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Title: Program helps St. Louis area schools use rules to improve behavior
Author: Valerie Schremp Hahn
News Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Release Date: Thursday, December 18, 2008MST
Area: St. Louis
Begin Article:
If you were a student at Halls Ferry Elementary School in Florissant, you'd know that when soft music comes on in the cafeteria, it's time to finish eating. If your teacher asked you to "slant," you'd know the acronym means to sit up straight and get ready to listen.
Cool, soft music is always much nicer than the stupid "SHUT UP AND EAT!!!" my elementry and middle schools tried. And not sure how "sit up stright and get ready to listen" turned into "SLANT", more like "SUSaGRtL" depending on how many pronouns you want to keep.
And if you were new here, and needed a primer on all the school's rules and procedures — and there are lots of them — you'd be invited to join the Newcomer's Club.
Cool, a nice way to welcome the new kids instead of the way that kids like to sometimes...
"I just think that's so good for kids, to come into an environment and know what is expected of them," said Lisa Hazel, principal of Halls Ferry, in the Ferguson-Florissant School District.
Well, it'd be nice to know what's expected instead of just guessing... That's usually what RULES are for...
All schools have rules; just try keeping 500 children in line without them.
Um... yes, thank you Captin Obvious. Your point?
But schools like Halls Ferry have rules nailed down to a science. Administrators say they are using rules not just to keep order, but also to set kids up to succeed.
............yeah....? Are you saying that this is unusual? Why is this news? Hopefully the rules wouldn't be set up for kids to FAIL?!
The schools practice PBS, or Positive Behavior Support. It's sometimes called PBIS, or Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports.
You mean something like punishments?! Oh God that would be unique and different! You acctually punish kids for doing something WRONG!!
Ask any of these schools to show you their rules and regulations binder, and you'll see procedures and lesson plans for everything.
Again, this is NEWS to you people?! It's NEWS if someone actually plans how to run the school?!?!
Everything. How to line up in the cafeteria. How to use "nice hands and feet" on the bus. How to be kind to classmates.
Let's rephrase this: "Everything. How to be orderly and not push and shove and cut in line. How to not punch and kick and shove and beat each other up on the bus. How to be kind to classmates." This isn't rocket science people: kids have rules, kids behave. When they don't behave, when you punish them, and they learn not to do that. NOT ROCKET SCIENCE!!!.
But the program isn't about creating endless lists of rules and cracking down on violators. Instead, the focus is on setting expectations and catching students being good. In other words, schools are offering more carrots and fewer sticks.
Um... I don't know if you want to compare rewards to carrots. I know you greeniewheenies out there think that carrots are a nice snack for kids, but kids hate carrots. Candy would be a better comparison, I think.
And this also isn't rocket science. You praise a kid for good behavior, they continue the good behavior. I learned this in Intro to Psychology. INTRO to Psychology. Not deep stuff here.
Hazel said the approach makes her job easier — about half as many students were sent to her office last school year as the year before.
Imagine that...
Positive Behavior Support is in schools in all 50 states. Halls Ferry was one of the first local schools to start it 10 years ago.
I still can't beleive they have to call this something special... And while Hall Ferry started it ten years ago, it was being used over two hundred years ago by our ancestors. Paddling!
Hazelwood, University City, Clayton, Pattonville, Kirkwood, and Webster Groves are among area districts that have signed on more of their schools in the past few years.
The school mentioned above are signing on to what hundreds of years of human histroy have taught us already. The libs tried wiping it out, apparently, and they obviously failed.
The approach is not rigid; it evolves with the needs of a school. But there is consistency within individual schools.
Yeah, PUNISHMENT!
"Everyone in the school uses the same words," says Thurma DeLoach, director of Kirkwood's special programs. "It's not like when I was in school, where in one classroom these were the expectations; in another classroom, you can get away with murder."
In inner city classrooms, you can still get away with actual murder, but I digress...
Teachers set up their own classroom rules and procedures, but they reflect the school's general philosophy and are similar to those in other classrooms in the same grade level.
Just like what normal schools, like private schools, and catholic schools, and other schools like that have been doing for decades of decades now. Catholic Schools especially - they teach GOD! "Oh no! We can't do that! Blasphemy!"
The program is based on the theory that about three-fourths of students in the school don't have behavior issues. About a fourth of students might need some help, which could mean they get a mentor or an invitation to attend a school "social skills club." A small percentage of students have chronic issues and need more help; they're likely to be put on behavior plans.
Wow, A program that targets those who need it. Seriously, how many times can I say the same thing?!
When schools decide to adopt the program, they might start small with a problem that their school can work on, like cafeteria behavior. Teachers and staff members — from the recess aides to the janitors — agree on a way to address each issue.
At Eureka Elementary in the Rockwood district, cafeteria workers give tickets to students for every positive behavior they observe. Grade levels keep track of how many tickets they get and compete to win the week's "Golden Tray Award" — a spray-painted plastic cafeteria tray.
Again with the positive reinforcement! This stuff is NOT NEWS!!!
"It's unbelievable," Eureka Principal Brian Gentz said. "It has changed an entire lunch."
Yeah, lady, when there's something cool to work for, kids will do it! I mean, look at those funky TV shows that slime kids in order to win trips to the tropics!
With the rules comes a common theme to make following them fun.
BLASHPEMY!!!
At Ritenour Middle School, Huskies get "paws for applause" for good behavior. At Ackerman School in Florissant, part of the Special School District, students' names are placed on a bee, which is taped next to a central beehive in a hallway. Halls Ferry students see handprints as a common theme, and they agree to follow the "high fives." There are six of them: Be safe, kind, cooperative, respectful, peaceful and responsible.
"When we do the high fives, you can earn good listening tickets and you can earn a lot of things, like lunch with a teacher," Halls Ferry second-grader Reggie Ross said.
Ew... who want's lunch with a teacher?
The approach translates to good feelings all around, said Carol Fouse, principal of Hazelwood East Middle School in the Spanish Lake area. She recalled the story of a girl who visited her office at the end of last school year and asked, "Did you make up this school?"
"Yes, as far as coming up with the rules and everything," Fouse responded.
"Well, you did a good job," the girl said. "You know what? I haven't needed to fight this year. I got into fights all the time at elementary school, but I feel safe at this school."
"That," said Fouse, "was very cool."
Kids don't like to see fights all the time, really. It's just when the kids have no RULES that they fight to do something.
But again, I cannot see how this is news! This is NOT NEW people! We've been doing this for hundreds of years! The Socialist Liberals made it new. We really need to stop them, really...
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I wish they would have tried this at Penn Hills.
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