Creating a brand seems like a concept businesses use and does not apply to a school, however your brand as a school is extremely important. By brand I am not talking about identity in the form of mascots, logos, slogans, etc. I am talking about the core values and missions that drive the school and sets it apart from every other school around. How do you know if those core values are truly part of your school? You use an idea from Apple and ask the students to complete this statement “(The name of our school) makes my life…”
VIDA did this as a flash contest. I emailed the students and gave them three hours to email back their responses to “VIDA makes my life….” and all student responses were entered into a drawing for VIDA gear. The responses gave us a true insight into our school and how we are seen. The only words that came to my mind as I read the responses that students sent to me are tears and pride. Below is the video that we put together showing what we learned.
From the mouths of our 6th-8th grade Sharks:
https://animoto.com/play/u7XjksKdKJBMPkcgolOpyA
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4Jalbfj4BbvN0ZUcm40N2FMc1E/view?usp=sharing
Give this strategy a try with any concept. At the end of the year I am going to give it another try but this time asking the students “iPads make my life…” The goal is to evaluate the brand that we have put on the devices our students have. Hoping to see that the iPads make the student’s life effective, creative, etc.
