As of April 22, 2022, the School District of University City has been awarded the Green Ribbon Schools by the U.S. Department of Education. Read more about the award below from the U.S. Department of Education below.

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The aim of U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools (ED-GRS) is to inspire schools, districts, and institutions of higher education (IHEs) to strive for 21st-century excellence by highlighting promising school sustainability practices and resources that all can employ. To that end, the award recognizes schools, districts, and IHEs that:

1. reduce environmental impact and costs;
2. improve the health and wellness of schools, students, and staff; and
3. provide effective environmental and sustainability education

Combined progress in ALL three of these areas, known as Pillars, serves as the basis for recognition.

“This is a distinguished national list and I’m proud of both Missouri institutions for earning this special honor,” said Commissioner of Education Margie Vandeven. “I’m impressed by the innovative ideas employed by both The School District of University City and Principia School to support the health and wellness of their students and staff and to ensure environmentally-friendly practices are incorporated into their school culture.”
 
In recent years, The School District of University City constructed multiple Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certified elementary schools, 25 solar panels, and 49,000 square feet of rain gardens for water conservation. The district has utilized the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child model to monitor and promote holistic wellness across environmental health, medical and mental health, and racial equity. The district is also recognized as a leader in project-based environmental and sustainability education, with outdoor “STEAM Labs” at every school campus, complete with a garden facilitator and multidisciplinary lessons.

Across the country, 27 schools, five districts, and four postsecondary institutions were honored as 2022 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools.
 
The list of all selected schools, districts, colleges, and universities, as well as their nomination information, can be found here. More information on this federal recognition award can be found here.

Other links:

• Video Message from the Secretary Announcing the 2022 Honorees
  
• Highlights from the 2022 Honorees PDF (6.34M)
• ED-GRS in the News MS Word (155K)
  

MOve Smart Child Care is a program that recognizes early care and education (ECE) facilities for following best practices in physical activity with children birth through age five (5). Recognition is awarded by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
Young children may not be reaching physical activity recommendations. Research has shown that average preschoolers may only get about 25 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity during the child care day and they are sedentary or seated for over half of the day. MOve Smart Child Care defines and teaches ECE programs to implement 12 practices or criteria that can make a big difference in how active children are.
Recognition is voluntary, but if a child care has decided to be MOve Smart, all staff must work as a team to make it happen. There are two levels of recognition. The Core Level is awarded for following the first six (6) criteria. Advanced Level is awarded for following all twelve (12) criteria.

Part of Missouri’s MoveSmart Program, Dr. Craft has started “More than Child’s Play” training that was held March 6th. Use the below links to access the recording and powerpoint slides
>> Recording
>> Slides

The program also offers a new MOve Smart workbook that includes:

• Information about physical activity for infants
• Suggestions for choosing play equipment.  NOTE:  MOve Smart no longer requires that you purchase any specific play equipment.
• A physical activity self-assessment questionnaire to show how well your child care is already doing before you apply.
• Teacher tips for managing and leading structured physical activity.

Did you know that 65% of people use YouTube to help them solve a problem? The starting point for creating consistent video content that generates views starts with answering the question, "How many people are interested in your YouTube channel topic and video topic?" Channels that grow fast focus on the specific things your target audience is already searching for on YouTube. In other words, what problem are you trying to solve for your target audience? A ZAGPro Academy power tip to consider is to avoid long-form content if you want to reach new people.

Video content created in 2021 should focus on getting right to the point while keeping the video's length between 3-15 minutes. Also, videos that generate more initial views get started using a highly visual attention-grabbing thumbnail using less than five words. Another power tip is to focus your video content on quality over quantity as your audience is looking for value and insightful information.

At Missouri Healthy Schools (MHS) and MOSHAPE, we have found videos that are researched, planned, edited, perceived as high value, and are under 15 minutes usually generate the most views. Moreover, the key to consistency in creating video content begins with a reproducible process that you or your social media team can perform weekly. At ZAGPro Academy, we follow a simple 7-step process for crafting repeatable video content, as shown below:

1. Start with the end in mind with your content topic on the value and messaging.
2. Conduct as much research as your can about your content topic.
3. Create an outline for creatively presenting your content information on the video.
4. Record your video content. Pay attention to the audio, lighting, and video quality.
5. Release your video content through a variety of digital media channels.
6. Repurpose your high performing video content across channels.
7. Review the data analytics and key performance indicators (KPI's) for your video content to drive future content or video formatting decisions.
8. BONUS: Repeat back to step number 1 for your next video content creation and repeat the process.

Following this 7-step process for creating video content that generates views is a great way to level-up your influence and impact in 2021. Stay tuned for my next blog as I share the top 15 best practices for using social media.

