The Formula For A Back-to-School Post
Want to write a successful #education post for back-to-school? Of course you do. We’ve got a simple formula below.
Start with an obligatory opening paragraph that memorializes the summer gone by, how fast it went, etc. Perhaps add some humor, mention beaches, and books you enjoyed or never had the chance to read.
If you can work in a reference to “batters recharged,” good on you. Teachers will get it.
Then add some recognition of the mountain you have before you to climb that is the school year. New learning profiles, new technology, new standards, and maybe even a new school. Talk about the monumental challenge we face as educators, and then juxtapose that harsh reality with the exciting potential of 21st century learning.
Then comes moving the post from the abstract to the concrete, so you’ll need to start talking about classrooms. Add visuals of strange new faces, nervous students, a redesigned classroom, unopened school supplies, and the daunting task of learning so many new names, and you’re got a strong introduction.
At some point—now, for example–you’ve got to take a stand on some trending issue—some challenge teachers face or want to read about. Standards, technology, collaboration, or any of the countless other challenges teachers face. So you pick one, offer up some tips, and hope educators—or other stakeholders in education—can benefit.
Next, you offer up some fancy pants new digital learning tool, and contextualize it with the very latest edu-jargon.
(You’re well on your way to something special.)
For #education sites without discerning audiences, this is usually enough. Maybe throw in an infographic for something that might go viral, or a misleading title that doesn’t begin to deliver the content it promises, and way, way over implies its quality.
(You’ll get clicks.)
Whatever you do, avoid typos or egregious errors in grammar. For obvious reasons, teacher’s hate those.
(There human after all, and its distracting to say the least.)
RIP Summer 2013!