Thursday, August 30, 2018

6 Vital Social Skills to Teach to Pre-School Children

6 Vital Social Skills to Teach to Pre-School Children In this digitally-saturated world, it is more vital than ever that educators continue to recognize and value the human interaction skills that are so important to our students' development and well...

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17 Bright Ideas for Raising Awareness of Your Capital Campaign

17 Bright Ideas for Raising Awareness of Your Capital Campaign

In last week’s post, we learned that your capital campaign has to have its own marketing plan. Here are 17 bright ideas to raise awareness to consider putting into your plan.

1. Record video interviews with board members.

Interviewing board members is the first thing I think of when it comes to raising awareness for your capital campaign.

Interviews are one of the simplest and fastest videos to make. This also makes them one of the cheapest video assets to produce.

But even better is the fact interviews allow you to leverage your board member’s social networks!

After a board member has been interviewed and the video has been uploaded to a social video sharing platform, encourage your board members to share the interview videos on their social media sites.

2. Record video interviews with influencers in your alumni network.

Jumping off the video interview idea for your board members, this idea is a natural way to go.

Just like your board members, you have many alumni in your network who have substantial social media followings. Many of them are highly respected influencers in their field.

Word of advice: never underestimate the exponential growth potential of lesser known alumni who nonetheless have kept up with every alumni in their graduating class.

They may not be community leaders, but if they’ve been highly active on social media, they  can get your capital campaign news out to thousands of people.

3. Record video interviews with leading donors.

Okay. This is the last iteration of the video interview idea, I promise. But it’s a good one.

Donor stories are powerful because they showcase the firm belief of the donor in your school’s mission. Nothing shows commitment like putting your money where your mouth is.

Also, donor stories show your audience how “normal” a donor can be. Millionaires don’t always wear suits, ties, and patent leather shoes. Nor does one need to be a millionaire to make a difference in your capital campaign.

BONUS TIP

Does the idea of interviewing all these people seem like an administrative nightmare?

Well, it can be — unless you use this bonus tip!

I recommend you come up with ways to gather multiple interviewees in one place or event (like homecoming) and schedule interviews with them in a quieter rooms on campus or off-to-the-side.

Make sure, though, that your audio quality is not compromised by loud auditoriums or other destructive ambient noises.

If you have alumni, donors or board members that can’t make it to campus, look into video-conferencing tools such as Zoom, where you can record your interview from different locations.

Also, be sure to check out “Marketing Hacks On a Shoestring Budget” for some great resources to make video less painful, both in effort and cost!

4. Publish Press Releases in your local and regional news outlets.

Good, old fashioned press releases have not gone the way of the dodo.

Local news outlets will be happy to receive press releases from your school about your capital campaign. They need ideas for news stories that will affect their readers, and your capital campaign should have a very positive impact on your local community.

Send releases to multiple outlets when you launch, during the campaign, and at the conclusion of your capital campaign.

5. Create a video case for support.

As we discussed in last week’s blog post, a written case statement can be a powerful print marketing piece to raise awareness for your capital campaign. Creating a video from your case statement can make your case for support all the more compelling.

For your video case statement:

  • Feature some of the interview footage from the video interviews I recommend above. Recycle/reuse those video assets!
  • Go deeper by showing footage of proposed renovation sites, building sites, student spaces, academic buildings, worship spaces, student activities, etc.
  • Have a student narrate the case to your audience as a voiceover. This will create more of a sense of urgency and feeling of authenticity behind your video case for support.
6. Host campaign mini-banquets.

Annual donor banquets that appeal for annual fund gifts require a lot of administration to pull off.

But for your capital campaign, try creating smaller events on campus or off-campus locally: Alumni, parents, and donors come for refreshments, networking, and to hear your capital campaign presentation.

7. Double-down on growing your email list.

During your capital campaign, it’s a brilliant time to double-down and push hard for more subscribers.

Use gated content to grow your list by creating ebooksvideos, or other media that you give to visitors who sign up for your email list. Remember, your gated content has to be something your audience wants to have!

If you’re not using an email service provider like MailChimpEmma, or Constant Contact, you need to. Also, marketing automation tools like Sharpspring are powerful ways to get the most out of your email marketing.

8. Create campaign brand elements.

Distinct brand design elements like a logo, typography, and colors will distinguish your capital campaign theme and case from the hundreds of other capital campaigns happening around the country.

Also, unique capital campaign elements will help distinguish your capital campaign efforts from your other fundraising or marketing efforts.

BONUS TIP

I highly recommend that you create a moodboard for your capital campaign. This marketing tool should preset all the brand design elements in one file so you can get approvals faster and then enforce brand quality control later across all communications.

9. Send direct mail appeals to your donors.

Direct mail appeals are a great way to raise awareness of your capital campaign theme, case, and goals.

Depending on how your school has structured your marketing and advancement departments, you may or may not have any responsibility or authority when it comes to direct mail appeals.

But even if you don’t have anything to do with direct mail fundraising, reach out to your development colleagues to see when they’re sending out mail about the capital campaign so you can track the number of times your audience is hearing about the capital campaign.

10. Hit the streets for personal visits.

You can’t get more into grassroots, guerrilla-style marketing than personal visits.

Everyone knows that during a campaign fundraising staff members will go and visit donors to solicit gifts.

But what I’m talking about here are awareness visits.

For awareness visits, someone — can be a senior marketing, executive, or fundraising staff person — visits alumni, parents, and donors to discuss the capital campaigns case, goals, and general news about the campaign.

You might even consider taking a current student or a recent donor along with you on the personal visits.

11. Post videos to LinkedIn.

As education marketers, our top priority is enrollment marketing. Because of this, you may not be into LinkedIn, but for your capital campaign, you should give it a try.

Your alumni relations department may already have a presence there because that’s where a lot of influential alumni and donors spend most of their professional online networking time.

So for the duration of the campaign, consider taking those videos you’re creating and get them on to LinkedIn.

12. Live stream building and renovation sites.

One of the most engaging marketing tactics we’ve used at Caylor Solutions over the years is a live camera feed at the building or renovation site.

