Education
Kris chats with Staci Smith, co-founder of FightSong?, a social emotional reporting app designed to prevent school violence by connecting students with their school counselors. Smith and her father James, a programmer who founded EdTech company Twotrees both experienced severe bullying in school and received inadequate support from school staff. They developed the FightSong! app to make sure other students don’t fall through the cracks without support. FightSong! is currently active in 15 schools across the country, mostly at charter and private schools. Through checks and balances within the app, administrators can review the status of conversations and interactions taking place between students and counselors. The social-emotional reporting app, allowing students to push the FightSong! button on their school- issued devices when they’re first experiencing issues, with the intention of prevents incidents from spiraling out of control. The app starts at $280/year for an entire school. If they can save just one student from committing suicide, says Smith, it’s completely worth their effort. This episode was sponsored by FightSong!, www.fighstong.com and TESOL, which is offering a special discount for Education Excellence listeners who want to attend their 2020 convention. Use promo code TESOL10 to get 10% off a full registration. Learn more and register at www.tesolconvention.org.