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Schools

Blair High Principal Embraces Social Media

Renay Johnson communicates with her students through Twitter.

As Montgomery Blair High School’s new principal, Renay Johnson, took a step into the school’s hallways, social media took the step along with her.

Johnson was the former principal at Takoma Park Middle School for five years, and was appointed as the Montgomery Blair principal in Silver Spring this past summer. Since June, she has managed a Twitter account by herself for the high school.

“Knowing I have so many students, I wanted to be able to communicate with all of them,” Johnson says. Montgomery Blair is the largest high school in Montgomery County with approximately 2,800 students and 300 staff members.

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The Twitter page is mainly used to post information about school events, highlight the athlete of the month, and post pictures. Johnson also plans to promote attendance at spring sporting events through her tweets.

When a journalist tweeted at Johnson asking her what the reasoning was behind creating a Twitter, she responded with a tweet just a few hours later saying, “I enjoy sharing good news about Blair High School with our community and interested followers! :)”

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Johnson encourages her students to follow her on Twitter and assures them that she would not want to invade their privacy.

On February 15, a Superintendents Administrative and Supervisory group recognized Johnson as “Tweeter of the Month.” Johnson says that the superintendent is very encouraging of principals having Twitter pages. “I think Twitter will eventually become a part of our culture,” she says.

Johnson tweets from her page frequently, ranging from one to about seven tweets a day. She currently has tweeted almost 300 times and has almost 200 followers.

Montgomery Blair’s Magnet Program also has a Twitter page. The Magnet Program offers accelerated science, math, and computer science courses, with the Twitter account focusing on posting information about competitions and student achievements.

Sheri Verdonk, the Parent Teacher Student Association President at Montgomery Blair says the school is trying to “go green” by using less flyers and more technology.

“It’s another way of communicating,” Verdonk says. “We are really working on our communication strategies as a community.”

Verdonk believes Johnson’s Twitter page shows that the school is doing positive things, and reaching out to more people in the community. She does not have a Twitter account, but is considering making one for PTSA purposes.

Emma Lansworth, a senior at Montgomery Blair, says she visits Principal Johnson’s Twitter page from time to time, though she does not have a Twitter account herself. She says she mostly looks at pictures of the highlighted athletes. Lansworth says she is not surprised by the fact that her school principal has a Twitter.

“My school also has a presence on Facebook, so I guess it was a natural transition to go move to Twitter,” Lansworth says. Every grade level at Montgomery Blair also has its own Facebook page that is run by the Student Government Association.

Other students, such as Abel Asafere, a junior, were unaware that there was a Twitter account run by the principal. Now that Asafere has been informed about the page, he says he would utilize it more. “I would like to see breaking news, like if there is a delay due to snow or something like that.”

To get more students following her on Twitter, Johnson would like to start visiting classrooms and taking pictures to post on the page and thinks that posting emergency alerts and information is a great idea.

Johnson believes that her Twitter page has been successful so far, and she plans to be even more successful with it in the future. “I really do enjoy it,” she says.

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