It’s exciting for donors, alumni, and visitors to watch the construction of your building from the ground up or to see a room transformed.

Live camera feeds of your building sites encourage visitors to come back to your site often to check on the progress of your capital campaign.

13. Put on alumni chapter events.

Remember the mini-banquet idea I listed above? You can multiply your efforts across the nation — perhaps the world — by mobilizing your alumni network.

If you have a strong network, recruit alumni to host receptions and events in their local area to promote the capital campaign.

14. Send gift announcements to journalists.

As I’m writing today, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas has the distinction of raising more money in a capital campaign than any other private educational institution in Texas.

They raised $1.15 billion dollars, endowed 54 new faculty positions, and completed 24 major new building or renovation projects.

In their capital campaign report, they cited their special relationship with a local journalist as a major factor in their campaign’s public affairs component (a.k.a., raising awareness).

“One strength provided by Public Affairs was a close relationship with the philanthropy columnist of The Dallas Morning News, Bob Miller. He agreed to announce every gift of $1 million or more in his column, if he could be the first to do so. Gift announcements thus were timed so that every two or three weeks an SMU gift story would appear, providing Mr. Miller with ample copy for his column and giving SMU the repetition needed to communicate ongoing progress. His column was a “must read” for much of the Dallas elite who make up the generous donor community supporting area institutions.” — SMU Final Campaign Report, Spring 2016

Mr. Miller wasn’t the only journalist they sent gift announcements to.

“In a typical year during the Campaign, [our News and Communications team] scored 148,232 traditional print placements in such venues as The New York Times, Forbes and National Geographic.”

Take this play right out of their capital campaign playbook and use it for your school, even if your capital campaign goal is modest compared to Southern Methodist University.

15. Include your capital campaign in community outreach.

Successful private schools are active in their communities already, but during your capital campaign, make sure that you have all the marketing materials you need to raise awareness while you are involved in local:

  • Parades,
  • Festivals, or
  • Volunteerism.
16. Launch ads, articles, and feature stories in your alumni magazine.

Many of the private colleges and universities we work with have a special publication they send out to alumni. It can be a printed alumni magazine or an email newsletter.

However you do your alumni magazine, you can use it to raise awareness about your capital campaign by publishing:

  • Alumni interviews
  • Donor interviews
  • Gift announcements
  • General campaign announcements
  • Building progress updates
17. Create a capital campaign website (microsite).

This one is going to take more time and money than most of the ideas on this list, but it is critical.

Your capital campaign website is the central hub from which all of your marketing efforts will flow and the ultimate destination for your audience.

So you want to invest as much into the messaging, design, copy, and rich media content in your capital campaign microsite as you possibly can.

All of the content you will use in your awareness campaigns (like interview videos, gift announcements, etc.) should originally be published to your website.

From there, the content should then be distributed across all of your marketing channels.

In this way, your distributed content will point your audience back to your capital campaign microsite where they have a chance to become a giver.

Since your capital campaign microsite is so important, we’ll go even deeper into how you should structure your capital campaign microsite in our next blog post. Don’t miss it!

Ready to begin?

There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to capital campaign marketing. We’d be happy to help you with our experienced team of marketing consultants, writers, designers, and developers.

Contact us today to talk about how we can help you achieve your capital campaign marketing goals.

Featured image by treenabeena via Adobe Stock
Press release image by Zerbor via Adobe Stock
Networking/Seminar image by Rawpixel.com via Adobe Stock

This post was originally published at: https://www.caylor-solutions.com/17-bright-ideas-to-raise-awareness-of-your-capital-campaign/

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Wednesday, August 29, 2018

School delayed for thousands as teachers hit picket lines

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Boston sets temperature record as schools adjust to heat

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Kansas teachers union backs Democratic nominee for governor

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Rhode Island bans guns on school grounds, except with police

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Lawsuit seeks public money for tuition at religious schools

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Providence teachers approve work-to-rule vote

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When Confederate Monuments Fall, Move Them to Your Classroom

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Michigan reading scores up slightly in third, fourth grades

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Boy arrested in shooting of teen outside Denver school

Boy arrested in shooting of teen outside Denver school <img src="https://ift.tt/2onBXhe" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> https://ift.tt/2PiOygT

Virginia schools spend thousands to keep students off phones

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Tuesday, August 28, 2018

5 Ways Students are Leaving Themselves Vulnerable to Cybercrime

5 Ways Students are Leaving Themselves Vulnerable to Cybercrime Next Friday, September 7th (at Noon EST), I will deliver a webinar further exploring cyber safety tips like these. We will also take a deeper dive into other ways digital devices and apps are causing...

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Sunday, August 26, 2018

Education and Technology Tweet Wrap w/e 08-25-18

Education and Technology Tweet Wrap w/e 08-25-18 Inspiring, informative, useful, or just plain fun tweets posted on Twitter over this past week … collected here to share with our blog readers. This week in the wrap … an educational app...

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Thursday, August 23, 2018

Seven Steps to Marketing for Capital Campaigns

Seven Steps to Marketing for Capital Campaigns

There’s a lot of excitement when it comes to capital campaigns — and with it comes a ton of pressure for education marketers. Here’s a starter’s guide for anyone marketing a capital campaign for the first time.

Capital campaigns are large, multi-year projects with an enormous monetary goal.

So even if it’s not your first capital campaign, launching the marketing plan for the capital campaign is both thrilling and frightening.

With capital campaigns, the stakes are higher and the outcomes are so widely published, it’s nerve-racking.

All of the marketing principles that we talk about here in the Caylor blog still apply. But here are some special things you’ll have to do as an education marketer to make your capital campaign marketing a success.

1. Create a marketing plan.

If your college, university, or independent school does not have an overarching marketing plan, you need one.

Check out my two-part series 10 Components of a Successful Education Marketing Plan (Part 1) for a look at how to get started on that.

But assuming that you have an organizational marketing plan, you will need to create another marketing plan with almost all of the same components just for the capital campaign.

Your capital campaign marketing plan should be complementary to your larger plan. Capital campaign marketing should never supersede or take the place of the activities of your ongoing enrollment marketing. Enrollment is and always will be the ultimate end goal for you as an education marketer.

