The school at which I have been interning has been trying to create a better sense of community for the students. One way they have been trying to promote that this year was by separating the classes into different superhero characters. I have mentioned this in previous blogs. There is at least one class from each grade level to represent the superhero house and the goal is to use this as an incentive to follow the school rues in order to earn points for their class. The students are supposed to want to earn the points not only for their specific classroom, but every class in their “house”. One of the suggestions I would make for them is to make it so there are better incentives. The students receive a pizza party at the end of the nine weeks if their house has the most points. The issue with this is they have the entire nine weeks to gain and lose points. The students will have time periods in which they do really well and earn many points or their students, and other times when many points are lost. Often times students are penalized for other students’ behavior, and the problem is that the students do not really care that their behavior effects other students. As mentioned previously, one of the students in my class received a referral and suspension on the bus, which resulted in the entire house of Wayne (we are Batman—Bruce Wayne) losing a whopping fifty points. Any class in this house lost those points and that is unfair to those students who have no say in the matter and always behave well.
Another suggestion I would make is to have a class incentive for the points to help the class care more about one another. While the points seem to rally the kids in keeping the school clean and behaving in the lunch room, they should receive incentives for the trapper tickets in the classroom. My class has minor behavioral issues where they do not respect one another and this classroom community is something I would like to see. If they begin to care about one another on a regular basis, it may help them care more about the rest of the school. I also think that the school could have a mentor program in which some of the older kids work with the younger kids to help build relationships and make the community closer. I have luckily never seen a violent situation where my CT or I had to intervene, and count my blessings daily for this because some schools have this issue on the norm.
Another suggestion I would make is to have a class incentive for the points to help the class care more about one another. While the points seem to rally the kids in keeping the school clean and behaving in the lunch room, they should receive incentives for the trapper tickets in the classroom. My class has minor behavioral issues where they do not respect one another and this classroom community is something I would like to see. If they begin to care about one another on a regular basis, it may help them care more about the rest of the school. I also think that the school could have a mentor program in which some of the older kids work with the younger kids to help build relationships and make the community closer. I have luckily never seen a violent situation where my CT or I had to intervene, and count my blessings daily for this because some schools have this issue on the norm.