Breathe Week
Hi friends!
BREATHE Week was 11/2-11/6, and it was a new event for this year. Our goal was to increase awareness and break the negative stigmas surrounding mental health, especially in our community.
Here are some things we noticed:
- not as much participation for yoga+breathing session as expected
- graphics+email spam is losing effectiveness
- new creative promo might help ?
- lindsey's comics were really eye-catching and a good way to interact with the student body
- predict technical issues so try to practice/work things out beforehand (ex. yoga session)
- alumni are amazing resources
- in general: lots of useful resources if you search for them
- instagram live can be risky (we couldn't disable comments)
- encourage HR teachers to relay info + announcements
Please let us know your thoughts and any suggestions you might have. Thank you and have a good day :)
~ Rec <3
hi rec!!
ReplyDeleteI thought breathe week was really good and the graphics/comics were really cute and fit the theme really well! one of the things I noticed was that in addition to Instagram lives being risky, it's also a very public and not anonymous way to ask questions. Even the questions sticker on Instagram might not feel anonymous enough to some people. Mental health/body image is a very stigmatized topic, so it might be helpful next time to have an anonymous form for people to submit questions too because a lot of people are not comfortable asking questions openly. I know it is hard to plan around everyones schedules, but the yoga session was at the same time that there was a calc test on Wednesday, which is why a lot of my friends and I couldn't go. If possible, you could try to plan activities at a time where teachers don't regularly schedule school activities. Overall, I think it went really well and I learned a lot!
Hi rec!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the overall message and goal of BREATHE week, and thought you guys did a phenomenal job with putting up comics, organizing yoga and breathing sessions, Instagram lives, and story takeovers. Even though turnouts weren't as high as they would've been with regular school, I felt that since there were so many different platforms used your message still reached a solid amount of students one way as another. As Rachana mentioned above, I do agree that it could've been helpful to have an anonymous place to input questions since it can be scary to attach your name to a question that is relatively personal. Another thing that I wanted to bring up was that while I loved the connection with alumni on the story takeovers, it was hard to find answers to your own questions because of how many story posts there were overall. Maybe a way to combine anonymity and easy access to answers would be to have alumni do a livestream themselves and answer anonymously inputted questions on the fly? Overall though, I think it was a great event overall and helped educate students!
hi rec!!
ReplyDeletejunior year has not been very easy for me and distance learning in general has not been good for a lot of people, so i think BREATHE week was a very good idea! the graphics were really cute and new, because i think a lot of people were getting tired of instagram stories and it is difficult to find new ways to do PR.
as for the alumni advice, that was super smart new and unique thing to do!! i agree that it was a really good use of resources. personally, i am not super comfortable with sharing my insecurities in a form if it attaches my profile, so i think an anonymous form would be a lot better in the future.
i think you guys did a really good job finding creative ways to do things online, such as the yoga session, and instagram live. however, i think that it would be more effective to do all of the events on instagram live instead of just the one Q and A. it is super easy for people to forget events, especially if it is over a zoom call. people love going on their phones during free time anyway, so i think that making a live video would reach a lot more people! i'm pretty sure there is a way to turn off instagram live comments because i've seen influencers do it before.
ok wow good job rec!!! overall, i think BREATHE week was pretty good!!
suanna
hi rec! breathe week is such an amazing idea and I'm really impressed with how you guys organized it. The events were so fun and I learned a lot especially from the Instagram story takeovers. You guys chose really inspiring alumni to speak on those topics. As stated in the previous comments, it would be great if there was a place where people could submit anonymous questions. The Instagram live was fun, too! Aryan and Sydnie gave really good advice on there. All of the events came together to create a very wholesome week, so thank you for planning this!
ReplyDeleteSarah
hi rec!
ReplyDeleteBreathe week is such a great idea, and its intentions are so meaningful. I thought the comics were super cute (also Lindsey has amazing humor :). It's unfortunate that not too many people attended the breathing session- maybe next time we can do a youtube live during homeroom, so students will definitely participate. amazing job rec, this event was wonderful!
- Emma
Hey Rec!
ReplyDeleteBreathe week was awesome! I really liked your approach and attitude toward the week, and I think in general, getting more participation will occur if you're able to communicate the reasoning behind the importance of breathing (as it is not immediately clear if people just read the name, like learning how to breathe almost seems like satire at first blush). I thought that for Instagram live, what you could consider doing instead is just posting a video (so there are no live comments), or you can do a livestream with disabled comments on youtube or twitch through Zoom.
Overall, I think dealing with stress and mental health also requires caution, so making sure that the alumni understand that they are representing the school in their comments is also important. I think anonymizing and lowering the barrier of entry (i.e Not having a zoom call but a livestream) would be better, since concepts of stress is difficult for people to open up about.
