Bringing our product and services right to your computer on Wednesday, June 29th, 2022! Come join us to learn all that we can do for your schools and districts! All welcome!
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Possip isn’t a traditional survey – and that is by design. We have heard, “these questions are so simple and this survey is so quick. Can you learn anything?” The answer is, yes! We believe the Possip difference helps leaders improve decision making and helps people feel heard.
The questions are simple and the survey is quick by design.
We believe that the true power of a survey isn’t in the number of questions that are asked, but rather, the power of the collective voices of those who contribute.
By creating a simplified design that centers the people, we’re able to put the voices of families front and center.
, Not SurveysA Pulse Check is a quick way to find out vital information in real-time and to give you a snapshot of your overall health. Possip is just that- we create a routine of checking in with your most important stakeholders to gauge the overall health of your community and organization. A typical survey requires more time, energy, and effort. You’ll be able to dive deeper into those stats, but oftentimes those results are too far removed from the day to day to effectively be used for slight course adjustments along the way. Think of us like your routine car fill-up, not your annual maintenance. You can improve decision making with consistent information.
If we are talking about Likert scales we may have already missed the mark. Why? The Likert scale doesn’t enable expression of opinion, rather it forces people to choose between pre-chosen ideas. While valuable at times, it can be unnecessarily rigid – and distancing. Also for organizations, our communities and constituents aren’t research subjects. They are people who we want to learn from and improve for.
The language of our Pulse Checks is accessible for everyone. Our Pulse Checks may sound less formal than a typical survey. This is on purpose! We do this to invite authentic feedback. Our Pulse Checks aim to feel like a conversation rather than a quiz where the answers will be graded and analyzed. We don’t want complicated languages to get in the way of the ability of leaders to improve decisions.
Organizations are made up of unique voices from across the globe. Our Pulse Checks enable your stakeholders to accurately communicate their heart by allowing them to respond in their native tongue.
Our Pulse Checks can be completed in as little as one minute. That’s less time than you’ve been reading these bullet points! We also make sure that for decision-makers and leaders, they can get actionable next steps in less than 5 minutes. And organizations get their reports in less than 2 business days. You need information quickly to be able to improve decisions. And people need to be able to share their thoughts quickly to give as much information as possible.
Part of how we keep the Pulse Check short is by not asking for information. So often when families or staff members are asked to do surveys, they’ve answered 5 questions before they’ve even had the chance to share about their experiences. This is why a typical survey receives such low response rates. By internally housing only the information needed to effectively respond, Possip ensures the highest response rates.
While we think quantitative benchmarks are important, we believe the experiences represented in people’s voices and words are equally – if not more important. Our Pulse Checks create a space for people to share answers that can be quantified -but gives equal credence to people sharing their experiences, needs, and what’s top for them.
Most surveys are an annual – or quarterly affair. We believe in creating predictability and routine. This helps people get into a sense of expectation, and know where they can share their thoughts and ideas.
While feedback is valuable, praise and positivity is equally so. In so many high stakes professions, like teaching, there isn’t enough positive feedback. Possip actively seeks out the positive for organizations and schools. To learn about the power of effective praise, click here.
Because of how we survey, leaders get the quantity and authentic quality of voices they need. This makes their decisions easier – and helps them feel more confident in the decisions they have made. We hear from leaders that their decisions became so much easier once they knew they were hearing from the diversity of their voices. For more on difficult decision-making, click here.
The post Ten Ways to Change Surveys for the Better and Improve Decision Making appeared first on Possip | Engagement Platform | School Feedback App.
Savannah, a current Possip reporter and former educator, shares several tips on student discipline!
As the month of June rolls around, the school year begins to wind down. This is often a time for teachers and students to reflect on their year, document growth, and prepare for final exams and end of the year activities. With this anticipation also comes an uptick in ansiness and unwanted student behavior. Simultaneously, teacher fatigue begins to set in as we all mentally begin to prepare for the reprieve of summer. This combination can understandably lead to frustration and irritation, and the need to delve into student discipline.
In this situation, it’s easy to fall back on top of mind disciplinary measures, but this often too easily slides into a form of punishment, which can be harmful for students. This is not to say there aren’t consequences for actions. However, taking the time to first address a student’s underlying needs, meet them where they are, and provide guidance and redirection is key to supporting students.
Here are a few best practices related to discipline, that don’t incite punishment or harm the teacher and student relationship:
At the beginning of the year, many teachers spend time intentionally creating norms with their classes. Revisiting norms at the end of the year reminds ourselves and our students what we have mutually agreed upon. You may even consider inviting a conversation around rewriting or editing norms that have evolved. Perhaps you may even add new ones for the last few weeks of school.