Marketing Plan: A Touchstone for Your Team

However, successful capital campaigns last for years. This is not a month-long messaging campaign you can whip together with a simple office to-do list.

The capital campaign is your organization’s most sophisticated, intensely focused effort at improving its educational, residential, and athletic offerings to future students. As such, it will require the same level of sophistication and intense effort on your part as a marketing team.

Spend the time to create a multi-year marketing plan to guide your work and keep your team on track over the years as attentions wane and campaign leadership changes.

Believe me. Two years into the campaign, you’ll be grateful you wrote everything down into your capital campaign marketing plan.

Not only will it help you stay on track with your original plans, it will also give you a place for adjustments to be made and communicated with your team along the way.

2. Identify your audience.

This is an important step to take because your marketing personas for the capital campaign will be different than the audiences you reach out to in enrollment marketing.

Capital campaigns generally have three main audiences:

  1. Alumni
  2. Donors
  3. Public/Community

Your particular campaign may have some unique marketing personas, but these are the three almost all educational capital campaigns must address.

I encourage you to take time to think deeply about what makes these audiences different than your enrollment marketing audiences like prospective students and parents.

To begin with, they’re older. They have some familiarity with your education brand. Most of them are well down the road in their career and life goals, and are now interested in making philanthropic investments.

Your marketing personas will, of course, need to be more defined. But the point here is that you need separate personas for your capital campaign marketing plan because they will be entirely different than your everyday audiences.

3. Write down their questions.

Successful education marketing is all about anticipating and answering the questions your audiences look to your brand to answer.

The questions your capital campaign audiences are asking of your school will be altogether different than those of your enrollment marketing personas — so again, take the time to think this through.

  • What does the school need my gift for?
  • What will you do with my gift?
  • Are there naming or tribute gift opportunities?
  • How much are you raising?
  • Why does the school need to reach the campaign goal?
  • How will this campaign affect future students, the school’s standing, and perhaps even the world?
  • Can the school reasonably reach this goal?
  • Who’s in charge of the campaign?
  • How do I give?

In fact, this step is so important, I recommend that you do some market research.

  • Call select individuals in your audience
  • Assemble a focus group
  • Ask questions in social media groups with alumni or donors
  • Go on a donor visit with a fundraising staff person and listen

This may seem like a lot of work, but it’s worth it! Your marketing messages will be clearer and more compelling to your audience.

4. Craft language for your campaign.

Creating compelling language for your audiences will be key to reaching your capital campaign goals.

That’s why the last two steps are critical. You have to know who you’re marketing to and what questions they have before you can come up with messaging that resonates with them.

The typical categories for campaign language you’ll need to create are a theme, a positioning statement, and taglines.

Your campaign theme is the overall concept you use to unite all of your marketing messages. It is the big idea that shows why the capital campaign is necessary.

All the language, and even the design elements, should spring from your capital campaign concept.

  • Some campaigns use an innovation concept to show how campaign gifts will shape the future.
  • Others may go for a historic theme where campaign gifts conserve historic values and distinctions.
  • Still others will choose a theme that wraps around a characteristic of their campus (“Climbing the Mountain”) or even their school spirit (“Fly High Falcons!”).
Positioning Statements and Taglines

Positioning Statements and related taglines are catchy, short, memorable phrases that encapsulate the campaign theme. The best taglines communicate the emotional motivation behind the campaign in about seven words or less.

Having positioning statements and taglines pre-written and approved by the marketing leadership and capital campaign leadership committee is extremely helpful to keeping your messaging and voice consistent across all marketing materials.

Stony Brook University: “Together We Go Far Beyond”

Screenshot of https://ift.tt/2LkuKHM

The College of the Holy Cross: “This Is the Moment”

Screenshot of https://ift.tt/2MRhbo8

Portsmouth Abbey: “Securing our Academic Future”

Screenshot of https://ift.tt/2NdcRfG

5. Produce unique design elements.

With the right language to convey your capital campaign theme, you can begin designing colors, logos, typography, layouts, and other design elements that will resonate with your audience.

I recommend creating a “moodboard” for your capital campaign marketing plan so that you can see how your theme, slogans, and visual design elements work together.

Remember to keep all of your design elements properly aligned with your capital campaign audience. Whimsical concepts, colors, and typography will probably not create the trust you need for large donations.

6. Develop a microsite.

Too many schools choose not to even consider developing a microsite for their capital campaign simply because it is a lot of work and requires allocating budget resources.But it is a part of the cost and success of a proper capital campaign.

As you can see in the slogan examples I gave you above, each of these schools has created a microsite devoted to capital campaign. It’s a worthwhile investment as the campaign will last for several years at least, and this will become the campaign’s marketing hub during those years.

Common capital campaign microsite pages are:

  • Homepage
  • Giving page
  • Initiatives Page (Basically the categories, funds, and programs to be funded.)
    • Scholarship page (Most capital campaigns have a scholarship element but yours might not.)
    • Facilities page (If your capital campaign is raising capital for new facilities or major renovations.)
    • Endowments page
  • Student, alumni, and donor stories
  • Campaign Progress
    • Live action cameras to show visitors progress on the building
    • News and Events
7. Leverage the power of print.

A capital campaign is not complete without a full array of print materials that take your marketing messaging into the offline world.

Fundraisers will need a printed case statement to leave with the potential major donors they visit.

The case statement is a beautifully designed brochure explaining why their leadership gift to the capital campaign is so important and is a tangible piece they can give to their friends when they explain why they’re donating a million dollars to their alma mater.

Other print materials may include:

  • Newsletters sent to the target market to introduce them to the campaign and share stories on the campaign’s progress.
  • “One sheets” that contain the case statement on one poster-like page. These can be distributed at events or mailed out.
  • Direct mail packages that invite the recipient to call the development office.
Is a capital campaign coming up for you?

If so, we at Caylor Solutions would be happy to put our decades of educational marketing experience to work for you.

We’ve helped numerous colleges, universities, and independent schools conceptualize their capital campaign themes, slogans, and designs. We’ve also helped them execute on their marketing plan by developing powerful campaign microsites.

