Building relationships and supporting the needs, talents, and interests of our students and teachers is of the utmost importance. Yet when I arrived at Durham Elementary International Baccalaureate World School in the summer of 2015, our school faced several climate and culture challenges. Student discipline was punitive; the goal was not to educate students to make better choices. Teachers felt unsupported. We had met academic standards, but with the bar rising again, that wouldn't last if we didn't grow.
To shift our culture, we created and implemented the Durham Student Motivation System. The goals of our system are to
- Prepare students for college by building habits that will aid them in navigating the academic arena.
- Allow teachers to remain warm with students while maintaining high expectations.
- Build the skill set within each adult to remain emotionally consistent when supporting student culture.
Here are a few key drivers of this system and how these practices are helping us create more positive relationships—and results.
Teach Expected Behaviors
Consequences don't change behavior—teaching does. We're responsible for teaching students how to display the behaviors we expect in our schools. However, not every teacher knows how to support students in making positive behavior choices. When I arrived at Durham, several teachers thought that students should just know how to behave and that they shouldn't be recognized for it. So, early on, we talked about how positive reinforcement is crucial to building strong relationships in a teaching environment and how it is our responsibility to educate students academically and behaviorally.
Toward that end, the first step in our student motivation process is to narrate positive behaviors. Teachers begin by delivering precise directions, including expectations for movement, volume, and participation. Then they make objective observations about students meeting those expectations. When a student meets the expectation, the teacher provides reinforcement. For example: "Elena, I like the way you're walking in line with your hands at your side. That shows me you're keeping your hands to yourself and showing respect." When a student doesn't meet the behavior expectation, the teacher provides redirection, using positive language to teach and encourage replacement behaviors.
Use Positive Language
The language we use is crucial in maintaining a well-managed classroom. We believe that teachers should always address students positively and respectfully and refrain from using language that suggests blame or associates inadequacy with students. Consider these examples of redirection. Which is more likely to make the student consider turning around his behavior?
- "Johnny, why are you always calling out when I'm trying to teach? That's it! I'm giving you a demerit because you can't keep your mouth closed."
- "Johnny, when you want to participate, you have to raise your hand. That's going to cost you one demerit. I'll be watching for you to show me the correct way for giving an answer so that I can move your name back up to three merits. Bounce back. It's OK."
When we consistently use positive language, students learn that we genuinely want them to be successful.
Use Misbehaviors as Data to Inform Teaching
When a student misbehaves or is rude to a teacher, it can hurt the teacher's feelings. Instead of taking these misbehaviors personally, we need to view them as data points we can use to determine if a student needs more instruction or support in a particular area.
To make it easier on ourselves, we use a school culture system called Kickboard to collect, analyze, and share real-time behavior data. Using this web-based platform, we can set schoolwide behavior expectations. Then, with just a tap, teachers can record student behaviors as they narrate, acknowledge, and praise positive behaviors throughout the day. If a student isn't behaving appropriately, we can drill into the data and look at the student's behavior and contribution to the school culture that day or over any period of time.
To be proactive, we can also set "triggers" to alert us to potential problems. If, for instance, a student earns two demerits, I, as the principal, receive an alert. I can then check to see if the teacher needs anything to support the student in the classroom. With this data, we can have specific, supportive conversations with teachers and students.
Start the Day with a Clean Slate
To effectively teach students, we need to give them a clean slate every day. At Durham, every student begins each day with three merits for attending school and being prepared. These merits are automatically loaded into their account within the Kickboard system. If students are tardy or absent, they lose a merit. When students display positive behaviors, their merit accounts remain positive and accumulate "wealth" throughout the week.
The goal is for each student to end the day with at least three merits. Those who maintain that daily allowance can earn school privileges such as "Free Dress Fridays" or the opportunity to participate in school programs or classroom privileges.
Achieving Positive Results
Relationship building occurs when we demonstrate to students that we care about them and their success at school. When we acknowledge the good decisions they are making, it builds them up. By combining verbal acknowledgements and praise—with positive notes and calls home—and special privileges and rewards, we shift the focus to the positive and see better results.
In our classrooms, misbehaviors are down, and we've had fewer in-school and out-of-school suspensions. Students are spending more time on tasks and are more engaged. In 2015–16, our school surpassed its 2014–15 scores on all four state performance indexes: Student Achievement, Student Progress, Closing Performance Gaps, and Postsecondary Readiness.
Through our Student Motivation System, we have changed our mindset to focus on the positive and build stronger relationships, and that is making a difference in our classrooms and our school.