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Possip Knowledge and Content Manager, Mandy Wallace, shares ways Bonus Questions can increase family turnout!
What if you could get an accurate forecast of what types of events the families at your school would attend this year – and what barriers prevent them from coming?
We’ve all been there: teachers and staff put an enormous amount of energy into an awesome Literacy Night for families… and three families show up. The conversation is wonderful and everyone finds the evening valuable, but everyone goes home wishing more families would have come.
Possip can help get that forecast for you. Our Possip Pulse Checks collects feedback of all kinds:
For more sample Bonus Questions for the beginning of the year, check out these helpful posts. To find out more about how Possip can help you boost family buy-in through customized questions and polling your families in real-time, click here!
The post Three Ways Using Bonus Questions Can Increase Family Turnout appeared first on Possip | Engagement Platform | School Feedback Survey.
A new school year is a fresh beginning for everyone – new routines, new teachers, new classmates, new challenges, and new possibilities. To help get everyone off to a great start, Possip Knowledge and Content Manager Mandy Wallace rounded up some of our favorite Possip resources to help families support their child at school and at home!
When it comes to school, being an active and engaged parent is a huge plus for your child, their teachers, and the school as a whole. As we lay out in Be That Parent, “Principals want to hear parent voices and resolve the small things before they turn into big things. Your voice and your concerns matter.” As we discuss in The Upside of Helicopter Parents, “Helicopters aren’t all bad. They use them to life flight people to the hospital, get a view over volcanoes, find hard to find people, navigate the complicated terrains, and park just about anywhere.”
Be a positive force this year when it comes to communicating with your child’s teachers:
To learn more about each strategy, read this article: 5 Ways Parents Can Support Strong Teacher Communication. And here’s a few more tips from Walden University on talking to teachers!
Supporting your child’s goals can start the school year off on the right track. Sit down and help your child talk through some of their favorite things from last year and what they hope to accomplish this year. We have designed a few trackers for different ages to help everyone both visualize the goals, and track progress!
The post Back to School: How Parents Can Support Kids (and Their Teachers!) appeared first on Possip | Engagement Platform | School Feedback Survey.
Last week, the AP reported that Millions of kids are missing weeks of school as attendance tanks across the US. The article points to reasons for high absenteeism pre-pandemic such as illness and transportation. However, the article also illustrates with heart-breaking stories; from children across the country to new trends experts are noticing post-pandemic:
The post Get Ahead of Attendance Struggles This Year appeared first on Possip | Engagement Platform | School Feedback Survey.
Sarah Besand, a Teacher and Possip Reporter shares her thoughts on tips for teachers starting the new school year.
We’ve heard of the Sunday Scaries… but I’m not sure there’s a word for “Summer-is-ending-and-my-classroom-is-a-wreck-and-I-don’t-have-plans-for-the-first-week-of school” Scaries. The end of summer is daunting enough, but throw in an unpacked classroom, a possible curriculum change, and a brand new set of kids–and our minds are reeling.
These feelings can be overwhelming, and you are not alone. Teachers across the country are at max capacity, and the beginning of a new school year can only exacerbate these feelings. Whether you are a first-year or veteran teacher, each year brings new challenges, so we’ve gathered teacher wisdom and tips to help you best use your planning time.
We’re excited to introduce Robin Madison, an instructional coach in Metro Nashville Public Schools and former teacher. Robin spent 17 years honing her craft as an elementary educator and has now been fostering excellence in current teachers through her coaching role the past three years.
This is often easier said than done. As teachers, we want to think we live by this… until we find ourselves more focused on hanging up rainbow pom-poms than we are on preparing our student materials needed for the first week! (This is equally a reminder for myself, haha!) Here’s Robin’s solution:
“The essential focus is really understanding the content of what [you] are teaching in those first few weeks. Teachers should also make time and space to locate materials in digital or print formats that will be needed. It is helpful to prepare as many of those items as possible to help [you] easily transition into a new year with new students.”
I need this reminder myself as I find it easy to get distracted instead of printing off essential copies for the first week. Prioritizing the basics first helps lift the mental load of the “must-do’s” so there is more space for creative ideas later.
Another aspect important for first-week planning is community building. However, let me affirm the teacher who feels overwhelmed right now. It is very difficult to think about community building when all of your classroom furniture is staring at you in a pile in the middle of the room after floor waxing. So–if that’s you–pause, grab a teacher buddy to work on both of your classrooms together, and resume reading when you’ve got your desks and rugs where you want them.
Defining your class community is what is going to keep you and your students calm for the rest of the year. Establishing norms for how every human in the classroom acts and treats each other unlocks the key to immense learning and growth. Robin shared some ideas for how to plan for this before your students even arrive:
“Remember that we are all human! Not every relationship is going to form easily. Look for ways to celebrate students for small wins. I established a community routine of this in my classroom every Friday:
I would hold a Friday Closing Circle where every student and adult in the room (even visitors) would share a high and low from the week. The high share was required. The low was optional. If the low was a school issue, we would problem solve as a group about how we could improve moving forward.
I would end this time with Friday Awards. Throughout the week I updated a spreadsheet of all of my students to make sure I was looking for specific ways to recognize them. Our weekly awards were for things such as Neatest Desk, Outstanding Attitude, and Student of the Week. Make awards fit the needs in your classroom, and celebrate with the weekly winners in a big way! The children feel so much pride and cheer one another on. It is a sweet way to build a great classroom community and focus on the good you are seeing in all students.”
Remembering this tip takes a huge burden off of educators. With the rise of seemingly perfect classrooms on social media, it can be very difficult not to compare our own space to strangers on the internet. This blog reminds us of the importance of blank wall space so that we can hang student work and anchor charts made together as a class. Less “busy” walls are actually supported by research to help students focus in class, so don’t fret!
We saved the best tip for last. Creating a space that you love to enter can bring both you and your students joy throughout the year. Here’s Robin’s pro tip:
“Make your classroom a place that you love that will be a second home for you and your students for the next school year. Add your favorite colors, pics of family and friends, and other items that bring you joy. If you have gifts from students from previous years, put those in places around your room. They can randomly bring you joy as you remember when that student was in your classroom.”
As you begin this school year, we hope these pro tips help you focus your limited time and energy. Remember to take breaks and deep breaths. We promise it will all get done, and streamlining your list with these tips will likely lighten your load. Let’s have a great first week!
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