#LoveMySchoolDay Success and Challenge

Well, year 3 of #LoveMySchoolDay was fantastic, and we doubled our participation from last year.  We had nearly 12,000 posts from all 50 US states and over 25 countries on ALL 7 CONTINENTS which was completely amazing.  It was so inspiring and exciting to watch the hashtag trend on Twitter, but it was even more exciting to see all the educators, students and communities displaying everything they are doing to make learning meaningful and powerful.

RT @ChrisWeissCT: #LoveMySchoolDay trending 500 tweets/hour+ since 8 am! Educators, keep sharing the awesome! pic.twitter.com/mtlmQLQmCK

— MindShift (@MindShiftKQED) April 11, 2016

To get a better picture of what #LoveMySchoolDay did to promote all the good in schools, check out the photos and videos that were shared. Not only will you smile, but you will be challenged to use the power of social media to tell your story even better.  Of all the things that I saw, there was one video that stood out, and it was by Julie Gauthier, principal at Ridgewood Elementary in Port Neches-Groves ISD.  She invited the local news station and school board members to help tell her school's story.  I didn't think of that idea, but I am definitely going to borrow that one next year.

Click here to watch the video.

Now Here's the Challenge!!!
It's easy to get excited about #LoveMySchoolDay for one day and then go back to business as usual, but I want to challenge you to to not let #LoveMySchoolDay be the only day that you tell your school's story.  This day was designed to displays all of the examples that we can and must tell our school's story every single day.  Remember, someone is always telling others about your school.  If you don't promote and share what's happening in your school, people's perception of your school will be based on outside influences which may not always be good or even factual.

Great showing of @LewisvilleISD peeps 4 #LoveMySchoolDay! May we not limit our celebrations & sharing of our story to just 1 day! #lisdchat

— LISD ProflLearning (@LisdLearns) April 12, 2016

The final challenge that I'll leave with you has to do with leadership and keeping the spirit of #LoveMySchoolDay alive and well until next April 11, 2017 (click here to accept your invitation now) when we do it all over again.  In order to keep that spirit alive we must embrace this quote by Jon Gordon if we truly want to be the kind of leaders that create the kinds of schools that all students deserve.

This is why #LoveMySchoolDay is important. pic.twitter.com/CaoKiudJlV

— John Wink (@JohnWink90) April 11, 2016