Forget About the Website (for one day)

November 4th, 2009

All of the web work we’re doing is for one reason: to help you connect with NYA. In the end, though, a website cannot replace or replicate the real thing. (Remarkable, but true!) It’s an outstanding school, and you should see for yourself. Connect!

This Sunday, November 8, families have a chance to connect with NYA in person. Please come and hear from faculty, students and parents. See the amazing facilities. Enjoy performances and refreshments. And find out if NYA is a good fit for your family. Click for details, and please pass the invitation along to anyone you know with children in the 5th-12th grade age range.

Screen shot 2009-11-04 at 3.17.48 PM

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Posted in For Parents, On Campus | No Comments »

What’s The Big Picture?

November 1st, 2009

nyatoday on flickr

What’s the big picture at NYA? It doesn’t take long to realize that the “Big Picture,” per se, is an illusion. Or, rather, it’s the synthesis of lots and lots of little pictures – thousands of individual stories that have played out over the 200-year history of the school. And of new stories that are happening every day. Stories that are rich and fascinating and engaging and meaningful. Stories that can be told in photographs. And sentence fragments. ;-D

The best way we can help you connect to the big picture that is an NYA education is to let you see those stories as they happen – and to let you tell those stories as they happen. Flickr is one cool medium to make this easy and fun.

Think of Flickr as a giant, multi-person photo album in the internet cloud. It’s a running (edited, thankfully) stream of what’s going on at NYA in photos taken by faculty, staff, parents and kids. It runs the gamut from classroom to community service, sports events to artworks. Take a look to see what’s going on, and then join in by sending your NYA photos to us. The address is photos@nya.org. At this time, you can only send them one at a time, and there’s a little (approval) lag between when you email and when they show up; but we’re learning to walk before we fly.

Who’s going to be first to send a photo? You?

Stay tuned, and stay connected.

Posted in For Parents, Friendships, Heroes of NYA, On Campus, Online, Social Media, Social Networks | No Comments »

Facebook is Fan-tastic!

October 13th, 2009

Before we dive in, let’s get the big question right out of the way: “Should you be friends with your kid(s)?” On Facebook, I mean. Sorry, I’m not going to answer that one. Really, it’s different for every family, and like a lot of social media, you just have to do what feels right.

NYA Facebook Fan Page

NYA Facebook Fan Page

Whether you use facebook to find old friends, stay connected to far flung family, or follow your favorite philharmonic,  something you should definitely do is become a fan of your favorite school, North Yarmouth Academy. It’s a great way to get a flavor of what life is like on campus in a way that’s different from the news you find on the school website, though that will be changing soon. Using social networking and social media are an integral part of our new web strategy for exactly that reason.

Whether you are prospective students and families, current students and families, alumni, staff or whoever, social network sites are a way to connect with the school on real world, real time level. Try it!

I could walk you through the steps to sign up for your Facebook account, but it’s probably easier to just go there and follow the (metaphorical) bouncing ball. They try to make it pretty easy. If you want a tutorial, go here for some great beginner videos about the site. (Warning: it’s called Facebook for Grownups.)

Once you have your account, search for North Yarmouth Academy, or click here to find the NYA Fan Page, and click “Become a Fan” and that’s it. You can see what’s going on, and add comments of your own.

Stay tuned, and stay connected.

Posted in For Parents, Social Media, Social Networks | 1 Comment »

School Spirit

October 6th, 2009

If you missed Homecoming last weekend, here’s your chance to get a taste of what it’s like to be part of this community. Girls Volleyball played Cony on Friday afternoon, and the student body turned out in force to support their Panthers… who responded with their first win in two years!

The new NYA website is designed to be a window into this school spirit and the same kind of enthusiasm and focus you’ll find at music and drama performances, art shows, and, yes, even Algebra and Biology classes. (OK, perhaps without the cheering crowds…)

Get on campus in person whenever you can – it’s worth it. But if that isn’t possible, you can always stay connected through www.nya.org, and on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr.

(Have you become a fan of North Yarmouth Academy on Facebook, yet? I’ll walk you through the simple steps in the next post here.)

Stay tuned, and stay connected.

Posted in Heroes of NYA, On Campus, Videos | 1 Comment »

Real Social Networks

September 17th, 2009

Here’s another story from Wendy, and it has nothing to do with Twitter or Facebook. First, meet some of daughter Marnie’s ‘06 classmates…

Millie, Mary, Kristen, Liz, Marnie, Meghan, and Jen

Millie, Mary, Kristen, Liz, Marnie, Meghan, and Jen

Wendy’s story:

When we were first looking at schools in 2000, we were concerned about how sending our children out of our community would affect them socially. NYA is 35 minutes away from our home, and we worried about how Marnie and her younger brother (Duncan ‘08) would make friends. Would they? Would we parents ever see them?

