A few months ago, we surveyed our members to get feedback on which of our supports, services, and efforts are most and least valued. Thank you for the insightful answers! As we have mentioned a few times, the intention is to retain what matters most to you, while scaling back the huge time commitment needed under the current model. You will see some changes over time as we refocus.
I am semi-retired as of this summer. My intention is to be available as a mentor for homeschoolers interested in supporting our growing community and to troubleshoot issues on an as-needed basis.
REFOCUS
Based on the survey feedback, the top four most-valued resources are our website, advocacy work, our main Facebook group, and the newsletter. These areas will be our primary focus going forward.
WEBSITE
Many families first find GSHE through Facebook and then discover we have a website. Unfortunately, Facebook is increasingly a difficult platform for community networking and makes us subject to their sometimes-wacky algorithms and changes. Their value has declined over the past few years, so we will be less reliant on Facebook to support our community.
We will ramp up our website in the coming months to be an easier, more robust one-stop resource. This is a big project and could take a year to implement. We will be looking for feedback when you visit the site about what would improve your experience. Stay tuned as this develops!
ADVOCACY
Many members commented that they value the freedom to home educate their children with minimal intrusion and the nominal burden of our state requirements particularly in comparison to other New England states. Our friendly home ed law didn’t happen overnight or by magic. It requires vigilance and the effort of many people, not only the few.
In order for homeschool freedom to survive and thrive, more people must get involved. There are some tools already on the GSHE website, and I am willing to offer more training opportunities particularly regarding advocacy with the legislature, if there is sufficient interest. Look for discussions over the summer or email me at info@granitestatehomeeducators.org.
The Home Education Advisory Council (HEAC) is the only state-level board that is exclusively focused on home education and as such, is an important public body to monitor and engage. Although my term on HEAC ends this summer, GSHE put forward a nomination for Department of Education Commissioner Edelblut’s consideration. I hope more people follow their meetings in addition to keeping up with the state Board of Education, legislature, and Executive Council.
SOCIAL MEDIA
As mentioned earlier, social media can be challenging and is less effective recently. Some of our social media groups are not sufficiently active and/or valued to warrant specific efforts to keep up engagement and interaction. The following groups are not valued enough for us to maintain beyond whatever the members generate independently. If someone is interested in serving as an admin for any of these groups, please reach out to us.
Families Helping Families -- Specifically for families who have children with special needs, not just for homeschoolers.
Granite State Gifted -- This group is for families in any educational setting who have advanced and twice-exceptional children.
Granite State Home Educators on MeWe – Our alternative social media group outside of Facebook.
We are keeping the GSHE branded groups, but you’ll notice changes there, too. Going forward, I will generally check our Facebook groups at least once daily Mon-Fri to approve posts, check join requests, and other admin functions. I will make every effort to get back to you in a timely manner, but it will be about 24 hours instead of seconds 😉. Our leadership team will also pop in as their schedules allow, but will likely have reduced Facebook time, too.
Granite State Home Educators -- Our primary group for supporting home educators around the state.
GSHE Marketplace -- Our group that brings together buyers and sellers of homeschool resources.
GSHE Homeschool Pod Connections -- A group to help bring together families looking to form home-based learning communities such as homeschool pods and microschools.
GSHE Action -- This is our group specifically for tracking and discussing legislation related to home education.
You will also see that my posts on Facebook will tend to be on our new focus areas. We have a large enough group that I encourage everyone to follow and share information and events from their local libraries, at-home therapy and IEP tips, arts and crafts ideas, homeschool blogs, free resources, etc. This is what makes GSHE an engaged, dynamic, and supportive community.
One area that demands a great amount of time and effort is post moderation by education providers and others sharing their business information outside of our group rules. If this continues to be overly burdensome, we may direct all commercial posts to the Homeschool Pod connections group, and delete promotional posts and replies without further explanation. We’ll see how this unfolds in the coming weeks.
NEWSLETTER
Our newsletter is an important communication mechanism, especially with the challenges of Facebook and other social media. However, the current format is labor-intensive, and the number of subscribers accessing it has gone down. We will experiment with newsletter changes. We are likely to produce only one newsletter over the summer months and explore other ways to simplify production going forward.
SERVICES THAT WILL END
Based on survey results and our own observations about what our community values, there are several efforts and services that we will no longer support.
In-person events -- The fall 2023 teen dance is our last sponsored event. We will no longer host other social events including Not Back to School picnics, holiday parties, tours of the State House, dances, art shows, etc. We would love for all of these and other fun, social opportunities to continue with members creating and organizing these events. We may also develop a website page to track events. What is changing is that we won't be providing hosting, sponsorship, coordination, and funding.
Virtual events –The 2023 Reading Challenge is our last virtual event. Similarly, we will discontinue online high-school guidance counseling seminars, spirit week, National School Choice Week events, holiday celebrations (Halloween costume parade, gingerbread house contests, and peep diorama showcases), and interviews with college admissions officers and trade practitioners, etc. We would love the community members to pick up any of these and other ideas.
Intro to Homeschooling Sessions – I did roughly fifty presentations at libraries and community centers around the state over the past five years. I will no longer accept invitations to do talks but will fulfill the ones I committed to for the summer.
Original research and articles – Unless there are extraordinary circumstances, we will no longer generate original research focused on NH’s educational pathways, academic outcomes, and related topics. We are grateful to people who contributed their considerable expertise over the years, including Dr Jody Underwood and Kevin Verville.
Videos – GSHE will not produce new video content unless it is part of the broader redesign of the website.
THANK YOU!
From the beginning, GSHE has been a project near and dear to my heart and I am eternally grateful for the people who contributed their wisdom, time, and energy to make it the awesome community it is today. They are amazing people and special friends. Thank you one and all.
Michelle Levell
Director, Granite State Home Educators
Leadership Team
Amanda Weeden
Abigail Bellemore
Karen Towle
Susan Olsen
Kate Muller
Lauren Lawless
Kitty Michelotti
Erica Layon
Hershel Nunez
Janet Evans
By Michelle Levell