A school district's responsibility is to provide a safe learning environment while simultaneously attending to regulations protecting the rights of all students. The focus of efforts in student discipline must be to design and implement proactive school-wide behavior support systems for all children, recognizing that a very small percentage will need a more intensive and individualized approach.
What is PSC?
A school district's responsibility is to provide a safe learning environment while simultaneously attending to regulations
protecting the rights of all students. The focus of efforts in student discipline must be to design and implement proactive
school-wide behavior support systems for all children, recognizing that a very small percentage will need a more intensive
and individualized approach.
Because students are individuals, School-wide Effective Behavior recognizes that every school needs a continuum of behavior
support to respond to the needs of all students. The triangle on the next page illustrates that concept.
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The Behavior Support Triangle
The majority of our time and efforts are spent on those items at the base of the triangle. It is our belief that if we build a strong foundation that supports positive student behavior, very few of our students will need the services at the next 2
levels.
The result: Our school is a safe place where students can be academically and socially successful!
That’s PSC = Positive School Climate
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School Wide Rules
Behavior Expectations
The Keys to
- Follow teacher or staff directions the first time they are given.
- Demonstrate active listening.
- Respect and care for your property, your school, and yourself.
- Keep hands, feet, and objects to yourself at all times.
- Use kind and civil words and actions.
- Be in your seat, prepared to begin class, when the bell rings.
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Core Team: Parents – Teachers – Administration
Parents – Teachers – Administrators
Parents:
- Need to become familiar with school rules and reinforcement programs in order to be participating partners in
establishing the best possible learning environment.
- Read and review the handbook in your students' agenda book periodically.
- Encourage your son/daughter maintain academic and behavior standards that will keep them eligible to participate in
the school's reward programs and extracurricular activities.
- Need to support school based team efforts to increase achievement and learning opportunities for all children.
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Teachers:
- Recognize and understand that effective behavior is the responsibility of the entire school staff.
- Recognize that the rules and procedures must be consistently applied to all students by all staff.
Administrators:
- Are key to establishing and maintaining school-wide effective behavior.
- Recognize that PSC is a process that must be monitored and evaluated periodically. Changes in the system should be
made based on data and not be made just for the sake of making changes.
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Learning a New Set of A-B-C's
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- Antecedent: What is occurring prior to the behavior.
- Behavior: An observable, measurable act.
- Consequence: What happens when rules are FOLLOWED or BROKEN.
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| Consequences for Following the Rules (Reinforcers) |
Consequences for Misbehaviors(Punishers) |
- Must be specific, descriptive, and contingent.
- Use the vocabulary of the rules to praise the young person for following the rule
- Provide positive feedback more frequently than you think is necessary. (at least a 3 to 1 ratio of positive to
negative feedback)
- Recognize that some young people need more attention than others.
- Expand and vary reinforcement choices periodically.
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- Develop consequences for common rule infractions.
- Implement consequences calmly and consistently. (Bore them into submission)
- Implement consequences immediately in the setting where the infraction occurred.
Disadvantages of Punishment
- Children adapt to punishment. Therefore it must become more severe each time to be effective.
- Only works when the punisher is present, or during the exact conditions, for a limited amount of time.
- Can lead to lying, sneaking or aggression.
- Inconsistency, variability, ad delay between behavior and punishment decreases its effectiveness…
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Avoiding the Traps
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Often times when working/living with young people we know the best ways to handle situations, but do the exact opposite.
Sometimes emotions cloud our thinking, or in an effort to "save" time we look for the quick fix. Below
are 5 Common Traps adults often fall into and alternatives for avoiding them.
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#1 The Passionate Discipline Trap
This trap is the most common one and also the most difficult one to break.
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- Exhibiting strong emotions in your voice and facial expressions
- Lecturing (preaching) about what was not done or done incorrectly
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- Use matter-of-fact discipline
- Quote the rule that was broken
- Keep the message brief and to the point. Keep it short and the less emotional it will become.
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#2 The Cure-All Trap
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Most of the time a young person will have more than one behavior that warrants improvement. As busy adults we try to find one intervention that will “cure�? everything at once. In and of itself that one intervention may be an excellent tactic for
one or two of the behaviors, but not all of them. Instead of coming to this realization, we switch to another one, then
another one, and so on, in the hopes of finding that magic cure. As we constantly change our interventions, a young person
gets the sense of power that he/she can sabotage our attempts to make changes.
