It is obvious to anyone paying attention that educators across the country have been erroneously painted as incompetent, inconsistent, and unconcerned with our student achievement. This incorrect message has been spread far and wide by groups who are successful at getting their side of the story out to large segments of the population. As educators, we need to be better about sharing the successes we regularly see in our classrooms. The data heavy reports and charts that show the excellence of public education aren’t getting the job done. We need to take this down to our community level - how and what can you promote to your local community as evidence of success in your school or in your library program? This promotion really needs to become part of our job. We need to sell our product to our consumers and I would like to share with you a few tools that make that part of our job easier:
Word Dream - free Apple app that enables you to create quick graphics in less than 5 minutes. You can upload your own picture or use one from their collection. This tool pairs different fonts together for visually appealing images that make you look like a pro. The paid version offers you more template and font options. I use this primarily for social media posts of upcoming events or book promotion.
Spark Post - free web-based tool and app that is part of the Adobe package. This tool is similar to Word Dream, but offers you a few more options. One option I find to be most critical is a banner overlay that is beneficial to use on top of images that are very busy so the text really pops out and is easier to read. I use this most frequently for social media posts, book quotes, and event flyers.
Canva: FREE, web-based graphic design tool. I have used this to create event flyers, social media graphics, and infographics to highlight program data. They feature a great help section with tutorials to improve your design skills. Your products can be downloaded as jpgs, png, or PDF files AND they can also be shared with team members so you can collaborate with others on the designs. There are paid features, but I have found the free version to be sufficient for my needs.
Quik - a free app that helps you create slideshow videos. This is the easiest video creator I’ve used since Animoto came out several years ago. Simply upload your images or short videos and the program puts them together in a video complete with music. There are numerous templates to choose from and some templates can be further customized. I have used this tool to recap events in order to showcase the various ways our library supports our teachers and students.
Broadcasting your message doesn’t have to be time-consuming or scary; it just has to be frequent! Using these quick tools will help you showcase the impact you have within your community and beyond. Please comment below with any other tools you use to help spread the word about the great things you're doing in the library!
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