In April's School Messenger, we looked at the reasons why to use YouTube to promote your Christian school! With such a visible and free social media tool available, using YouTube as a resource is a creative and affordable way to spread the word about your school to potential students and parents alike. Here's a quick recap of last month's article. YouTube is a no-cost video sharing website that allows users to upload and share videos with anyone you choose! Simple and quick to make, YouTube videos can be funny, serious, or anything between, and they are a great way to share information about your school.

 Ready to get you started? Here are some tips and helpful hints to follow as you make your own YouTube video for your Christian school!...

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It's the time of year when panic sets in. Students who have not put forth their best effort throughout the year have realized that there's a chance they may not pass. They shift their study habits into high gear. Some will be successful. Others will fail. For those students for whom all hope seems lost, there is a ready remedy. It's Switched-On's CRx Mode.

The CRx (Prescriptive Credit Recovery) Mode is designed to allow students who have previously failed a course to recover the credits they need to graduate without repeating the entire course. Best of all, it's simple for teachers to implement. Here's how it works....

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One of Mark Twain's most famous quotes came following a false report about his death. While some historians differ on a few of the minor details, it appears this pseudo-obituary surfaced upon the death of a distant cousin whom reporters had mistaken for Twain. Now, over 100 years later, his purported answer, "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated," has undoubtedly become one his most widely quoted sayings....

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Curriculum is a big investment. Christian school leaders spend a great deal of time researching before choosing exactly the right product to meet the needs of their students. Whether those needs are for traditional students, alternative programs, or summer school, educators need a forum where they can communicate with peers about curriculum and ask questions about specific products. This is one reason Alpha Omega Publications® created an official page on Facebook.

Here's how it works: organizations or companies create Facebook pages which allow users to "like" them and what they do. Official pages look and behave much like a user's personal private profile, with a "wall" to which individual comments are posted, including status updates from the administrator of the official page. Anyone who "likes" the page can write on the wall to share their thoughts and ideas. The original poster, page administrator, and virtually anyone can then join in the discussion.

Official Facebook pages are like well-kept secrets, but once you learn of their existence and what they can do for you as an educator, you'll wonder how you ever got by without them.

Social networkers use websites like Facebook to stay in touch with friends and keep track of what's new in friends' lives, and that's exactly how the Official AOP Schools Facebook page works.

For example, did you know that when you "like" the official AOP Schools Facebook page, you can go online 24 hours a day, seven days a week to host or join discussions about curriculum and share inspired ideas that enrich the learning experience? You even have the ability to ask questions about product features or share tips and post comments for others who "like" AOP Schools. All of this and more is possible on AOP's official page.

Your experience with our Facebook page can be as interactive as you make it. In addition to discussion forums, this page also serves as a prime resource for relevant reading material, and many people who "like" it simply log on to read regular blog posts and eNewsletters or read eye-opening articles on Christian education. Daily status updates share everything from devotional thoughts to new product promotions and appear in your own news feed no differently than status updates from friends. As long as you remain active, updates continue to flow into the news feed on the wall of your personal Facebook page.

One of the beauties of Facebook is that the site allows you to scan the activities of dozens of people in a matter of minutes. Think of AOP just like you do any of your Facebook friends: as a buddy you'd like to stay in touch with and check in on once in a while to see what's new.

The truth is that in today's society, you'd be hard-pressed to find an adult who hasn't created a Facebook profile (or anyone over 13, Facebook's legal age for signing up). According to the company's own statistics, 400 million people have active Facebook accounts, and the average user spends over 55 minutes a day on the website. Official pages themselves are gaining ground, too, reports the site. More than 20 million people "like" official Facebook pages each day, for a total of 5.3 billion people worldwide. Each week, the average user "likes" four new pages.

While the official Alpha Omega Publications School page certainly spreads the word to the market about its curriculum and products, the goal is to provide a place for the Christian school community to connect. That's why the official page is far less intrusive than other marketing tactics, like emails and pop-ups. Official pages are also far more personal than those alternative forms of communication, and it's that personal touch that keeps people returning again and again.

On our new Facebook page, two-way communication is quick, easy, and sincere. Once you've visited, you won't hesitate to host or join a discussion down the road.

It's easy. Just connect and click on "like."



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I venture to guess that if people over 25 toured most of today's public schools, they would look very familiar to the very place they met Dick and Jane, learned the sounds made by long and short vowels, and experienced their first fire drill. We've been hearing a lot about technology in the classroom and asking what classrooms of the future will look like. When will things not only begin to look, but actually be different? We may finally have an answer. ...

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"O how I love thy law! it is my meditation all the day" (Psalm 119:97).

Christian school teachers have incredible opportunities to train children in righteousness. Without public mandates restricting our actions, we can enjoy daily devotions, prayer, and the Bible's wonderful truths. Just as exciting is the unlimited moments we have to direct a child's thoughts toward God. Throughout the entire school day, biblical applications can be interjected as they apply to our Christian curriculum and the problems we face in and out of the classroom. Growing in the Lord, our children's faith becomes vibrant and powerful as they learn to "think on these things" (Philippians 4:8b)....

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