Unwanted behavior often stems from students not understanding the why. As a former teacher, I often told my students, “If you don’t know why you’re doing something, ask your teacher to explain the significance.” As educators, our responses to this question need to be more than “because I said so,” or “it’s just part of the curriculum.” By helping students find a greater purpose and life connections to their learning, students are more likely to participate and self-motivate. This in turn, results in fewer unwanted behaviors from students.
We often focus on the behavior rather than the motivation for the behavior in the first place. While this might sometimes be necessary in dangerous situations, it ultimately doesn’t address the root issue. Having honest conversations with students using prompting and exploratory questions disarms students, fosters the teacher-student relationship, and shows students that you see them. Sometimes, a simple why is extremely powerful.
For more info on approaching student mental health, click here.
Creating boundaries for ourselves, our space, and for how students should interact with one another is important for student development and relationship-building. We are simultaneously modeling for students how to create boundaries for themselves. Of course, these boundaries should be age and grade-level appropriate. Here are a couple examples of what this might sound like:
Each school district and individual school has different expectations when it comes to student discipline. It’s important to first understand your school’s discipline model, and participate in conversations about whether or not that discipline model is supporting students. Ask the questions:
Discipline is tough! So at the end of the year, when we are already feeling short on energy and resources, it’s even harder. Taking the time to slow down. Consider how we can best support ourselves and our students is important to ending the year on a positive note as we transition into summer.
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Join us on Wednesday, May 25th, at 2PM CT/ 3PM ET for our monthly live Possip Demo! Here we will explain how we can make outreach to your families, staff, and students even easier! Reserve your spot today!
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Savannah, a current Possip reporter and former educator, shares several tips on celebrating graduating students!
The inspirational wishes for the graduating students will encourage them to excel in their studies and choose the right path in their life. We’ve provided ideas to help you start your celebration and appreciation!
Every celebration must have five components. Keep CARES in mind when planning creative milestone celebrations so that you have a framework to begin thinking about putting your event together. Here’s what it stands for:
One of the best times to build relationships with families and students is during a time of celebration. So, the celebration should find a way for people to connect with their community and feel a sense of “together”-ness.
When we receive public praise and support, there’s actually positive chemistry that’s happening in our brains. Our “feel good” endorphins are increased and “negative” cortisol levels are significantly lowered. This is especially important during this time of crisis for students when they’re struggling with anxiety and uncertainty. Focus on finding ways to acknowledge students during your celebration to make this a really memorable and positive event.
Participating in celebrations connects students to the bigger significance of our lives and their purpose. It provides a sense of appreciation for where we’ve been and where we want to go. Allow time for reflection for students and families to make it a purposeful time.
This is pretty self-explanatory, but celebrations add excitement and fun. This is the perfect opportunity to partake in the joys of life during a difficult time.
Our brain remembers memories that carry significant emotions to them. When we are celebrating, we are basically putting a marker in our brain for that positive emotional experience. How will you make this memorable for students? Also, how will you create tangible pictures/media/keepsakes to re-live these experiences in the future?
As we go through this, if you’re planning a Kindergarten graduation or a Senior graduation, keep these 5 components in mind and adapt these ideas to fit your needs!
You can allow students to order their cap and gowns, and encourage them to decorate them, post them on social media or websites, and have a contest on how many “likes” they get. This idea will also allow students to have a personalized cap to celebrate their uniqueness during the ceremony.
Gather Senior Photos and Bios by asking students to submit them along with some fun facts. These photos and bios can be posted on a website for the senior class. You can think of it as kind of a living, breathing yearbook! There are also some website platforms where students and families post celebratory messages or comments for seniors, which would be a fun way to show extra appreciation and support.
Some schools have created and posted yard signs in the community for each senior. This could be in a public area for people to walk or drive by, or they could be printed and given to families to put in front of their homes.
This is a great way to build community. The school could have a “Senior Day” or “Senior Week” where a whole day or week is devoted to posting photos of the Senior class. Also, having an Instagram “hashtag” during that social media campaign can help students feel connected and celebrated and share other special memories they have from that time.
Schools could partner with local businesses that need extra business to create “senior care packages” for graduation day. I’ve seen principals and school leaders drop this off and take photos with students. This could be school swag, maybe items for their dorm room, or sweet treats for the seniors.
See what students want to do to celebrate. Students could design and perform a class dance that is recorded and sent out to the school body. Additionally, students could vote on a class song and someone can sing that, or someone can write a poem or spoken word and record it about the graduating class. These student-led experiences could be spread across a graduation week and allow students to take ownership of how they’re celebrated! Students are creative and want to be involved, so see what ideas they have!
Other students who are not seniors are still struggling without saying goodbye to their teachers and classmates. To get some closure for students, a few ideas include:
Ask students about their favorite memories and events during the year and create a “memory book” for students or another creative way to compile answers to give back to students as a ‘keepsake’ for the year.