If your school is launching a capital campaign, and you’re looking for an experienced marketing partner, let’s talk!

Featured image by littleny via Adobe Stock

This post was originally published at: https://www.caylor-solutions.com/7-steps-to-marketing-for-capital-campaigns/

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Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Oil boom may provide windfall to New Mexico, public schools

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Florida court clears way to release school shooting video

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Jackson school system taps Oklahoma administrator as leader

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Texas governor grants $1.5M more to Santa Fe after shooting

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Charter school leaders send $75K for McKee's campaign

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Florida legislators, governor clash over school security

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Suit demands taxpayer-funded tuition for religious schools

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School district suspends pole-dancing teacher

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Florida Governor: Use unused money to hire resource officers

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Illinois to offer new merit-based college scholarships

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Putting the Personal in Personalized Learning During back to school season, so many things are new. New students. New teachers. New learning. New school or district wide initiatives, including new software. Yet, for all that’s new, there are...

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Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Does your Website Need an Overhaul or Just a Few Tweaks?

Does your Website Need an Overhaul or Just a Few Tweaks?

Keeping your college or university website content dynamic and fresh is a big part of maintaining incoming traffic looking for answers concerning their higher education needs. But every now and then, you’ve got to consider the overall condition of your website because you just might need a website overhaul.

Sometimes, all you need is a few tweaks to get it back on track.

But other times you need a complete overhaul, like the “whole natural overhaul” that Doc Brown got from the rejuvenation clinic in Back to the Future II

“I went to a rejuvenation clinic and got a whole natural overhaul. They took out some wrinkles, did hair repair, changed the blood, added a good 30 to 40 years to my life. They also replaced my spleen and colon. What do you think?”
– Doc Brown

While we’re still ways away from being able to get a new spleen on-the-go like that, a complete website overhaul can give your digital marketing strategy a new lease on life…

If you’re approaching it with the right questions in mind.

Here’s a quick checklist to use when deciding if you need a website overhaul or just some simple tweaks. Does your website help or hinder the user?
  • Is it clear, concise and simple enough for them to get answers to their questions? Visitors are coming to your site for answers, and they’re going to decide to stay or leave in just 15 seconds. You can lower your bounce rate (the percentage of visitors that leave your site within seconds of arrival) by keeping the website copy clear, concise, and simple.
  • Does it accurately represent your institution through photos, videos, rich media?Images tell a story and convey a message just like your copy. Make sure the rich media on your higher education website has the messaging and feeling you want for your audience. Also, take out any rich media that needs explanation or captions. The message should be self-evident.
  • Does it leave them wanting more? Every good story has cliff-hangers that make you turn the page. Good websites do the same. Place calls to action at the end of every page or post that offer to answer related questions or stories that tempt your audience to keep clicking.
  • Is it actually built for the end user or for the internal audience at the school? Internal sites use insider language and answer questions only insiders would ask. At best, this kind of content confuses visitors and, at worst, makes them feel unwelcome. Use subdomains to direct your internal audiences for their information or communications. Keep your main websites all about your outside visitors and their needs.
Is it easy to use from the user’s point of view?
  • Are the language and terms user-centric and not what you use at your institution? Your website should speak in the language of your audience. The copy should include simple, everyday words as well as the specific words your audience will likely use to find you in a search.
  • Is your site’s organization user-centric and not based upon school divisions or politics? It may be organized neatly by department, but that doesn’t mean it makes sense to the outside visitor. Remember, your visitors are looking for quick answers, not departments.
  • Is it written well and for the web? Short sentences. Bullet points. Plenty of white space.
  • Are there clear next steps and calls-to-action? Every page on your site should have a call to action. Examples…
    – Learn more about financial aid and scholarships
    – Share this post
    – For more info, contact our alumni events coordinator
    – Help more students achieve their educational dream
Do you need to gut your website, or tweak it?

There are different ways you can approach your website’s redesign, each with varying degrees of change and work involved.

Don’t assume that you have to jump into a complete website overhaul right away. Assess where you are, where you need to go, and pick your level of redesign accordingly.

Level 1: Tweak Copy or Content

After going through the checklist above, you may find that it’s strong in most areas, but poor in one or two. In that case, tweak the site to correct the weak areas in your copy or rich media content.

Level 2: Upgrade the site

Sometimes the site simply needs a fresh look or an improved navigation design.

You can accomplish this new design relatively painlessly if you have a platform like WordPress. Simply shop around for a new theme that suits your objectives.

Level 3: Migration

If your site is experiencing problems that affect user experience, but it’s not because of your content, layout, or design, consider migrating your site to a new content management system (CMS).

I highly recommend WordPress as a Content Management System.

It’s widely used and universally supported. Because of this, there’s a plugin for pretty much anything you need it to do, and it’s relatively easy to find qualified developers to get your site going.

It’s also easy for non-technical users to get into the content management back-end and update their content without having to bother the web department each time they want to update the content.

Other platforms to consider are:

If the issues hindering your users have more to do with site performance issues like sluggish page load times, consider who’s hosting your site. You may have to switch your website host to fit your changing needs.

For most smaller schools, budget $10 per month for web hosting and $50 for larger.

I highly recommend these website hosts:

Level 4: Complete Overhaul

Completely overhauling your higher education website involves work in all redesign levels that we’ve covered here.

In this level, messaging and content is designed at the beginning with the end user’s needs and your school’s marketing goals in mind.

Web hosts and content management systems are chosen with the marketing strategy in mind and are implemented from the ground up.

It’s a lot of work, but there are times when starting over from scratch can resurrect a dying digital marketing strategy.

I don’t recommend gutting your site and starting from scratch without guidance from an experienced guide.

Of course, we’d be honored to be the ones to help you in your website’s relaunch. But the important thing is, you’ll save a lot of money, time, and frustration by bringing a trusted guide along for the journey.

We offer expert guidance for website redesigns on every level, so please contact us today to talk about your project.

