Monmouth University School of Education Principals’ Academy held their third professional development workshop, “Communication via Social Media” at Monmouth University. New Milford High School Principal, Mr. Eric Sheninger, facilitated the workshop.
Mr. Sheninger provided hands-on training on Social Media and tools that participants could use in their school districts. Participants logged onto Twitter at hashtag #mupa13 for a discussion with Academy members as well as educational leaders in different parts of the United States who logged onto the hashtag.
Matawan Aberdeen Regional Middle School Principal, Cory Radisch said (tweeted) that he uses twitter on a regular basis and recommended that members use twitter to tweet information with educational value to the Academy. Some of the hashtags he uses for countless resources and articles: are #edchat, #njedchat, #cpchat (connected principals), and #edtech.
According to Ocean Township High School Principal Kelly Weldon, Twitter serves two purposes; it lets her stakeholders learn more about her and it helps her to learn from her peers. Waldwick High School Principal Kevin Carol tweeted that, “Twitter equals to me learning anytime, anywhere with anyone that wants to share their knowledge and experiences”.
Academy members’ responses were overwhelmingly positive, praising Mr. Sheninger for both the content and delivery of the presentation with 83% responding that the workshop was extremely relevant, 13% responding that it was very relative and 4% responding that it was somewhat relevant. Several members indicated that they would be applying what they learned in their school districts.
Eric Sheninger is an innovative leader in the use of social media and web 2.0 technology as tools to engage students, improve communications with stakeholders, and help educators grow professionally. He has received the NASSP Digital Principal Award (2012), PDK Emerging Leader Award (2012), the Learning Forward’s Excellence in Professional Practice Award (2012), and his blog, “A Principal’s Reflections” was selected as Best School Administrator Blog in 2011 by Edublogs.
The Principals’ Academy was created in 2010 as a forum for dialogue and an exchange of ideas and experiences. Over the course of the sessions the attendees have stated how valuable it is to get together in this type of forum and discuss current issues with their colleagues. There are four workshop sessions per year. The fourth session, “How to Evaluate an Inclusion Model: Content Literacy Based on the Common Core Standards,” will be held on Thursday, April 25, 2013: 5 p.m.-7 p.m. For more information contact: School of Education, Dean’s Office, (732) 571-7518, or email soeprincipalcademy@monmouth.edu.