Starting every meeting with 2 minutes on Hilight
Best Practice: Start Every Meeting with Two Minutes on ✨Hilight✨
We’ve seen one small shift make a big impact across schools and districts: starting every meeting with two minutes on Hilight. From cabinet meetings to faculty huddles to grade-level or non-instructional check-ins, the schools and districts that see the strongest engagement are the ones that make Hilight the first agenda item—every time, at every level.
Here are some tips on how to roll it out at your next meeting!
1. As people walk into the meeting:
Have the number one item on your agenda read ‘1. Share hilights!’ Whether this is written on the board, on a handout, or in an email sent in advance - having this clearly identified as the top agenda item makes sure that it won’t be forgotten and helps make sure every meeting starts off on a positive note.
Set the tone warmly, casually, and clearly.
“As we’re getting settled, go ahead and take a minute to hop on Hilight from your
phone or computer. [Have this QR code printed out or screened visibly to make it
easy for your team to quickly log into Hilight!.] Share a quick Hilight — something
that made you smile this week, something you're proud of, or a teammate who
deserves a shoutout. In about two minutes, we’ll share a few out loud to start off our
meeting.”
2. Two minutes in: Introduce the new habit warmly
“We’re starting a new school-wide / district-wide habit: we’ll begin every meeting —
whether it’s cabinet, grade-level, or non-instructional — with two minutes on Hilight.
We’ll spend this time sharing our highlights from both in-school and outside of
school. We’ll spend this time sharing them both on the app, so that we can capture
the data and remember and learn from these small wins, but we’ll also be sharing
highlights out loud! Taking these two minutes to start every meeting is a small shift,
but I believe it will make a big impact.”
Feel free to explain further:
“A ‘hilight’ can be as big as a breakthrough moment with a student you’ve been
working with for months or as small as getting to finish your coffee while it was still
hot.
We absolutely want to hear the great things happening in school — but just as
importantly, we want to celebrate the wins, joys, and small moments happening in your lives outside of school, too. We’re people first, and we work together better
when we feel connected to each other. Sharing what matters to us helps build trust, belonging, and real community.
Some days, it might be harder to think of a Hilight — and that’s okay. But they’re
always there, even in the small stuff. And if nothing comes to mind, feel free to
scroll through the bulletin boards in Hilight. You can share-out something you
posted earlier this week or even something someone else posted that really
resonated with you. A big reason we are using Hilight is so all of these moments
are recorded and remembered so we can learn from them. We don’t want them to
go away, so sharing out old ones is a great way for us to spend this time, too!”
3. Model it and invite others to share
Start the moment by modeling:
“Alright, I’ll kick us off by sharing one of my hilights from inside school and one from outside of school!
[Share a hilight from outside of school first (showing your human side first!) and
then share your hilight from inside of school (bringing attention back to main focus of school success!)].
Who else has a hilight they’d like to share?”
You can also say:
“If you’d rather not share out loud, no problem — feel free to just post hilights in the
app or read a Hilight that someone else wrote.”
4. If no one shares right away: Keep it warm, low-pressure, and consistent
It’s totally normal to have quieter days — and that’s okay! Here are some ways to keep the moment positive and meaningful, even if no one jumps in right away.
- Normalize it.
“It’s okay if nothing comes to mind right away — we all have those days.” - Share your own Hilight.
“I’ll go first — this morning a student told me they’re finally feeling confident in math. It made my day.” - Use a quick prompt to get people thinking:
- “Did someone on our team go out of their way to support you or someone else this week?”
- “Was there a moment when you saw someone on our staff do something that really reflected our school’s values?”
- “Who showed up with positivity, humor, or calm when things were hectic this week?”
- “Who showed up with [insert your core values] when things were hectic this week?”
- “Did someone do something small behind the scenes that made a big
difference?” - “Who modeled great teamwork, leadership, or care in a way that inspired you this week?”
- “What’s a story from this week that reminded you how lucky we are to work with this staff?”
- “Who deserves a shoutout for helping make the school run smoother — even if it wasn’t flashy?”
- Refer to the bulletin board.
“Let’s pull up a couple of Hilights from the app. Here’s one that stood out to me...” - Make sharing optional.
“No pressure to share out loud — feel free to just post in the app. Reading each other’s Hilights is a great way for us to keep connecting and learning from our small wins.” - Thank people for participating, even silently.
“Thanks for taking the time — even just reflecting quietly makes a difference.”
- Putting people on the spot
- Acting disappointed or rushing past the moment
- Making it feel like a performance or obligation
5. Reinforce the new norm
“Thank you all for leaning into this — it might seem like a small shift, but I really
believe it will make a difference. This is how we’ll be starting every meeting across
the district moving forward — just two minutes to reconnect, recognize each other,
and begin from a place of appreciation.”
If you have any questions, ideas, or want to chat through how this could work at your school or district, please don’t hesitate to email us any time at support@hilightedu.com. We can’t wait
to get creative and figure out the best way to make this best practice fit for your team!