This post was originally published at:  http://www.caylor-solutions.com/does-your-website-need-overhaul/

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15 Tips and Online Resources That Will Help Students Improve Their Writing

15 Tips and Online Resources That Will Help Students Improve Their Writing While this is a topic that gets covered on education blogs with some frequency, I haven't tackled it here in a while, and it is such a vital skill. Written and oral communications are the most...

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Sunday, August 19, 2018

Digital Technology and Quality Teaching Tweet Recap, w/e 08-18-18

Digital Technology and Quality Teaching Tweet Recap, w/e 08-18-18 Inspiring, informative, useful, or just plain fun tweets posted on Twitter over this past week … collected here to share with our blog readers. This week in the wrap … how to never run out of...

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Thursday, August 16, 2018

Tweet Recap, w/e 08-18-18

Tweet Recap, w/e 08-18-18 Inspiring, informative, useful, or just plain fun tweets posted on Twitter over this past week … collected here to share with our blog readers. This week in the wrap … How an award-winning UBC...

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What’s the End Goal of Your Higher Education Marketing Plan?

What’s the End Goal of Your Higher Education Marketing Plan? Have You Considered the Life-Cycle of Your Prospect?

Over my career of working with various Fortune 500 companies, non-profits, and schools, I can attest to the unique challenges of education marketing. Very few other “businesses” have the diversity of constituents of a typical school: prospective students, parents and other influencers, current students, alumni, faculty, staff, donors, competing schools, feeder schools, media, neighbors…the list goes on and on. With such a diversity of audience, it is easy to lose focus on the end goals of your higher education marketing plan.

This January, I invested in a goal-setting course created by Michael Hyatt. I really like Hyatt’s style of simple, practical advice in all he produces. In the course, I learned several key things about setting goals:

  • You have to have key motivations
  • You have to have next actions
  • You have to have a way to track progress
  • And you have to think outside your comfort zone

I have learned a lot by tracking my goals that I set in January. One of my goals was to read 24 books this year; I thought that 2 books per month was a goal that would “stretch me.” But, after just the first 6 months of the year, I found that I have already completed nearly 30 books. My goal wasn’t nearly big enough!

When I talk to schools about their marketing goals, I find that they often have the same challenge: their goals are not nearly big enough. They often are challenged with not setting marketing goals for the different parts of their program, or not using effective key performance indicators to measure success toward their goals. They typically present one conversion point: “Apply Now.” This conversion goal may be a huge leap for someone just wanting to learn more about the school.

The following is a list of short-term goals as presented as the life-cycle of your prospective student. Keep this in mind with the goal of keeping them moving down the path.

Suspect
Someone who may not know about your school. Name recognition is the first step. Needs an introduction.

Prospective Student
Knows your name, but needs more information.

Informed Prospect
Knows more about the program (perhaps from a stealth search), but needs motivation to convert to next step.

Contacted Prospect
Relationship established at very basic level (may be automated through gated content) and has raised a hand to request more information.

Nurtured Prospect
Automated marketing has nurtured this prospect to provide deeper levels of information over time in order to develop into a warmer lead that will be taken over by a school representative.

Relationship
This prospect has established a relationship with a school representative. Still may be basic, but there is two-way communication human-to-human.

Visitor
Has visited campus for a tour or other event.

Basic Application
Has applied to the institution through form on website.

Completed Application
This prospect has completed ancillary elements required for consideration.

Accepted
Has been offered acceptance to the institution.

Deposited
Has made an initial deposit on the first-year tuition.

Registered
Has attended registration weekend to select classes and completed other necessary pre-enrollment elements.

Matriculated
Has shown up for classes and stayed beyond initial first few weeks.

Retained
Has completed first semester, and enrolled in second semester of freshman year.

Retained Sophomore
Has completed first year, returned as second year student.

Retained Junior
Has completed first two years, returned as third year student.

Retained Senior+
Has completed first three years, returned as fourth year/fifth year student.

Graduate
Has completed necessary classwork to qualify for graduation.

Alumni
Has entered into alumni status (goals may vary depending upon structure of alumni organization)

Donor-of-Record
Has made minimal donation as part of an annual giving or class gift to establish donor-of-record

Second-Time-Donor
Moved beyond donor of record to a second voluntary gift.

School Evangelist
Regularly recommends school to prospects and other donors.

Consistent Donor
Regular donor of the institution, often at minimal level but with consistency.

Major Donor
Moved beyond consistency to larger gifts.

Named Donor
Donating to larger projects with naming opportunities (may be as simple as family scholarship or faculty chair).

Planned Giving Donor
Has established provisions in will to benefit the school.

Your goals may not be big enough or include the next steps to the ultimate goal. Don’t stop with just the “Apply Now” button…that is often at step 8 of the relationship cycle. When planning out your marketing efforts, keep the larger picture top of mind: the success of both the student and the institution.

How do you move your marketing goals from one to the next with the end goal in mind?

Need help with your higher education marketing plan? We help private schools, colleges, and universities like yours every day. To see how we can help you reach your goals, get in touch with us. There’s no obligation, and no consultation fee.

Image by Stepan Popov via Adobe Stock

This post was originally published at http://www.caylor-solutions.com/what-is-the-end-goal-of-your-higher-education-marketing-plan/

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The Multiple Uses of Augmented Reality in Education

The Multiple Uses of Augmented Reality in Education Classroom learning as we know it is undergoing change at an unprecedented rate. Technology has made its way to the classroom, increasing the engaging and interactive elements that many students are...

