Final Thoughts

Well….a final summary about the Positive Action program here at PASS….has another year passed us by already?

During our faculty meeting this past Friday one of our aides brought up that he thought it was pointless to pass out the “buzz word” cards to the students. He felt like it created much more work on our two teachers that counted the cards. (The two teachers who count the cards are really sweet people who enjoy doing that sort of thing…hint, hint (MATH!)…but I digress.)

I kept my mouth shut (a rare thing when I feel strongly about something) and let everyone voice their opinion for a few minutes. It was interesting to hear all the thoughts and concerns going on in the room…all while the cards were still being counted.

The principal asked my opinion and I started off by saying that the two gift cards that are given out are minut compared to what is going on psychologically with our students. Yes, it is time consuming, but the smile on their face and the genuine way they say “thank you” is all worth it to me. The chances of them winning the gift certificates to Sonic are very slim. That doesn’t deter them from trying to earn the cards though. I give the cards for good behavior, for following my classroom procedures, and for doing good deeds for others (when others aren’t even paying attention).

I will add though that for past two days I have not handed out very many cards because it was the end of the six weeks and our classroom hamster escaped. So I have been quite busy and quite sad (probably the main reason I was quiet in the forementioned meeting!) and the cards have not been on my mind. My students have not mentioned the cards and their behavior has been the same…respectful and hard-working while in my classroom. They have been busy while in my room and quite sad as well. I think we all just had a lot on our minds and the cards weren’t a priority.

I just feel that psychologically the cards and the lessons (we have a homeroom at the end of the day where we discuss the different buzz words and their meaning) have a bigger impact than what we might initially see for the moment.

Our students typically aren’t the ones to win phrase from their parents, as well as their teachers. Every student needs to feel special and feel that they have potential. Every human being needs that in life to feel good about themselves.

So…if a little card with their name on it, from a teacher who is basically saying thank, helps them to feel special…..well….then I am going to pass out as many as I want to each day.

Hopefully the hamster will come back as well, but it isn’t looking good.

Summary of Positive Action…so far.

Well…as I was sitting down this morning to write some positive notes for students here on our campus (an element of Positive Action) I noticed something. I was checking off the names as I completed a note and noticed that when it came to the high school students many of them have had some great turn arounds since last semester. Many of them are students who had been suspended and had some harsh behavior here on our campus. Now they are model students here and receiving many compliments, cards, and positive notes from our faculty.

I cannot say the same for middle school students because I think they are in their own little world most of the time and their behavior mainly changes when different students arrive or depart from our campus. This is true for the high school students as well, but middle schoolers are a special breed.

Positive Action works for our campus and I think it can make a difference for students returning to their regular campus as well, but many things influence how our “repeaters” feel once their time is up over here.

I know that our students at PASS are capable of much more than they show those of you on a regular campus. And I will be the first one to to state that each day here at PASS is a brand new one every day! Just because they behaved yesterday doesn’t mean they will come in the following day and perform the same way. There are many circumstances that affect their success and failure. We all know that it has everything to do with their home lives and unfortunately, we are not in control of that each day.

I have learned that I enjoy writing these positive notes to my students (and others on my campus that I do not teach in class) and they thoroughly enjoy receiving them. I think it helps me to make sure I know the kids that are here so that I can find something positive to write down for them.

My words might be the only positive thing they listen to that day. Many things might have been said to them that is positive….but the written word can be savored for later, in privacy, where they can really hear what we are saying to them.

Update 10/2/2007

Here are some of the things we have done so far with Positive Action:

1) Teachers write notes to students that focus on things we see throughout the day….which exhibit positive actions. They are passed out each morning to the students (teachers receive them from students as well!).

2) Positive Action cards are given to students each week for good behavior. We have a different word for each week. This week the word is “unique” and during our homeroom time we are focusing on activities that show the characteristic of being unique.

3) We have elected individuals (chosen by their peers) who serve as “honchos” that represent our student body. They have weekly meetings with our principal and together they decide on ways our campus can be improved through community service and things we can promote on our campus each day.

4) We have a banner that hangs in our gym that represents days we have had good behavior. On a normal campus it would be taken down if someone had an after school detention or something else to that effect. On our campus we decided that it will come down if there is a fight or a severe disruption. We have had the banner hanging for a couple of weeks now.

All in all, our students are responding well to the program. They feel important and are stunned that we are doing the things we are doing. The honchos are doing a fantastic job representing their student body. They were shocked that they were voted to represent their campus…stating, “I am a bad kid. I have never been able to do something like this before.”

It is awesome to see such positive things occurring on our campus. It doesn’t mean that every day is full of sunshine on our campus, but I feel that we are making a difference in their lives in a positive way.

Most of these children have an existence at home that we will never understand. They go through battles we will never see. They misbehave most of the time out of frustration. They cannot read well. They cannot write well. They don’t know how to let people help them. They fight help most of the time.

I hope by April our campus will see a change in our climate. I hope we can truly change some of the behavior for our students. Most of all, I hope that when they return to a home campus they feel just as special there that they do here with us.

Positive Action

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September 24, 2007

My topic has changed!

Not quite sure if I am on the correct road with this topic, but it seems to be one I would like to follow.
I am not even sure if I am going to be able to organize it quite the way I would like, but I will try nonetheless.

Our campus has implemented a new program called Positive Action. We use this program throughout the day, but concentrate on activities during our Homeroom time (1:30-2:00).

The basic premise is using positive actions all the time instead of negative ones. We have done a couple of things so far with the program that seem to be working quite well.

I will post later today (as time permits) with some examples of what we have implemented.

Test-August 6, 2007

Let’s see if this works!

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