming easier to read blogs through the development of web sites that will clip blog postings for me and bring all of the content to one place. These news aggregators are also easy to use and allow me to keep updated on 30 blogs that matter to me . I use a free web site called Bloglines.com. When I am on a blog that I know I want to add to my regular reading list, I click on a link in my top button bar and it is added. Every three or four days I log on to a specified web page, just for me, and casually thumb through the postings. It is sort of like producing your own newspaper with content that you care about. It is a tremendous time saver and is the only reasonable way to stay in touch with a large number of blogs with content that you care about. As you will discover, if you have not already, there are a large number of them with interesting content for school leaders!

What makes a great blog?

   According to the eSchool News, the group who manages the ‘Best of the Education Blog’ competition, the following traits make a great blog.

1. Personality: Is there a clear personality? Do you feel like you know the writer? Is there a feeling of intimacy that might be missing from mainstream media or other forms of communication?
2. Usefulness: Is the information useful or enjoyable to read? Did it make you think, or laugh, or click? Are there handy links to other places?
3. Writing style: Is the writing in the blog snappy, crisp, and engaging to read? Or is it long-winded, dull, convoluted, or sloppy? Worse, is it a sales pitch disguised as a blog? Or just news briefs or bullet-point items without any fresh perspective, analysis, or insight?
4. Usability and design: Is the typeface easy to read? Can you find links to archives? Is the writing concise and easily skimmable? Are graphics limited to what’s useful or fun?
5. Frequency: Is the blog updated regularly, and with sufficient frequency?
6. Relevancy: Does the blog stay on topic, and is it relevant to the category in which it is being judged?
7. Interactivity: Does the blog incorporate video or audio in an engaging, interactive way? Does it offer a forum for readers to respond, or use other features to help develop a sense of community?
8. Fulfillment of purpose: How well does the blog fulfill its intended mission?
9. Appropriateness: Does the blogger use language and etiquette that is appropriate to a professional educational setting?
10. Would you revisit: Is it useful or engaging enough for you to visit it again someday?

Look for these traits in the blogs you use…. or create!

Blogs for Principals

    So how does all of this relate to your role as a high school principal? It appears that many major organizations and individual principals are starting to produce blogs. It is worth a few minutes of your time to review a several blogs that might be relevant to your role as a school leader. They may also provide some models that you might consider if you ever want to begin a blog of your own.

1) NAESP Principals’ Office Blog-  http://naesp.typepad.com

Self-described as a “blog that connects principals with their colleagues and other K-12 educators. Come in and join our community of principals—where the door is always open.” It features links to great news and information. The links on the left appear to be of a high quality also.

2) NASSP – Principal’s Policy Blog http://www.principalspolicyblog.org/blog/

This NASP blog focuses on federal policy and how it may affect your school. This is one stop shopping for information on Federal funding, IDEA, NCLB and more. They have a deep set of archives to keep you connected to what is happening in Washington.

3) Confed.of Oregon School Admin. (COSA) Blog
http://www.cosa.k12.or.us/blogs/index.php

This state level organization’s blog has, recently, leaned towards funding information and debate, but past postings cover their conference speakers, state assessments, and graduation requirements. This is useful information for their members and allows them to provide feedback back to their state level organization.

4) Taking Stock of the AAAS conference http://aasaconf.blogspot.com/

This blog was a superintendent's reaction to the AASA conference. It features things he learned and saw and photos from the event. He processes the information on the blog and allows for some of his inner thoughts to be shared. This is an interesting use for a blog, as a way to process an event with your community.

5) Puxi High School Principal Blog
http://puxihsprincipal.saschinaonline.org/?cat=3

Here is a principal producing a personal blog about his school and his leadership experience. He features ongoing commentary about cool things that are happening at the school, some school business topics, and a perspective on what being a school like is like.

You’re probably wondering how any school principal has the time to maintain a blog and still do all of the things that the job requires. But if blogging saves a few phone calls a month, or allows you to make your staff more aware of important ideas, or even saves a meeting or two… it might just pay for itself in time saved.

6) Scott McLeod’s dangerously Irrelevant Blog
click here for the link

Just in case you think that the last posting was a fluke, Scott McCleod challenged principals to start blogging and many of them took him up on it! He called it “100 New Principal Blogs in 100 Days”. Although we are a little late to the party, it is interesting to see the diversity of people who are involved in this initiative. This link to their registration packet includes a nice piece on why administrators should be blogging: The Link

And this last link will actually bring you to a complete list of the principals
around the country who jumped in on challenge:
http://principalblogs.jot.com/WikiHome/tr0

7) Mr. P’s Blog- http://mr-ps-blog.blogspot.com/

This site is an example of an elementary school principal’s blog with a more personal touch. Not only are school issues discussed but so to is his life as a graduate student and the father of toddlers. This reflects what many blogs are like: a mix of reflections, information, and useful resources.

We at principalspartnership.com will be experimenting with a blog of our own in the near future for our community of High School principals. We hope it will be a place where principals can submit requests for help or great ideas and others can join in to support and expand them. I’ll let you know when it is time to start blogging at principalspartnership.com!

Jim Forde :-)
Webmaster
principalspartnership.com

PS- Drop me a line if you have had any blogging experiences you would like to share with our group!

See our Feature Article Archives for past articles!