Nottingham lacrosse coach Jerry Lynch, principal Michael Giambelluca, vice principal Frank Ragazzo and girl’s track coach Melissa Foley are using Twitter to commincate with students.
Nottingham High School administrators and coaches communicate with students through Twitter
By Jessica Talarick The bell rings, a hush falls, and the voice of a fellow student comes over the loudspeaker reading today’s announcements: club meetings, athletic events and the upcoming school dance. For years, students have started the school day with morning announcements; however, now teens are scrolling through Twitter on their smartphones for their information fix. Are tweets the new morning announcements? Nottingham High School principal Michael Giambelluca thinks so. While the school continues to have traditional morning announcements, the principal and several other school administrators started Twitter profiles to supply students with updates about school happenings. Giambelluca first noticed the popularity of Twitter among high schoolers at home, where his teenage children were using it. According to Pew Research’s Internet Project, 24 percent of internet users age 12 to 17 used Twitter in 2012, an eight percent increase from 2011. Then, at a recent meeting of Mercer County principals, Giambelluca learned that several of his colleagues are using the social media platform to communicate with students. Lawrence High School principal Jon Dauber (
), Dennis Vinson (
) of Hightstown High and Dennis Lepold (
) of West Windsor-Plainsboro South are tweeting. After discussing the platform with his fellow principals, Giambelluca realized Twitter is a quick and effective way to reach high school students. “It’s a great way to communicate,” Giambelluca said, “you could literally spread a message to hundreds in a few seconds.” In February, Giambelluca joined Twitter using the handle
to communicate with his tech-savvy students. Vice principals Frank Ragazzo (
) and Michael Walsh (
) created their own accounts shortly after. Giambelluca reached out to Nottingham teacher, lacrosse coach and Twitter-user Jerry Lynch for help using the platform. Lynch started a personal account about three years ago. He mainly used it to connect with friends without being bombarded by advertisements like he experienced on Facebook. When a few lacrosse players started following him, Lynch realized he could use Twitter to communicate with the team. “When [my players] started following me, it was a way to use it in a different avenue.” Lynch said. He began using the platform to send out reminders about what uniforms to pack for games and to recognize players’ achievements on the field. At first, Lynch was nervous about connecting with his students on social media. “You don’t want students to read into [your tweets],” said Lynch, who also uses the platform to promote his weekend bartending gig. He keeps his account private and is selective of who can follow him, which means only his 250 followers can read his tweets. Lynch was finishing an internship with Nottingham’s administration for his master’s degree when Giambelluca asked for help spreading the word about his new Twitter profile. To get the ball rolling, Lynch sent a tweet asking his followers to follow the principal. Then, both began tagging their tweets with #NorthstarNation and #NorthstarPride, phrases used on a recent successful T-shirt sale, to get students’ attention. Nottingham students were weary of connecting with the principal outside of school. “Initially they were apprehensive, they thought it was a way for administration to peek in on their lives,” Lynch said. “After the first month, they learned [the administration was] not using it to snoop.” Nottingham’s Twitter users emphasize they never follow students, which they think would encroach on their privacy. With the help of Lynch and an unofficial Nottingham Twitter handle, Giambelluca gained about 200 followers within three weeks. At press time, the principal had 338 Twitter followers, which he says includes students and their parents. His tweets vary from notifying students about upcoming events to congratulating athletic and academic achievements. He also posts links to morning announcements, which can be found on Nottingham’s website. He uses the site to showcase his school’s accomplishments. “Students need to see social media in a positive way,” Giambelluca said. Many of his followers retweet or favorite—the Twitter equivalent of Facebook’s “Share” and “Like” buttons—his tweets, but few reply. Athletic director Debra Taylor is also finding success on Twitter. After Giambelluca brought the idea of using social media to communicate with students to the school administration, Taylor launched her own handle,
. She uses Twitter to recognize student’s athletic victories instead of reaching out to the student in person the next day. “It gives me an opportunity to immediately reward an athlete or a team,” Taylor said. “This generation really likes that.” Taylor also uses the platform to encourage the community to attend athletic events. Seeing the benefits of Giambelluca’s initiative, Taylor encouraged spring coaches to join twitter to connect with their athletes. Athletic staff like girls’ lacrosse coach Kristin Bell (
), track coach
(
) and baseball coach Mike Braender (
), along with a few off-season coaches, are active Twitter users. The coaches tweet out information about cancelled practices, upcoming games and their players’ accomplishments. Girls’ track coach Melissa Foley (
) posts photos from practices and tweets congratulating athletes on their hard work and reaching milestones. “I use it as a motivator and also a communication channel for letting [my team] know what’s going on,” Foley said. The students show their appreciation by retweeting or favoriting her tweets. The positive reaction to her track Twitter led Foley to start one for the school’s Key Club (
), which she advises. She posts information about volunteer opportunities and pictures from club events. Foley said it’s easier to tweet information about practices and meets than calling 70 plus team members or using a phone tree. In addition to Twitter, Nottingham coaches have shifted to other methods of communicating with their athletes. While most the lacrosse players follow their coach on Twitter, Lynch says he uses an app called Remind101 to send mass text messages about critical information to the entire team at once. Lynch thinks the school’s faculty and staff are taking advantage of social media. “As a school, we are using [Twitter] effectively, but we’re right on the edge.” Lynch said. Giambelluca agreed, saying the administrators are not exercising the platform’s full capacities and hopes to explore using it in more ways in the future, such as communicating with other school administrators. “Other colleagues use it to communicate in professional matters,” Giambelluca said. Educators across the county participate in weekly Twitter chats using the hashtag #edchat. Locally, Giambelluca says several administrators are using Twitter to share the results of field testing for PARCC, an online standardized assessment set to replace pen and pencil tests like the NJASK or HSPA. Educators can search #PARCC to see how testing is going at other schools. Nottingham may have a way to go, but they have certainly entered the Twitterverse.
Nottingham lacrosse coach Jerry Lynch, principal Michael Giambelluca, vice principal Frank Ragazzo and girl’s track coach Melissa Foley are using Twitter to commincate with students.,
