Statement of Purpose
Here at Central Middle School we seek to improve student achievement through quality instruction. Quality instruction cannot occur when a student is not present. The main purpose behind this PBS program is to increase actual student hours of classroom instruction by reducing the number of student classroom hours lost due to suspension/discipline. Our goal is to promote positive behaviors that can prevent or avoid the above issues by teaching students these positive behaviors, rewarding students for exhibiting these positive behaviors, and correcting behaviors that lead to the above discipline issues.
Creating Behavior Expectations
For each of the targeted categories, we looked at the behaviors that led up to or contributed to the incidents that resulted in discipline/suspension. We designed behavioral expectations related to each of these categories for the purpose of reducing the occurrences of the undesirable incidents.
Be Safe
The violent offenses were often related to issues of gossip and rumors, peer pressure, escalation of physical horseplay, misinterpreted non-verbal communication (looks, tone of voice, etc.) and unnecessary confrontational behavior.
Be Respectful
Disrespect to authority is often due to students failing to recognize all staff members, as authority figures. Also, students often fail to understand that certain actions (tone and volume of voice, interrupting others while they are speaking, walking away or refusing to stop when they don’t want to listen) are disrespectful. Likewise, students may also not understand that interacting with authority is different from interacting with peers. Students want respect and need to be reminded that this desire is mutual in interpersonal interactions.
Be Responsible
Students at the middle school level struggle daily with issues of independence. They don’t like to take orders. As stated above, they often fail to recognize the authority of a staff member who is not one of their teachers. Likewise, they often fail to recognize the authority of a staff member outside of their normal environment and thus don’t believe they have to follow directions of cafeteria personnel outside of the cafeteria, or teachers outside of the classroom, or administrators outside of the building, etc. Some often feel entitled to an explanation or reason for a directive given to them and believe it is acceptable to wait for this explanation before complying. They often believe that some areas (cafeteria, restrooms, hallways, etc.) are exempt from school rules that they willingly comply with in other areas.
Here at Central Middle School we seek to improve student achievement through quality instruction. Quality instruction cannot occur when a student is not present. The main purpose behind this PBS program is to increase actual student hours of classroom instruction by reducing the number of student classroom hours lost due to suspension/discipline. Our goal is to promote positive behaviors that can prevent or avoid the above issues by teaching students these positive behaviors, rewarding students for exhibiting these positive behaviors, and correcting behaviors that lead to the above discipline issues.
Creating Behavior Expectations
For each of the targeted categories, we looked at the behaviors that led up to or contributed to the incidents that resulted in discipline/suspension. We designed behavioral expectations related to each of these categories for the purpose of reducing the occurrences of the undesirable incidents.
Be Safe
The violent offenses were often related to issues of gossip and rumors, peer pressure, escalation of physical horseplay, misinterpreted non-verbal communication (looks, tone of voice, etc.) and unnecessary confrontational behavior.
Be Respectful
Disrespect to authority is often due to students failing to recognize all staff members, as authority figures. Also, students often fail to understand that certain actions (tone and volume of voice, interrupting others while they are speaking, walking away or refusing to stop when they don’t want to listen) are disrespectful. Likewise, students may also not understand that interacting with authority is different from interacting with peers. Students want respect and need to be reminded that this desire is mutual in interpersonal interactions.
Be Responsible
Students at the middle school level struggle daily with issues of independence. They don’t like to take orders. As stated above, they often fail to recognize the authority of a staff member who is not one of their teachers. Likewise, they often fail to recognize the authority of a staff member outside of their normal environment and thus don’t believe they have to follow directions of cafeteria personnel outside of the cafeteria, or teachers outside of the classroom, or administrators outside of the building, etc. Some often feel entitled to an explanation or reason for a directive given to them and believe it is acceptable to wait for this explanation before complying. They often believe that some areas (cafeteria, restrooms, hallways, etc.) are exempt from school rules that they willingly comply with in other areas.