By: Kayla Good, Senior
Picture from Google Images
According to Scott Davis, Springfield Elementary School principal, new systems have been put into place at the elementary and middle schools to promote student behavior that follows school expectations. Both staff and faculty reinforce high expectations for students to be respectful, responsible, and kind across all settings: classroom, hallway, bathroom, playground, cafeteria, and bus. The principal distributes ten paw tickets to staff members each day to acknowledge students with integrity who are following school expectations. This encourages students to have positive behavior and healthy patterns in the school. Students receive tickets in exchange for a paw that goes onto the “Pawsitive Panther Board,” which is filled every few weeks. This allows students to positively express themselves and receive positive feedback from staff regarding their behavior in school. The focus of this program allows students to not only focus on their academic performance but their social skills with their peers and staff at the school.
In 2018, Springfield Elementary School developed intervention grids to assist students who score moderate to high-risk levels for internalizing and externalizing behaviors on the SRSS-IE universal screener. These interventions include low-intensity strategies, check in/check out, social skills groups, lunch bunches, and restorative conferences. The district uses SWIS software to keep track of the office discipline referrals and the progress of students who participate in the programs. This allows staff members to monitor the progress of students’ behavior and determine if there needs to be further action taken for disciplinary reasons. The SWIS team meets once a month in the school to discuss behavior patterns and trends and study the improvements in student behavior. This information helps them determine any areas which may require a booster session on expectations. This program is expected to encourage positivity, positive affirmations, lesson planning, and incentives within Springfield Elementary. By implementing this program, students are able to experience a safe, positive community that is concerned with the well-being of both themselves and others around them. This encourages students to develop social skills and positive behaviors that will impact the environments of schools across the community. Not only will students and staff in Springfield Elementary will be affected, but so will the families of these students. This program will promote a positive change in the homes of many students as well as faculty to create an encouraging environment to live in.
The Positive School-Wide Behavior program is very constructive for the school community of Springfield and the Lehigh Valley in general because it is not only affecting students attending Springfield elementary, but the other schools as well. Thus, this will spread more positivity in schools.
Comments