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- Point systems
- Reward systems
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- Pick one or two of the most serious behaviors and concentrate on developing an intervention for those. Less severe
behaviors can wait. Sometimes when the more serious behaviors are targeted and corrected, the less serious ones take care
of themselves.
- Work in increments on a problem:
- Discuss the ultimate goal behavior that would need to be exhibited to earn the total of some preset reward.
- Very specifically define the one behavior that is presently getting the young person into the most trouble and
keeping him/her from getting the reinforcement. (reward)
- Define with the young person the two or several behaviors that although not the ultimate goal behavior, will
progress toward the final desired behavior.
- Set reinforcement for the behaviors that move toward the final desired behavior.
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#3 The Too General Trap
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We know that young people are experts at finding loopholes in what we say to them. Giving them broad or undefined requests
or consequences often lead to even greater discipline problems and/or power struggles. Unless we are specific we will spend
more time arguing with the young person as they detail all the behaviors they feel they demonstrated that fit those general
directives. Adults will counter with all the behaviors they observed the young person simultaneously exhibiting that were
not signs of "Acting appropriately, responsibly, etc."
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- Statements such as: "If you beha.." "Do your best." "Act responsibly." "Be good." "Do
what you are supposed to do." "Act appropriately."
- Reward systems
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- Pick one or two of the most serious behaviors and concentrate on developing an intervention for those. Less severe
behaviors can wait. Sometimes when the more serious behaviors are targeted and corrected, the less serious ones take care
of themselves.
- Work in increments on a problem:
- Be very specific in defining what you want and what will happen as a result. For example,
instead of saying "Do your best to complete your homework.", say, "If you complete all
homework assignments this week on time and receive full credit, I will treat you to a movie."
- Ask the young person to repeat the task and conditions back to you so that you are sure they
heard and understood them.
- Set up a self-monitoring system where the young person can mark off accomplishments as
he/she completes them. (For homework the Agenda Books are set up to allow for this.)
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#4 The Questioning Trap
Do you find yourself asking questions of young people you already know the answers to? Picture this, you watch one child trip
another. You walk up to the "tripper" and ask, "What did you do?" Do you feel yourself getting angry when you hear answers
like, "Nothing", "I was just kidding around"? Look at it from the young person’s point of view. They may think you’re asking
the question because you didn’t actually see what was happening, so maybe they can get out of the situation by being dishonest. Now they’ve been set up for double the trouble, one for tripping and one for lying.
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Worse yet, they may feel you’re being sarcastic and therefore they have the right to be sarcastic in response. This will
only lead to more anger on the part of both parties.
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This is a tough trap, because asking questions becomes a habit.
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- Questions like: "How many times have I told you.." "Did I tell you to.."
- Asking a question when you really don’t want an answer.
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- Practice making firm, direct requests in a matter-of-fact manner. (i.e. Keep your hands and feet
to yourself.)
- Ask appropriate questions. "Is tripping someone a safe thing to do?"
- If you observe a young person doing something inappropriate, state what you saw and follow
normal consequences.
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#5 The Negative Criticism Trap
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We get caught in this trap when we are looking for the "quick fix". We get busy and rely on one or two word commands to get
certain behaviors to stop immediately. "Stop it", "No", "Shhh", and similar negative commands usually get immediate,
short-term results. The problem is young people realize their negative behavior also gets our immediate attention. As time
goes on these behaviors will increase in frequency and duration if we use this method to attempt to correct them.
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- We are quick to catch and criticize a young person when they are doing something wrong.
- We either take it for granted or neglect to comment when we observe a young person doing
something right.
- Make sure your positive comments and interactions with a young person are higher than your
negative ones. Strive for a 3 to 1 ration.
- See:101 Ways to Say Very Good
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- Don't fake it or give recognition for everything a young person does. They will soon see you as
insincere.
- When you do need to reprimand, be sure these encounters don’t outnumber your positive ones.
It may be helpful for you to keep track written chart at first until you have made the 3 to 1 ration
a habit.