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Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Democrat's hope to beat Walker is former teacher

Democrat's hope to beat Walker is former teacher <img src="https://ift.tt/2KVedda" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> https://ift.tt/2PdxUQP

Parkland Students Start School Year With Tightened Security

Parkland Students Start School Year With Tightened Security Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School returned to a more secure campus on Wednesday as they began their first new school year since a gunman killed 17 people in the freshman building. But some say they still won't feel protected despite $6.5 million in security enhancements.<img src="https://ift.tt/2KW6oUr" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> https://ift.tt/2MP0xCd

Paper's contempt motion up in Florida school shooting case

Paper's contempt motion up in Florida school shooting case <img src="https://ift.tt/2KW6nQn" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> https://ift.tt/2MPi3Gl

Murrieta district pays $11M over boy's school pool death

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Sheriff: Schools closed after transgender student threatened

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Harvey help: $174M available for hundreds of Texas districts

Harvey help: $174M available for hundreds of Texas districts <img src="https://ift.tt/2KW6iMz" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> https://ift.tt/2vNTN0T

Bevin criticized for comparing critics to drowning victims

Bevin criticized for comparing critics to drowning victims <img src="https://ift.tt/2KUIyIT" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> https://ift.tt/2KUYQkQ

State may offer jobs to teachers certified elsewhere

State may offer jobs to teachers certified elsewhere <img src="https://ift.tt/2KUIwRh" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> https://ift.tt/2vN2DvY

Florida vouchers may have gone to ineligible students

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New Mexico education officials adopt changes to state test

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3 Technologies to Help Health Care Students Learn to Care for Aging Populations

3 Technologies to Help Health Care Students Learn to Care for Aging Populations At The College of Westchester, where I work, our Allied Health programs are a vital part of our offerings. The demand for health care workers is expected to see continuous growth in many areas of the...

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Monday, August 13, 2018

Exploring Blended Learning, Present and Future (Recorded Future Trends Session)

Exploring Blended Learning, Present and Future (Recorded Future Trends Session) On Thursday, August 2nd, it was my great pleasure to by the featured guest on Bryan Alexander's Future Trends Forum. We had a lively discussion, exploring blended learning. We explored questions from...

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Thursday, August 9, 2018

Caylor Solutions PSA: Protect Yourself from Copyright Infringement

Caylor Solutions PSA: Protect Yourself from Copyright Infringement

Copyright infringement can happen to any education marketer. No legal advice here — just a PSA from a friend on how to protect yourself.

First off, copyright infringement can happen to anyone. It even happened to me, and I’m pretty careful about these things.

But quite often, it is small institutes with limited staff that fall into the trap of using copyrighted material improperly. It’s just hard when you’ve only got so many resources at your disposal.

But even when you know what you’re doing, if you don’t have the right policies in place, you might find yourself in the boat I was in.

Not Everything on the Internet is True

Recently, I received a letter from a firm claiming I had violated the copyright of one of their clients. Basically, I was told to pay the bill (thousands of dollars) or face legal repercussions.

The letter took me completely by surprise.

I’ve been doing education marketing for a long time now, and we use rich media like images all the time to increase click-thru rates, shares, and other marketing goals. It’s kind of a prerequisite to know and understand copyright laws in my line of work.

So, I dove into my media files to find the image allegedly in violation.

I found it buried deep in the archives of my blog. Then, I had to relocate where I originally found the image.

In the search engine, the image was represented as available for free, public use, no requirements or stipulations.

In reality, this wasn’t the case at all.

Live and Learn

The image was protected under a Creative Commons license that allowed public, non-commercial use, but required proper attribution to the image author.

I’m happy to attribute credit to artists for their work, but it was misrepresented in the search results, and there was no author info available to make a proper attribution.

My friend, the real PSA here is that you can’t trust everything you find on the Internet.

Hindsight is 20/20. I wouldn’t use an image like that ever now, even if the search engine says I can.

Today, I want to share what we do now at Caylor Solutions in light of this unexpected, unwelcome surprise so that it never happens to you.

Disclaimer

I’m not a legal expert, and this blog should not be considered legal advice in any way. But as your friend and fellow education marketer, please allow me to break from the traditional Caylor blog post to give you this Caylor Solutions Public Service Announcement.

Let’s start with the obvious.

In the education world, plagiarism is a cardinal sin. Stealing another academics’ ideas, words, or other work is a potentially career-ending move.

But when it comes to images, audio, and video files, education marketers all too often will find what they’re looking for in a Google search and then put the file into their blog post or website without permission from the author.

This is a BIG no-no. Yet for some reason, well-meaning professionals find themselves doing this very thing, usually not realizing what they have done is wrong.

The majority of images, audio files, and video files you find on the Internet are subject to strict copyright laws — and you need permission from the author to use them on your site.

Just say no!

It’s too risky to nab images or other artwork from a Google search and place it on your school’s website. This is true even if you’re checking the “labeled for reuse” box in Google’s tools. Your school may be forced to pay thousands of dollars per file used if a lawsuit is filed against you.

Use Caution with Creative Commons

There are different types of CC licenses, and each one comes with a specific set of requirements for anyone who uses the author’s work.

A “Creative Commons License” doesn’t mean there are no stipulations with its use!

In my case, I inadvertently misused that Creative Common image because I did not attribute it to the author in the manner described by the license.

I understood how Creative Commons licenses worked back then, but I was working with bad information and I didn’t take the time to double-check my sources. Lesson learned!

Don’t Assume They Won’t Find You

While my mistake was done unwittingly, there are lots of education marketers that choose not to attribute credit to the author simply because they don’t have the time, or the author’s info isn’t available, or the way it should be attributed isn’t clear.

Too many times, busy marketers assume it’s no big deal. How would anyone even know?

Don’t assume you’re too small for someone to care that you misused their artwork.

There are companies and legal firms that create spiders, web robots, to crawl the Internet looking for copyright infringement cases. No matter how small or remote your college, university, or independent school is, you will be found eventually.

It’s just a matter of time. Web robots don’t sleep.

A Crash Course in Creative Commons Licenses

So how many CC license types are there?

The Creative Commons site says that there are six main license types. Each has a different level of restrictions and rules for using the artwork.

Some CC licenses allow you to use the artwork in almost any way you want, as long as you attribute them properly to the author.

Some allow usage, but only for non-commercial use. Still, others restrict usage of the art almost entirely, only allowing it to be downloaded.

In all of the license types, proper attribution is required.

It’s like correctly citing sources in a thesis or essay. It’s a must.

Save Yourself the Hassle

There are two ways you can get amazing images for your website or school blog without having to navigate the requirements of Creative Commons licenses.

  1. Create your own artwork.
  2. Pay for stock artwork.
Creating Your own Artwork

At first, you might balk at the idea of creating your own images, audio, or video content for your education website.

