Culture - Assignment #3

Creating a brand for yourself is what you do the moment you walk in the doors of your place of work. The work that you accomplish, the friends you make, how you treat students and how you treat peers all contribute to the brand of 'you'. Are you on time to meetings? Are you willing to speak up? Do you take other’s opinions into account? Are you reliable? The list goes on and on. Branding yourself takes time and it takes a certain amount of comfort in your own abilities and skills. The quote above from our book is very accurate. You need to be the owner of your story and how you are presented to the people around you. Social media has helped this issue be brought to the forefront because everything that you post to social media contributes to your brand, in my opinion. Social media allows you to post your best face to the world but it also has it’s pitfalls as people are very quick to judge based on what they see you post online. All of these pieces contribute to your own personal brand.

In some cases, your personal brand can be different than your professional brand. However, as educators, I feel that our personal brands really need to align with our professional brands almost more so than in other professions because so often the work follows us home in some way, shape or form. Professionally, the brand you are building is really based on your evaluations, relationships with colleagues and a lot of the things that have already been discussed in the paragraph above. As you are looking for jobs, I think that it is very important that you are checking that your professional brand is in alignment with the school’s or district’s brand as well.

When creating a school brand, there are more factors that come into play. A major factor is what was the school brand like before you came? Is this the same brand that you want to continue to perpetuate? If not, then what needs to change? A good place to start when re-vamping a school brand is with the surrounding community. Something as simple as power washing the outside of the school or giving the entry way a fresh coat of paint can start to increase the brand of the school in the eyes of the community. Coming from my personal experience, the remodel for Rogers High School did amazing things for the school and the community around the school. Rogers has always enjoyed a very supportive and committed community, but when the school was remodeled the ‘stock’ of the school and therefore the community really rose in the opinion of the public. This helped both students, community and staff have more pride and ownership in the school. Students, community members and staff are proud of Rogers and especially proud of the hard work Rogers has done to increase student achievement. This work was beginning to take shape before the remodel, but the remodel really helped to cement the fact that Rogers was on its way up in the eyes of everyone involved. I have seen the change in the ‘brand’ of Rogers over the last ten years, as the granddaughter of a Rogers teacher, daughter of a Rogers teacher and a current Rogers teacher.

Branding is invaluable for a school that is trying to create lasting change for its students and the surrounding community. In relation to standard 2, a brand of a school on the rise must include a commitment to providing it’s students’ with up to date technology. Along with this comes a commitment to giving the staff a strong sense of ownership in the new brand and technology when applicable. Recently, all the math classrooms in our district received SmartBoards as well as a training to go along with them. This act has a direct connection to standard 2, part C, because the district provided equitable learner centered environments and equipped them with technology for ALL the math students across the district. To again visit the case of Rogers, once the building was remodeled, the school received a grant and spent part of that grant on iPads and iPad training for the staff. This device and the training have had a long lasting effect on the staff and have continued to be a useful tool to promote student learning and staff buy in for technology. Up to date technology has a large effect on how a school is perceived by the public which is the definition of a brand. By staying up to date on new technology and embracing innovative teaching and technology that enhances student learning, schools can create a brand that is viable and sustainable for the future.