As a school community, we need to understand that we are not alone in our journey to educate the young minds of the Catholic faith. We need to use all of our resources to provide the best environment possible to further the faith and education of our students. NCEA 2017 in St. Louis has several sessions of interest that will provide school leaders with ways to best connect the school to their community and local parishes.
A session that I find particularly interesting is the session on Collaboration for Common Mission: Use of Social Media Networking to Proclaim. One important aspect of Catholic education is to show the community that we are Catholic. Parents send their students to Catholic schools to ensure that the faith is being passed on to their children. Parents also want to see that their children are learning about the Catholic faith. The best way to show what Catholic schools are doing is first, teaching students how to live a life that shows the Catholic faith in action. The second thing to do is provide parents with an inside look into what our schools are doing…and to do that we must connect to where parents are. Parents are on 2 main social media sites. These 2 sites are Twitter and Facebook.
Connecting to parents through Twitter and Facebook allows parents to quickly see the wonderful things that are going on in our classrooms. Parents have that desire to know that what they are sacrificing for is paying off through the strong dedication of the school community.
The school community is more than the school building. The school community also includes the parish priests, parishioners, the neighbors, and the community businesses around the school. We need to connect to these groups as well. Learning how social media can be a great tool to integrate the school into these areas as well will make a school excel. We need to utilize the resources around us to promote the school, and most importantly, the Catholic faith.
These session of interest will be a way for you to learn what methods are best for collaborating with all the various groups that will help promote our faith and message. It will also show how to bring these groups into one larger mission together.
Cottos Corner for Education 