Virtual Offices/Bitmoji
I’m not going to lie, I really enjoy using my little Bitmoji. For those of you who are not familiar, a bitmoji is a mobile app that allows you to create a little cartoon version of yourself. It’s free and fun and it includes a variety of poses and phrases of your little person that you can use. The other thing I like is there are 100s of free templates out there! And that works great with Google Slides because as I mentioned above, you can make any shape or image you insert a link.
Here is a picture of what my virtual office looks like and each photo is a link in the actual file. If you would like to make one similar, HERE is a link that will force you to make a copy but then you will be able to edit it how you want it. Below that is a library template I edited a bit. To copy that one click HERE

Another fun thing you can do is set up the links to go to other slides and create little “choose your own adventure things.” Here is an example of a Halloween “escape room” I did for students. Again there are a ton of tutorials online, I just am hoping to inspire you to go out and explore!

7 Strategies for Helping Organizations Get Noticed in a Noisy and Crowded Space

In my last blog, I mentioned that since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, consumption rates experienced a meteoric rise in views and engagement. The latest figures show 3.78 billion social media users worldwide in 2021—a five percent increase from a year ago. It is also 920 million more than the number of social users in 2017, representing a whopping 32.2% jump in just five years.
Many organizations are now attempting to double down on their messaging using social media channels to communicate with their audience but find it challenging to grab their attention due to all the noise and clutter. Many organizations do not spend enough time training their key personnel on all the recent changes to the social media platforms themselves. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram have all made significant updates to their platforms as these companies redefine their services.

One of the biggest lies for creating social media content is that the platform in 2020 will be the same in 2021. Take YouTube, for example; this platform has shifted its priorities to keeping users on their platform, which is why the two most important metrics in 2021 are looking at the (1) Average View Duration (AVD) and (2) Click-Through Rate (CTR).

The second biggest lie is that with more than 50% of the world's population now using social media in 2021, more people will see my content. This notion certainly sounds great in theory; however, in reality, the greatest challenge facing everyone creating content is getting noticed as consumption patterns have significantly shifted since Labor Day of 2020. Long-form videos (over 10 minutes) that once generated thousands of views in the spring and summer turned into only a few hundred views (source: MOSHAPE & Missouri Healthy Schools social media analytics).

The third biggest lie is that organizational leaders can generate the most attention when creating content on social media. While this strategy sounds excellent on a Zoom conference call meeting, in theory, to have the leaders posting content, our research reveals that the "micro-influencers" within the organization usually have the most significant opportunity to get their content noticed.
Now that we are aware of the three biggest lies for creating social media content in 2021, we must pay attention to the fact we live in a boisterous and oversaturated world. There are over 60 billion messages sent out on digital platforms every day. Like it or not, we are not just competing against our direct competition. But instead, we are competing against all other pieces of content. The following seven strategies will level-up and improve your organization's chances of getting noticed moving forward with your social media content.

1. Use a "Hook Point," which is an excellent tool to grab attention. Author Brendan Kane in his new book, Hook Point: How to Stand Out in a 3-Second World, suggests using the 3 Pillars of Getting attention: (1) Hook, (2) Story, and (3) Authenticity – Are you doing it authentically? Do people believe what you are saying? The Hook refers to understanding what gets your audience to read a post, watch a video, or click on an ad. When you identify your Hook Point, you will essentially find what will make your content stand out and hook people in.
2. Use short videos (under 60-seconds) to communicate your message with your audience.
3. Use micro-influencers within your local community and state to strengthen the impressions and engagement with your audience. This tip alone can generate 2X, 3X, 4X, or even 10X your organization's impact from using micro-influencers within your tribe.
4. Post content on related topics that are trending within your industry that brings value, new perspectives, or solutions to the conversation.
5. Use consistent hashtags when posting on a particular conversation topic.
6. Create thumbnails that hook your audience to get them to click on the YouTube video content.
7. Deliver value as soon as the video starts to grab the viewers' attention.
8. POWER-TIP: Repurpose your highest viewed content to amplify your impressions, reach, and engagement.

These seven strategies will help kick start and guide your social media content to get noticed in 2021.

Stay tuned for my next blog as I unpack the seven-step process for creating consistent video content that generates views.


Guy Danhoff is the founder of ZAGPro Media and co-host of MOSHAPE's most viewed weekly content through the Live webinar series #Zagging101 sponsored by Heart Zones, Inc. (12 episodes at MOSHAPE YouTube). His step-by-step implementation of social media marketing strategies and practices directly influences many SHAPE state associations through his training and one-on-one consulting. Since March 2020, Guy has launched and produced for Missouri Healthy Schools (MHS) live weekly streaming content during the pandemic #StuckatHomeRecess, #StuckatHomeSnacks, #SpakerSpot, #TastyTuesday, and recently the host of #MOHealthMedia. Lastly, Guy was a panelist alongside the four most recent SHAPE America Presidents during a live keynote Town Hall session regarding The Impact of Social Media on Advocacy During the COVID-19 Pandemic during MOSHAPE's 2020 Virtual Convention in November.

