Whether it is through social media, loudspeaker announcements or emails, the school needs to do a better job informing students of important school news.
Every now and then, an administrator or student will come onto the loudspeaker to make announcements, often disrupting instructional time.
But a class full of impatient teenagers has shown it’s very unlikely to drop everything and give their undivided attention to what’s being said.
It does not help that loudspeaker announcements are filled with club events and leadership activities. Because of this, students are less inclined to pay attention when someone speaks over the loudspeaker.
But even if announcements were to contain actually pressing information, there would be no guarantee that students would pay attention.
Right now, the school’s communication with students regarding detention, seems to be the most pressing issue.
Due to the irrelevant information shared in loudspeaker announcements, the scarce detention updates are often missed by students.
Loudspeaker announcements also can’t be heard well by students and teachers who are not inside a school building. So it is very easy for important and urgent announcements to be misunderstood by students and teachers.
Oftentimes, the school uses email to relay the most important announcements to students. But most students’ emails are filled with important messages from teachers and Google Classroom notices. Because of this, school emails are frequently lost in students’ inbox.
The school is also not as efficient in updating social media as it used to be.
A few years ago, the school’s Instagram account was more on top of posting schedule changes and school events than ever.
While recent efforts to strengthen the school’s social media presence have been made with the “This week at Cal” videos, there could be more done to ensure better communication with students.
With the amount of time students’ spend on social media, the school should use their platforms to inform students about important information rather than assuming students regularly read their emails. (We do not).
The school should also save loudspeaker announcements for pressing announcements that directly affect students, who are more likely to pay attention to them if they understand they are listening to something they cannot find in an email or online.