Get videos from students, teachers, parents, and leaders and compile an end-of-year video for the school. (A fun example I’ve seen is having everyone dance to the same song in their individual video and create an end of year “music video” to close out the year.
And of course, remember that we do celebrate our graduating students in this way to show appreciation for their hard work. So, use these celebrations as an opportunity to reflect on the year and make it special for all students!
If you want to brainstorm more about these events, email amanda@possip.com!
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It’s already summertime! Managing planning can get chaotic. Amanda Richards, reporter for Possip, explains what you can do as a school leader to meet your summer planning needs!
I got this question a lot from friends outside of education, “What do principals do during the summer?” The answer to that question is difficult to give a quick response to because of all that school leaders do. However, it just might be the reason a school has a successful school year. There is no right or wrong way to nail summer planning, but it is necessary to have a strong plan of action prepared. We wanted to share a few key topics and questions to think through as you’re preparing for summer planning.
Sit down, either with your leadership team or individually, and create a Master To-Do list. I used a shared OneNote document where there are boxes to “check-off” as you’ve done things and can be shared amongst the team. Amy Kate, another former school leader on the Possip team, used a spreadsheet excel document that had descriptions of the tasks, team member assignments, and a “status check” space. Whatever tool you like to use, make sure it is user-friendly and can be shared. If you prefer physical paper, here is a resource that provides various free to-do list templates!
One school leader can’t do it all, so part of time management is delegating and trusting your team to do the work, too. Using that master to-do list, you can assign tasks and have weekly check-ins to discuss status and progress towards completion. In those meetings, use some time to look forward and set goals for what they will complete this week and what is coming next week. That will help with transparency, accountability, and goal setting for completing these summer tasks. Each leadership team member is probably different in terms of support and management style, but having a consistent touchpoint with each member will help the planning process.
If you’re like me, I like to fill my calendar and tend to “overfill” at times. However, setting protected time to plan and have uninterrupted work is crucial to success. Put large work chunks on your calendar or even have two days a week with no meetings that are devoted to your own thinking and working time.
Similarly, getting to-dos done is important, but summer can also be a great time for learning and big picture strategy. Having a weekly or biweekly book study with your leadership team may be a great use of time. As a team, you could choose a book that aligned with areas your school wants to focus on or improve based on the previous year. Those spaces for learning new things and thinking through a vision for change can be a great use of planning time.
Being intentional about receiving feedback proactively and as you progress through summer planning is strong leverage for school improvement and transformation. Here are some ways to get feedback from important stakeholders to build trust and gain investment.
One of the most important things I did as a principal was invite parents and family members into my office during the summer for small focus groups to learn more about their feedback and what they saw as growth areas. I received helpful and actionable feedback during those meetings. It was a great way to build relationships and trust with families. Not only did this help with families, but also doing similar things with teachers is a game-changer. Invite teachers who are willing to volunteer to come in during the summer at different points to see drafts of policies, plans, or changes for next school year. This helps to get additional sets of eyes on documents and plans. It also improves investment and helps teachers have a voice in planning. This helps leaders understand what pushback or critical feedback they could potentially receive before rolling it out to all staff.
Some tasks during summer planning are done best with a team, where additional minds can share ideas and important feedback can be given. Many of these topics were things the leadership team had already received feedback on from the past year (our last whole-staff PD was always a full feedback session on every part of our strategic plan). Independent work time is needed and precious during summer planning, but team work-time can create innovative, unique solutions and plans.
It’s an understatement to say these past few years have been difficult as a school leader. The summer should also be a time for school leaders to rest and take an extended break. You will be a better leader for your school if you are the best version of yourself. Take time to do those things that make you happy and healthy. For me, I always felt restored when I took time away during the summer and rested. Whatever resting and refilling your cup means to you, do that. It will be a benefit to your school’s summer planning in big ways.
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As we fully open up for the summer, it might be difficult to figure out how to reengage in the outside world. Zoom fatigue is real and students were feeling it, and now it’s all about mitigating screen time in general and getting those kiddos outdoors.
Here are some tips for schools to encourage students to take a break from screen time:
When kids, and adults for that matter, are out in nature, stress is reduced, attention is restored, and our health is positively impacted. Check out some creative ways to get students outside:
Allowing children to get creative, get active, and explore the world around them as a learning experience has so many benefits. Here are a few ideas on how to get kids exploring during the summer:
Kids developmentally need time away from the screen. Find time in the day for them to get up and get away from the screen. A tip I’ve heard is taking at least a 20-second break every 20 minutes. Ultimately, though, it’s up to each student to find out what breaks they individually need.
This is a great time to have kids invest in learning about family and community history. Here are some ways to support students in learning about these important parts of their life:
If you’re interested in learning more about what we do at Possip, email amanda@possip.com
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