However, the cost of quality video and audio production equipment is becoming more and more affordable. Believe it or not, you can put together a powerful video content creation kit for $2,000 or less!

There are a lot of reasons to consider creating your own rich media content, but legally speaking, you’ll never infringe on copyright when it’s your own content. And besides, original art conveys brand authenticity which makes it worth the effort just for that.

Again, this is not legal advice, but as I understand it, if an employee of your school creates the art while being paid for their regular duties, the copyright should belong to you.

However, I believe by default that the copyright of any piece of art is owned by whoever created the image, audio, or video file. So if you hire an artist, photographer, or videographer, make sure you have a work-for-hire agreement in effect so that the copyright belongs to your school.

Stock Art

I’ve been using stock images for my blog and website for years now without any problems at all. I subscribe to a stock image monthly plan, which keeps my rich media budget well under control.

Here are some great stock photo subscription services:

Friend to Friend

There are some things you can learn by experience — but it’s even better if you learn from the experience of others!

So please learn from my story today, friend to friend.

And with over 40 years of combined experience in education marketing on the Caylor team, there’s a lot of expertise you can leverage to help you reach your marketing goals. If you’re ready, let’s talk!

Be Advised

With tight budgets and deadlines, it’s tempting to get lax on how we use images and video on the Internet.

My strong recommendation: Don’t use Creative Commons files— unless you know how to attribute each piece of artwork properly.

Do you use a stock photo subscription or do you create your own art? How does your educational institution protect itself from marketing legal traps like this?

Featured image by Feng Yu via Adobe Stock

Just Say No image by DOC RABE Media via Adobe Stock

Artist image by Faithie via Adobe Stock

This post was originally published at: https://www.caylor-solutions.com/caylor-psa-protect-yourself-from-copyright-infringement/

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Four Fresh Content Traits that Can Improve Your School Website

Four Fresh Content Traits that Can Improve Your School Website

Irresistible content is the cornerstone of any inbound education marketing strategy. Here’s how to know what to write for your school website, whether you’re a college, university, or independent school.

As an education marketing agency, we advise schools to keep their websites, blogs, and social media channels full of fresh content because there are so many benefits to content marketing. Among other things, publishing new content helps…

  • Build your brand,
  • Endear your site to Google’s algorithm, and
  • Generate new prospective-student leads.
But updates to your school website DO NOT automatically mean content marketing success!

There are hundreds of regularly updated school websites out there that produce abysmal results.

Here are typical ways poorly performing websites like to post “fresh” content:

  • Dynamic calendar pages with events being updated often
  • Blogs stuffed with school announcements like the latest policies, events, and school sports information
  • Twitter feed widget in the sidebars

All of these tactics do keep the website full of new information — but new information is not the same as fresh, engaging content.

To a prospective student, parent, or donor, all of these updates can become noise, causing them to bounce off the site and look somewhere else for answers.

Filtering Content for Your Audience

By nature, schools are communities bustling with relationships, initiatives, events, policies, and ideas.

As a result, there’s a plethora of topics a school could publish on their website.

This makes it difficult to discern what an education marketer should post on their website and what  should be communicated internally through intranets, student portals, or internal-facing social media groups.

As an education marketer, you have to filter through all the topics you could write about and uncover themes that best serve your audience and marketing goals.

There are a thousand possible things you could share with your audience through your school’s blog — but not everything is going to entice them to begin their student journey (or donor journey) with your education brand.

So how do you know which pieces of content are going to make your school website fresh and engaging for your audience?

Let’s talk about that.

Fresh Content Trait 1: “Fresh” does not necessarily mean “current.”

When it comes to fruits, vegetables, and meats, freshness is a time-bound quality. If the fruit is old, it’s not fresh.

But with content, freshness is not bound to time.

Think about the evergreen content you should have on your school website. Although it stays forever on your website, it should always feel fresh to site visitors who are discovering your education brand for the first time.

Like good music or classic works of art, content can be fresh and engaging no matter how old it is.

“Fresh” and “current” are not always the same thing.

The opposite is also true. Current content doesn’t always feel fresh to prospective students or parents.

Here’s an extreme example of how current doesn’t always translate into engaging content: let’s say you put a weather widget on your homepage.

Up to the minute, live weather reporting on your school website — you can’t get more current than that!

But more than likely it will not engage prospective students or parents. It’s not fresh content for them. It’s meaningless data, more noise they’re going to drown out with all the other meaningless marketing content bombarding them every day.

Lesson #1: Current announcements and similar information are not necessarily fresh content for your target audience.

Fresh Content Trait 2: It has little to do with you.

When a prospective student or parent goes on a web search, college search, or just browses your site from a brochure they received from their guidance counselor, they’re not there because they care about you.

They are on your school website because they care about their own student journey, and they want to know if your school is the right next step along the way.

If you’re the school president, dean, or another staff member, you’ll love hearing about the latest awards, accomplishments, and recognition your school is receiving.

This kind of content is “fresh” to you because it’s all about your organization’s journey, and you’re a part of that journey.

But all the accolades which validate the work of your school’s staff and faculty mean little to your target audience. That’s why accolades are not fresh, engaging content…

…unless you can show your audience convincingly how this award directly helps them along their student journey.

Does this award mean more scholarship funds will be available? Does your spot on some top ten list mean the research projects students can participate in will be more prestigious, which will look great for a student’s future career?

Lesson #2: Awards, accomplishments, and accolades may or may not be fresh content for your target audience. Keep the 80/20 rule: 80% of content should be all about serving your audience’s needs and use the remaining 20% to call them to action or talk about your school.

Fresh Content Trait 3: It answers questions your audience is asking right now.

When a prospective student or parent goes to the Internet, they’re going there to ask specific questions.

Search engines are designed to help users find answers to the questions (a.k.a. “search terms”) they type in.

If you publish content frequently that answers the questions your audience has, search engines like Google will help them find you.

And when they find you, your content will be fresh and engaging because it is answering a question they currently have.

Content is fresh or stale based on how current the question is.

A timely answer is not an answer that’s new — it’s an answer the questioner has just found to their latest question.

