How Redlands Kickstarted Student Engagement

Katie Baker is an absolute superstar ASB teacher and Activities Director at Redlands High, she has a knack for spirit but just needed to find the right tools to take her to the next level.

Katie told us that Redlands tries to create a feeling of belonging for every student because they want to make students feel valued and wanted on campus. They also work hard to make sure their ASB program is representative of everyone at school. So all ASB students are from different backgrounds, ethnicities, clubs, and programs in order to represent the entire school.

One of her concerns was: “How do we create inclusivity for everyone while making sure we have activities that are culturally inclusive?”

With the help of Minga’s campus management software, student engagement at Redlands has skyrocketed! Let us run you through exactly what Minga tools Redlands High is making the most out of. We’ll highlight some of their success and the traditions that go along with them.

Minga’s Communication Module comes into play. Creating a safe space for students to share and interact online has created a web of student engagement that was not been fully realized before. An idea that we loved that Katie shared with us was if there is an upcoming event Redlands will tape free tickets to seating areas around the school and announce it in Minga. This prompts students to search for the free ticket and promotes involvement and attendance.

With Minga, every group has a safe space for conversation, under the school’s umbrella. For so long, the school was dealing with groups that were using so many different social media platforms. Parents and students were getting confused. What Redlands loves about Minga is that it’s a one-stop shop for school culture and climate, not just academics but the promotion of school spirit being completely encompassed by Minga. Not only is it now hosting all the sports and clubs but they are also seeing students, parents, and teachers feeling less confused. Last year when everyone was online, it was chaos, nobody knew anything, and things were scattered everywhere. Now that Redlands is using Minga for it all, it’s much easier to manage.

Better Behavior Management

Redlands High School has also completely embraced Minga’s Tracking and Rewards Module as well as our brand new Hall Pass Module. Because of Minga’s tracking behaviour module, Katie, and others who are granted special privileges can see exactly what trends in participation are occurring and even which students are excelling or need more attention. Redlands is currently using Minga’s Digital Hall Passes to keep students accountable and keep their campus as safe as possible. Pairing these two modules has helped them track unwanted behaviours during breaks, see which students were out of class at what time in a detailed manner, and has helped them cut down on vaping, vandalism, and truancy.

A Student Body That is Engaged

We asked Audrey, a senior student, what she thinks of the Digital Student IDs. “I think that ppl think it’s pretty cool, like my friends. I was talking to them about how we have our IDs online this year and how everyone likes it better than the physical IDs.” Audrey and her peer Ben told me that their football game against their rival school is their biggest event of the year. “We go all out. We connect together, especially during football games, because we all want the same common goal to be achieved. School spirit to me is being united together by common goals.” They also told me about the lineups that would wrap around campus and take forever, and now with their Digital IDs, they have multiple teachers and student leaders scanning people into events at once which has basically eliminated the lines in their entirety.