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Jr. High Behavioral Rewards Activities & Eligibility Criteria
Unlock the FUN of
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September |
Ice Cream Social |
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November |
TBA |
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January 31 |
TBA |
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April or May |
Mystery Outing |
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June 4 |
Celebration Dance |
Positive School Climate Recognition Program
The Recognition Program is for Jr. High students who contribute to our Positive School Environment. These rewards are not
connected to academics, but only to responsible and appropriate choices. Students will participate in special programs (see
attached sheet) at the end of the first 41/2 weeks, the end of the first 9 weeks, and at the end of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th
quarters. We have received a grant that will pay for the programs, so there is no anticipated expense to the students.
All 7th and 8th grade students will be invited to participate who have received:
- 2 or less Warnings
- 2 or less Time Out's
- 1 or less Detentions
- No ISS Assignments
- No OSS Assignments
Students will begin with a "Clean Slate" after each program
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Student Responsibility
The purpose of the Student Responsibility Program is to promote citizenship, academics, honesty, and responsibility. This
program begins at the start of the second semester of your freshmen year and is cumulative through your senior year. You may
qualify with a minimum 3.5 GPA and a satisfactory rating by the faculty. You may also be considered through the application
process if you had exemplary attendance (96%) during the previous semester. The program is an earned privilege not a right.
- Students who earn responsibility status are permitted to use designated areas and special facilities such as the:
Responsibility Room, Library, Writing & Development Center, and specified outdoor areas.
- Responsibility students must register in the responsibility room before utilizing responsibility privileges.
- Use of such privileges requires appropriate identification.
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| 100 Ways to Say "Very Good" |
1. That’s the way.
2. You’re doing fine.
3. Now you have it.
4. Exceedingly well done.
5. That’s great!
6. GREAT!
7. FANTASTIC!
8. TERRIFIC!
9. Good work.
10. Good for you.
11. That’s better.
12. EXCELLENT!
13. Good going.
14. Keep it up.
15. WOW!
16. Much better.
17. Good.
18. Good thinking
19. Clever.
20. Exactly right.
21. Nice going.
22. Way to go.
23. SUPER!
24. SUPERB!
25. Keep on trying.
26. WONDERFUL!
27. That’s it.
28. That’s good.
29. Congratulations.
30. FINE!
31. Right on.
32. TREMENDOUS!
33. You make it look easy.
34. Outstanding
35. How clever.
36. That’s it.
37. I like that.
38. MARVELOUS!
39. You remembered.
40. SENSATIONAL!
41. You did it that time.
42. That’s a good idea.
43. Good job, (Bill/Jane)
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44. You’ve just about got it.
45. I’ve never seen anyone do it better.
46. That’s quite an improvement.
47. Not half bad.
48. You haven’t missed a thing.
49. That’s the best ever.
50. You did that very well.
51. You’ve got that down pat.
52. You’re really improving.
53. Well, look at you!
54. You must be very proud!
55. You figured that out quickly.
56. That’s really nice.
57. Keep up the good work.
58. That’s much better.
59. You are very good at this.
60. I knew you could do it.
61. You’re doing beautifully.
62. That’s a unique way to do that.
63. You’ve got it made.
64. You’re learning fast.
65. You’re on the right track now.
66. You’re doing a good job.
67. You did a lot of work today.
68. Now you’ve figured it out.
69. Now you have the hang of it.
70. You’re really going to town.
71. That’s coming along nicely.
72. You outdid yourself.
73. That’s the best you have ever done.
74. Not bad!
75. You are doing much better today.
76. You’re getting better every day.
77. Keep working, you're doing well.
78. Perfect.
79. You’re really working hard today.
80. Nothing can stop you now.
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81. I think you've got it now.
82. You’re really learning a lot.
83. You certainly did well today.
84. That's better than ever.
85. That is first class work.
86. You make my job fun.
87. That's one good way to do that.
88. You should be proud of the way you worked today.
89. I'm happy to see you working like that.
90. Couldn't have done it better myself.
91. One more time and you’ll have it.
92. You've just about mastered it.
93. Now that's what I call a fine job.
94. You must have been practicing.
95. Congratulations! You got #__ right.
96. It's a pleasure to teach when you work like that.
97. That kind of work is something to be proud of.
98. You make it look easy.
99. I'm proud of you.
100.That makes me proud.
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Click here to download a copy of this web page
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Positive School Climate
Interscholastic Athletic Competition
Renaissance
Healthy Communities/Healthy Youth
A Check List for Parents
Junior/Senior High Music
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