Fantastic job on the event :)
Hey rec congrats on a successful breathe week! I think you guys did a super great job, and I really enjoyed the concept. One thing I noticed was that you guys only did a Facebook spam prior to the event, without any Instagram promotion. I think that this might've led to the lack of participation because not a lot of people regularly check Facebook. For the actual event, I really liked that you guys used different mediums to engage with the student body, such as the comics, alumni takeovers, and livestreams. I think that this was a great way to stand out from the usual Instagram spam events and wanted to commend you for that. Overall, I thought that your event was really creative and well-planned out!
ReplyDeletehiii rec :)) congrats on holding a really cool week that lynbrook students deserve!! I really liked the plans that were set and things like the yoga sess by a professional and the breathing sess with lee were amazing! which brings me to my main point- while I really loved those and thought it was cool to attend, attendance being low for those means one of three things (as you guys probably know), either promotion wasn't as outreached as it could have been, timing for these things didn't work out for people, or didn't it actually cater to the student body. I think the first two points have been covered by others, but just to cover the last one!: I think it's important for us to consider while we plan these events if people will actually attend. and even if its something they'd actually like, would they go out of there way to attend it? I think the yoga and breathing sessions were amazing, but I also know people who just didn't attend because they rather use that time to relax in another way. of course that applies to any event, but I just think its a good thing to keep "is the juice worth the squeeze?" in mind. overall, I really enjoyed it and im glad you guys are making the most of this online setting!
ReplyDeleteHi rec!
ReplyDeleteI think that Breathe week was a great idea, especially with distance learning and the difficulties and stress of school this year. Though, I feel like the name itself could have been explained in more detail or changed to more accurately reflect the events and purpose of the week. I liked that the comics were an easy way to learn about/relate to mental health related situations. I also thought that the stress ball activity was fun, and yoga and a breathing lesson were interesting events. However, actually attending the yoga lesson, on the other hand was a really strange and left me very confused because of both the teacher and technical difficulties 😅. For future events, as Tim mentioned earlier, I think it may be better to anonymize more and lower the barrier of entry to increase student participation, especially when it comes to more personal and hard topics like mental health. Overall, I thought the event was pretty cool though! Great job guys
hi rec!
ReplyDeletebreathe week was a really nice event, and i also really loved lindsey's comics especially. I think you mentioned struggling with social media promotion, and how it's somewhat losing effectiveness especially as we go longer into quarantine, but I think something creative like lindsey's comics was a really great idea, and can be implemented in the future. i think promotion might've also been difficult because I don't believe the event was promoted in the pr video? But i think some kind of announcement during homeroom where all students receive information might help. overall, it was a really great event, wonderful job!
hi rec!!
ReplyDeletegreat job on breathe week, you guys definitely put a lot of work organizing it! this event is especially important during our time in isolation, it has definitely affected our students. my favorite (and many others) favorite part of this event was lindsey's comics. because it was on the ~@lynbrookasb account, it reached the student body pretty widely! you guys did great on reaching out to alumni as well. i agree with emma that it would be interesting to do a youtube live along with the zoom, that way students arent as pressured to turn on their camera/participate with their name on the screen. in terms of promotion, it could have been a little bit more clear during the pr video. good job rec!
Hi Rec!
ReplyDeleteI really liked the idea of breathe week and thought a lot of things you did throughout the week (like the alumni takeover) was very helpful. I like how you guys tried to implement many resources (Zoom, IG Live...) in your event as well. I know you didn't get as much participation as you would have liked, but I think it's hard to get students to join a zoom that isn't their class or with their friends, so you shouldn't feel bad about it. I don't think an increased amount or a more creative approach to promotion would have changed that. Instead of having a zoom, you could post on Facebook or Instagram a video of the yoga session so people could follow along on their own time. I think you should collaborate more with Homeroom to see if you could get your breathe week material (the yoga session or Mr. Lee's breathing lesson) to happen during Homeroom. That way you would get a lot more participation. I loved Lindsey's comics on Instagram. They were really cute and funny, and I think a lot of people enjoyed them too, so great job!
helloo
ReplyDeletemy favorite thing about breathe week was the advice from the alumni, as people have who have been thru what we're going thru, they had a really good understanding of the situation and what we feel these days. It was really helpful!! I also really liked Lindsey's comics, they were something new! One problem I had, and I think many others was that some of the events collided with other school stuff. I know I had a calc test on wednesday and couldn't attend the event that day. but i think its really great that you guys are caring for everyone's mental health. I sure need it! that sounds sad but aahhaha. im fine. i think.
