Student Shout Outs
We have started student shout outs around the building to highlight all of the kind acts our students do every day! Each classroom, resource room, and the cafeteria received a poster to display student shout outs. To start this process, teachers are modeling how to write student shout outs and what types of actions warrant a shout out. As such, if teachers see an act of kindness, they write it down on a post-it and put it on their shout out poster (ex: Timmy helped Sally with the fractions worksheet). Students will be able to see their shout outs and be proud of their kind actions. We are even going to start randomly selecting a few shout outs to read during the morning announcements each day - what fun! After this process has been modeled, we will transition to having students write shout outs to their peers. These will continue to be announced in the morning in an effort to highlight the positive interactions occurring all over our building!
Please note, however, that similar to the rainbow behavior chart, students may not get a shout out for every kind act they perform (there would be far too many to keep track of). Additionally, we want them to develop an internal motivation to be kind. We don't want students to only be kind because they are being recognized - this would be an external motivator. Instead, the shout outs are intended to be an extra special treat for being kind simply because it is the right thing to do. At Mutual, we really want students to develop a sense of ownership about their choices as they grow, learn, and become successful in their future endeavors. We hope that this initiative encourages students to find ways to be kind wherever they may be! :)
We have started student shout outs around the building to highlight all of the kind acts our students do every day! Each classroom, resource room, and the cafeteria received a poster to display student shout outs. To start this process, teachers are modeling how to write student shout outs and what types of actions warrant a shout out. As such, if teachers see an act of kindness, they write it down on a post-it and put it on their shout out poster (ex: Timmy helped Sally with the fractions worksheet). Students will be able to see their shout outs and be proud of their kind actions. We are even going to start randomly selecting a few shout outs to read during the morning announcements each day - what fun! After this process has been modeled, we will transition to having students write shout outs to their peers. These will continue to be announced in the morning in an effort to highlight the positive interactions occurring all over our building!
Please note, however, that similar to the rainbow behavior chart, students may not get a shout out for every kind act they perform (there would be far too many to keep track of). Additionally, we want them to develop an internal motivation to be kind. We don't want students to only be kind because they are being recognized - this would be an external motivator. Instead, the shout outs are intended to be an extra special treat for being kind simply because it is the right thing to do. At Mutual, we really want students to develop a sense of ownership about their choices as they grow, learn, and become successful in their future endeavors. We hope that this initiative encourages students to find ways to be kind wherever they may be! :)
STOMP
For the past three years we have had an anti-bullying group called STOMP (Students Teaching Other Mustangs Positivity). The goal of this group is to inform students about bullying and what we can do as a school to "STOMP" it out at Mutual. This group attends the county-wide Anti-Bullying Summit at CSM every fall, which is a great event put on by the Student Services Department. All anti-bullying groups in elementary, middle, and high schools are invited to attend. Once there, students split up into break-out sessions where they learn about making a positive impact at each of their schools. We are then able to take these ideas back to Mutual and apply them.
Last year STOMP was on the morning announcements talking to students about the definitions of bullying/bully, target, bystander, and upstander. They also worked hard to plan Unity Day in October, which is a national anti-bullying day. Extra morning announcements were made leading up to the event and STOMP members also helped to plan our school-wide activity for the day: a Unity Quilt (pictured above). Each student was given a blank square of paper was asked to draw a picture of friendship, kindness, upstanders, or a message/slogan about anti-bullying. These squares were then glued together and formed a Unity Quilt to show how Mustangs come together as a community to combat bullying.
This group also assisted me in planning Random Acts of Kindness Week in February. The focus of this event is to remind students that kindness can be shown anywhere and everywhere. These acts also don't need to be elaborate - a small display of kindness, such as asking someone about their day, can have a huge impact. As part of this day, students gave each other compliments, wrote appreciation notes to staff, and watched daily videos and announcements about the power of kind actions.
I can't wait to see what this year's group of STOMP kids can come up with!
For the past three years we have had an anti-bullying group called STOMP (Students Teaching Other Mustangs Positivity). The goal of this group is to inform students about bullying and what we can do as a school to "STOMP" it out at Mutual. This group attends the county-wide Anti-Bullying Summit at CSM every fall, which is a great event put on by the Student Services Department. All anti-bullying groups in elementary, middle, and high schools are invited to attend. Once there, students split up into break-out sessions where they learn about making a positive impact at each of their schools. We are then able to take these ideas back to Mutual and apply them.
Last year STOMP was on the morning announcements talking to students about the definitions of bullying/bully, target, bystander, and upstander. They also worked hard to plan Unity Day in October, which is a national anti-bullying day. Extra morning announcements were made leading up to the event and STOMP members also helped to plan our school-wide activity for the day: a Unity Quilt (pictured above). Each student was given a blank square of paper was asked to draw a picture of friendship, kindness, upstanders, or a message/slogan about anti-bullying. These squares were then glued together and formed a Unity Quilt to show how Mustangs come together as a community to combat bullying.
This group also assisted me in planning Random Acts of Kindness Week in February. The focus of this event is to remind students that kindness can be shown anywhere and everywhere. These acts also don't need to be elaborate - a small display of kindness, such as asking someone about their day, can have a huge impact. As part of this day, students gave each other compliments, wrote appreciation notes to staff, and watched daily videos and announcements about the power of kind actions.
I can't wait to see what this year's group of STOMP kids can come up with!