We attended an Admissions Information Night at NYA, and one parent of a grad told the assembled group that the connections her daughter forged at NYA were so strong that her friends still came to visit, long after graduation, even when her daughter wasn’t home. That was a remarkable moment for us. Fast forward to 2009…

We got into the habit of making pizza in our wood-fired oven for groups (sometimes very large groups) of our kids’ NYA classmates and friends and those nights turned into great, social, laughing, eating, bonding events that transcended ages. We grew to adore our kids’ friends, and have an open door to them anytime.

One thing about open doors at NYA is that people use them.

Marnie spent most of the Summer in Seattle, but we still enjoyed visits in Arrowsic from her friends. Here are Kristen and Millie with Charlotte Briggs (’11), after pizza and before a hilarious game of Things in a Box.

Kristen, Charlotte, Millie

Kristen, Charlotte, Millie

We missed Marnie, of course, but clearly we feel fortunate to know the people she met during her years at NYA, and we know that we’ll always be connected to them.

On a side note – since this IS about the website – I asked each of the girls (Kristen, Millie, Marnie) if they ever went back to nya.org to see what’s going on, and they all admitted to regular use of the Works Cited page when writing college papers. I believe the amusement over that coincidence has been making its way around various Facebook and mobile phone channels. And, the faculty loved hearing that one!

Stay connected,

Walter & Wendy Briggs

Posted in Friendships, Social Networks | 1 Comment »

Can I Help You?

September 11th, 2009

Let me tell you a story…

Wendy was at a Girls Varsity Soccer game on Tuesday (go Charlotte!) with our 5th grader, Henry. He’s starting to think about NYA, and was asking questions, like, “Mom, what time does the Middle School get out?”

It’s been a while since we had the MS schedule in our lives, so Wendy turned to a young man just finished with his soccer practice and asked him what time school lets out. He replied, “Middle School gets out at 2, and then we have athletics until 3. The Upper School gets out at 3, and then they have their sports.”

Wendy could see the wheels turning as Henry thought it over. “Hmmm.” She was turning back to the game when the young NYA student said, “Can I help you with anything else?”

Wow!

That was a “Wow!” moment for both Wendy and Henry. Maybe you had to be there, but THAT IS EXACTLY THE POINT! Anyone who was there would completely get what makes NYA the amazing school that it is. That’s what we want to let people see with all these new tools: NYA on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, blogging, etc. I’m not sure exactly how that moment will translate or how best to present it, but we’ll work that out as we go. (Anybody have any ideas?)

I mean that. If you have any ideas, throw them at us. This is a participatory adventure here, and while it may be entertaining to watch it all go by online, it’s a lot more interesting if you join in.

Stay connected!

Posted in Heroes of NYA, On Campus, Social Media | No Comments »

Follow the Leader.

September 9th, 2009

People are having conversations and keeping in touch in many different ways today, and Twitter is one of the fastest growing, most fascinating places to connect online. Now, you can follow your favorite school… but why?

If you were already following NYA on Twitter yesterday (9/8/09), you would have known that video of Convocation speeches was posted on YouTube shortly after the ceremony (thank you, Chris Mazzurco.) It was a beautiful morning, and the speakers were brief and moving. If you couldn’t be there, this is the next best thing. Have a look for yourself. Here’s Alex Ward making his fellow students proud:

Can you live without Twitter? Hmmm. Probably. But it is another way to stay connected to the NYA community and get a flavor for what life is like at school from day to day.

It’s pretty easy to sign up*, and then you just jump in. Listen. Find people with similar interests. Join conversations. Broaden your mind. NYA is leading the way…

*If you’d like help, leave a comment here or email walter@briggsadv.com, and I’ll send you some step-by-step instructions.

Posted in Heroes of NYA, On Campus, Online, Social Media, Videos | No Comments »

It’s a Whole New World… Welcome!

September 2nd, 2009

Welcome to blog post #1 at the NYA Website Project Blog. We’re well along in the process of redesigning nya.org, and we think you’re going to find the new site easier to use, more engaging, and a better representation of the leadership and excellence that defines our school.

There are two goals we set for the new website:

  • It should communicate the characteristics of the school that make it a unique and special institution.
  • It should work to keep community members connected to the school and to each other.

NYA has a brand… A personality… A set of attributes that make it attractive to those of us who work or study there – or choose to send our children there. That brand should be understood both explicitly and implicitly by any visitor to nya.org. Visual design, functional organization, and content are the tools we use to help make that happen.

NYA also has a community. Students, parents, alumni, faculty, staff… all connected at one time or another to one another through our relationship with the school. We’d like to help keep those connections going longer and make them stronger.

In the past couple of years, the internet has evolved dramatically into a participatory, social, conversation medium. We plan to use a number of channels like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and lots more to make nya.org a leader in the school website genre. For starters, if you click on the little orange NYA box on the twitter feed in the right-hand column, you’ll find a way to follow NYA’s updates.

We’ll be posting more details here regularly, and invite you to comment and participate. Subscribe via RSS, follow the NYA Twitter feed (twitter.com/nyatoday) or just check back often.

So, stay tuned… and be connected.

Posted in Online, Social Media, Videos | No Comments »