- chris :o
hello rec! nice job with breathe week, it was a really awesome week that i think helped promote a really positive message :))
ReplyDeletei heard a lot of great feedback from lindsey's comics, we got some dms from the lynbrook asb account on instagram who said they liked how cute yet informative the comics were and looked forwards to seeing them being posted.
some other people have mentioned it already, but i agree that the timing of some of the webinars were hard for more students to make it, i had a test during the yoga session and a class during the breathing session, so it might have been better to have done sometime after class on a tuesday or thursday as everyone finishes school at the same time and teachers don't plan for anything after. someone brought up the idea of doing a youtube livestream which i also think would be effective as people could go back to the video in the future as well!
overall, great job on breathe week! although there may have been some things that didn't go according to plan, it was still super successful and i think the student body responded to it very well.
hi rec!!
ReplyDeletegreat job with breathe week! i loved the concept so much,, it really brought awareness to the stressors in our school and i personally found it really interesting.
suggestions/ideas for next time:
- i absolutely loved the idea of the alumni takeover but i felt there were a bit too many stories so if there's a way to shorten that for a possible future one, i feel it would make them so much more effective
- the comic instagram posts seemed to really get around so maybe doing that for the yoga session,, like creating slides with different poses and breathing tips (with cute illustrations!) would reach more people, and that could influence them to join the yoga live session too
what i really liked:
- as i mentioned above, i really loved the idea of the alumni takeover so maybe doing something like that right before 2nd sem finals as well so they could talk abt study tips, what kept them motivated, and how not to burnout, i think the students would love that
- the comics of course were adorable and we need to have more of those! (props to lindsey <3)
hope this helped :))
-anika
REC NICE. It was great to see a new event that was so well thought out. Some things for next year's breath week:
ReplyDelete- I think instead of IG lives maybe we can do an FB live using the Lynbrook FB group. It's possible more people would view that and I think we can disable comments on that as well
- I really liked Mr.Lee's BREATH session but noticed it was mostly ASB people who were in attendance. I think we should move this to youtube live and then also do banners on fb to promo like we do for other event's and possibly have the asb class get more involved on ig
- The advice from alumni was invaluable and I think, to get more genuine questions (in case we needed those not sure), we can include it in senior homeroom or the guidance newsletter if we're able to contact the counselors in time. That way, more seniors know about it and can use it as a resource.
OVERALL GREAT! We should definitely do this again next year.
hello!
ReplyDeletei loved the idea for BREATHE week! it was super cool to tie social media and mental health to an interactive event!
some things for next year that can help improve it are:
1. more promotion - to help viewer engagement
2. moving the yoga session to a live platform so it requires 1 less step for people to access it
3. i loved the alumni takeover and I actually used this as inspiration for another event, so continuing this aside from breathe week as a regular thing would be cool
4. i loved the stress ball session but i didn't have any of the material on me to participate so maybe giving a heads up to the school with that they need could help partipation!
other than that, awesome job!
Hi Rec!
ReplyDeleteFantastic job on Breathe Week! I really liked the comics!!! In terms of the lower than expected turnout, I think we should look into more convenient and accessible ways to livestream events, such as using Youtube, which is easily accessible to more people than instagram. Also, it's definitely great to do a test run on the platform you are using to reduce the amount of technical difficulties. As mentioned by Kanav, I think it would also be great if you could get this announced on the guidance newsletter or perhaps even get counselor input/involvement into the planning of this event. Overall, great job!
hi recognition!!
ReplyDeletei really loved the concept of breathe week as well as the execution. I know you guys put in a lot of time and effort into the week, and I feel like the primary issue was ensuring student engagement-in a slight contrast to what others have said, I felt it might be helpful to keep one consistent platform for all the events, rather than breaking it up into a live, a zoom call, etc. it's difficult for people to keep up with events when they're at different times and different platforms (I know I missed a couple events, including the breathing session, because I couldn't figure out where or when it was in time). h
for promo, honestly the best promo (from what spirit has seen) is limited promo. people tend to skip through insta stories, but the comics were amazing-maybe having a few commissions repost each comic would have been a less intrusive and more engaging way of reaching out, with a completely different vibe (I love lindseys art so much)
other than that, good job guys <33
Hi Rec!
ReplyDeleteThank you guys for hosting a breath week. I know it happened a while ago but being able to take some time for personal betterment was really helpful to a lot of students. Couple things that I thought were great was how you guys promo'd the event. Lindsey's comics were absolute gold and the alumni and their talks were actually really thought provoking and helpful (definitely utilize again next year). For the yoga and breathing tutorials, one thing to keep in mind next year is perhaps pre-filming almost a fun tutorial video that way you guys can keep it up as a permanent resouces and people can revist it. Other than that, great job guys!