Like a kid who’s just discovered how cool Back to the Future movies are, the answer may be in reality old news.

But for them, it’s going to be brand new information.

Lesson #3: Answering current questions your audience has will make your school website content fresh and engaging.

Fresh Content Trait 4:  Fresh school website content resonates emotionally.

People do not choose schools logically. If they did, they’d all choose your school, right?

Or, they’d all choose the most economical option they could find. But fortunately for them and for you, prospective students do not approach their decision this way.

Prospective students choose to enroll primarily because the education brand sparks an emotional response in them.

Then, they back up their gut choice with facts that support what they already decided they wanted. This is when information on financial aid, career development, and administrative details become critical.

But until the prospective student has made the emotional decision to enroll, those facts have little value for your audience.

To keep your school website content fresh, publish content that resonates with their emotions.

  • Feature student stories with which your audience will identify.
  • Write more about the challenges, fears, and dreams your audience has before introducing a program or initiative that would address those concerns.
  • Publish photos and videos with imagery that inspires your audience.
  • Use website design techniques that engage your audience aesthetically and compel them to action.

Lesson #4: Fresh content resonates emotionally with your audience, so don’t be afraid to dive into the emotional reasons that are bringing your audience to your school website.

School Websites Built to Perform

It’s tempting to throw every new piece of information onto your website. Google favors updated websites, and creating fresh, engaging content can drain resources, so why not?

Because you need your website to perform.

School websites do not exist to win awards, post the latest news, or sport the latest in Internet technology. (Although they can certainly do all of those things!)

School websites exist to fill your enrollment pipeline with qualified prospective student and parent leads and to communicate the overall brand of the school.

Therefore, all content you create and publish to your school’s website should focus on both attracting and converting the target audience into believers in the brand, and in turn, full-time students at your school.

Resist the temptation to publish an announcement just because it’s a new piece of information.

Does your website need a fresh, new look?

If it’s been too long since you’ve published quality, engaging content on your school website, it may be time for a fresh, new look.

Give us a call if you need to jumpstart your inbound content marketing for your school website. Your first consultation is absolutely free, and there’s no obligation.

What does fresh, engaging content look like to you?

Is there a school out there that just gets it when it comes to content marketing? What do you look for when you read or watch digital content?

Featured image by olly via Adobe Stock
Bored woman image by Scott Griessel via Adobe Stock
Unhappy and happy faces image by Marek via Adobe Stock

This post was originally published at: https://www.caylor-solutions.com/4-fresh-content-traits-that-can-improve-your-school-website/

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4 Great Apps to Help Students with Focus and Motivation

4 Great Apps to Help Students with Focus and Motivation Staying on track and motivated to complete school work can be challenging. Here are a few apps that can help. Have you ever been in a situation when you had to finish your assignment really soon...

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Wednesday, August 8, 2018

School leaders, students stress need for mental health care

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Teachers get iPads to help with student reading literacy

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Court: State can base e-school funding on participation data

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School massacre commission to discuss campus safety

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Louisiana State Police apply for school safety grants

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1st of Christa McAuliffe's lost lessons released from space

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School chief whose pay sparked teacher handcuffing on leave

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On leave: Schools head whose raise sparked protest, arrest

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APNewsBreak: Florida schools struggle to meet security rule

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Paper faces contempt for story on school shooting suspect

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Tuesday, August 7, 2018

4 Ways Your Student Can Avoid the “Summer Slide”

4 Ways Your Student Can Avoid the “Summer Slide” With the new school year around the bend, it's a great time to start getting those learning wheels back in motion. Here's some tips. Hearing the final school bell for the year can bring feelings of...

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Saturday, August 4, 2018

Tweet Wrap, w/e 08-04-18

Tweet Wrap, w/e 08-04-18 Inspiring, informative, useful, or just plain fun tweets posted on Twitter over this past week … collected here to share with our blog readers. Going to be traveling tomorrow so figured I'd pop this...

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Thursday, August 2, 2018

Why is Digital Curation so Important for Educators in 2018?

Why is Digital Curation so Important for Educators in 2018? Image Source I’ve been working with schools, colleges and universities for nearly 8 years. Working to promote entrepreneurship and digital skills to make young people more employable and teach them...

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Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Maryland's largest teachers union to get new president

Maryland's largest teachers union to get new president <img src="https://ift.tt/2AxclYd" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> https://ift.tt/2vvWvXM

Public schools owed 750 million by state to bring lawsuit

Public schools owed 750 million by state to bring lawsuit <img src="https://ift.tt/2AtBTVU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> https://ift.tt/2OCQvVZ

Lawsuit: 7-year-old boy handcuffed by officer in school

Lawsuit: 7-year-old boy handcuffed by officer in school <img src="https://ift.tt/2vvWpPU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> https://ift.tt/2O3wQ0j

LeBron James joins other celebrities who launched schools

LeBron James joins other celebrities who launched schools <img src="https://ift.tt/2O2CEHu" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> https://ift.tt/2LH1eAS

Chicago watchdog reveals tainted alternative school bids

Chicago watchdog reveals tainted alternative school bids <img src="https://ift.tt/2Ay1E7z" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> https://ift.tt/2OCQqSb

Muslim group welcomes probe after Minnesota student suicide

Muslim group welcomes probe after Minnesota student suicide <img src="https://ift.tt/2Az89XG" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> https://ift.tt/2n1CPHz

Arkansas school district to get police substation

Arkansas school district to get police substation <img src="https://ift.tt/2Axclrb" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> https://ift.tt/2OCQp0z

Texas district accepts gun donations after school shooting

Texas district accepts gun donations after school shooting <img src="https://ift.tt/2AxUeB7" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> https://ift.tt/2OC7acs

Schools to reopen without expanded Medicaid program

Schools to reopen without expanded Medicaid program <img src="https://ift.tt/2Axjxn4" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> https://ift.tt/2n4Rd1P

Probe: Teachers helped students taking standardized tests

Probe: Teachers helped students taking standardized tests <img src="https://ift.tt/2AzEKwK" height="1" width="1" alt=""/> https://ift.tt/2OCQmBV