Happy Tech Tuesday! Today I want to talk about the fabulous tool: Google Slides. Google slides is marketed as a program similar to Microsoft PowerPoint. 
A school nurse may want to utilize this for the following:

• Presentations to share with families online on topics like food allergies, asthma management during covid, and more.
• Presentations to share with staff on illness guidelines, coronavirus, health office updates, and more.
• The creation of fliers to either be printed or sent out as PDFs or other file formats
• The creation of fun things like a bitmoji health office, a photo slide show, a scavenger hunt, or a virtual library

Things created on Google slides can be shared in a variety of ways, from their original format as a slide show, to on a school nurse webpage, as a link in a newsletter or even downloaded and shared as a PDF. Research shows that parents want to be engaged with their school community in a variety of ways, so using this tool is a great way to connect with families in a new way.
 
I am going to first discuss how to make a presentation stand out and then I will cover some fun ways you can use Google Slides.
 
To get started you will need a google account. First, if you don’t have a google account you will need to create one. Instructions on that can be found HERE. Next, you will go to slides.google.com. You will see that Google slides provide a variety of templates to help you get started. My first suggestion is to look through there to see if there is one already created for what you are looking to do.

From there it works similar to the PowerPoint program many people are familiar with.
Some tips on creating a presentation that stands out:

• Keep a simple and consistent format throughout the presentation
  • Same font type, headings and main text the same size, simple background and color scheme
• Bullet points are your friends
  • Fewer words, allow for larger fonts and better readability
• Use high-quality graphics that you have permission to use
  • Websites like https://unsplash.com/, https://pixabay.com/ and https://www.pexels.com/ offer free images you can use. I still recommend putting under the picture a label with where it came from.
• Avoid transition effects
  • Even though they can be fun, they take away from the professional feel of a presentation.
    
    

Now I would like to just briefly touch on some of the fun things you can do with Google Slides.
 
Fliers/Handouts
You can change the size of the slide you are working on to be the same size as a normal 8x10 sheet of paper. You do this by opening up a blank slide file, click on file and then go all the way down to page setup. It will bring up the below screen where you can click on the little down arrow where it says widescreen and then change it to custom. Then you can make it an 8x10! This ensures that whatever you make will print out nicely.

Another fun thing is you can add in links anywhere. Below is an example of a flyer I made for a virtual event. By using the shape tool , You can put a box around whatever you want to become a link. After you put the shape around it, you find the hyperlink button that looks like . Click on the shape and then click on the hyperlink button and it will ask you to put in the website you want it to go too. You can add any web link, calendar link, or even a zoom link here.

If you save these fliers as PDFs all of your links will still work and then there is no worrying about sharing your original document with anyone.

Happy Tech Tuesday School Nurses! Here are some tips and tricks about bookmarks if you use Google Chrome as your browser.
 
Bookmarking a website allows you to save a webpage to visit later. This is great for websites you use often or that have information that you would like to access later. You can bookmark a website by clicking on the star icon in the address bar.

After clicking on the star a little window will pop up asking where you would like to put it. Similar to files on your computer you can create different folders to store bookmarks in. You can create a new folder when you bookmark a page by clicking on the down arrow next to the folder name and choosing the “choose another folder” option. Then the below screen will pop up where you can make a new folder.

The Bookmarks bar default is a nice area to put things that you will access often because you can set up your browser to always display. You do this by clicking on the 3 vertical dots in the upper right corner of the browser window, going down to bookmarks, and then clicking “show bookmarks bar.”

You will then need to close and reopen your browser. After doing so all of your bookmarks will appear underneath the address bar. You can click and drag things on the bar to organize it how you like.
 
 Another great feature of the bookmark bar is you can create a folder with things you use a lot and then right-click on that folder to open all the websites at once. For example, let’s say every morning you open: your email, your school’s attendance, your charting system, and the local weather. Using the steps above, you can create a folder and title it “Morning Websites”, you can then create bookmarks using the steps above and place those websites in the folder. Then you can right-click on the folder and open them all at once each morning for a time saver.

In October, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) extended its summer meal program through the end of June 2021. With this in mind, schools in mid-Missouri have started proving different programs to get food to students during the pandemic. The Grab & Go meals for Columbia Public Schools (CPS) include breakfast and lunch. There’s quite a bit of food and the families that receive it find it convenient and reduce financial stress. An average of 99 students used the free lunch program before the schools went virtual and after that it spiked to 142 students.

Grab and Go routes will end on Jan. 18, 2021. Virtual meal grab and go will move to select school locations and times to be announced in early January. For more information on the Grab and Go routes, click here.