School seeks to reward good behavior

Written by BILL LeCONEY Thursday, September 27, 2012 12:29 pm

Wildwood's Glenwood Avenue Elementary School has long recognized positive behavior by its students. Now it has in place a program to promote and reward good behavior.

Glenwood will kick off its Positive Behavior Supports program with a school-wide festival Thursday, Sept. 27, at the Wildwoods Convention Center from 7:30-11:30 a.m. The next day, the school will continue to introduce the new program at its "Annex" facility for pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten.

Michelle Wiseley, one of two teacher administrators for the program, said PBSIS at Glenwood has been more than a year in the making.

"It is a research-based program through a grant provided by the state," Wiseley said. "We spent last year in planning and studying data on unwanted behavior, what preventative measures could be taken, and how we could best reward good behavior. It was a grass roots effort. We took polls of all the teachers, asked what they thought was important, and built our incentive program around that. We received support to implement a school-wide program."

Wiseley said PBSIS is a proactive prevention program focusing on the kind of desirable behavior that can be rewarded -- and the incentives for behaving that way -- instead of only dealing with the consequences of bad behavior.

The New Jersey Positive Behavior Support in Schools program is a grant-based collaboration among the New Jersey Department of Education, Office of Special Education, and The Boggs Center at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. About 50 schools in the state participate, including schools in Bridgeton, Folsom, Barnegat Township and Woodbine.

The program’s goal is to support the social and behavioral needs of all students through school-wide efforts and targeted interventions with students who show behavioral problems. It is a research-based prevention model that is based on the premise that all children can benefit from well implemented practices for improving school behavior, according to school officials.

Wisely said the four over-arching goals of the PBSIS program at Glenwood are "Be Respectful, Be Safe, Be Responsible, and Be Nice." Students can earn tickets for demonstrating those traits, and qualify for drawings to win prizes or participate in games modeled after the "Minute to Win It" TV game show.

Wiseley said the Glenwood ticketing system will be called "Riding the Wave to Warrior Success." Signs throughout the school will remind students of behavioral expectations in class, hallways, the gym and in the cafeteria.

"Every teacher, administrative staff member, custodial employees, cafeteria workers and support staff will have their own tickets to hand out," Wiseley said. "Whenever they see students doing the right thing, even if it's something as simple as walking quietly in a straight line, face forward, instead of running or jumping out of line, they will be rewarded with tickets."

At the end of each week, there will be a drawing to win prizes or to be eligible for a grand prize later in the school year. Wiseley said the incentives will change throughout the year.

Glenwood Elementary has about 450 students in pre-Kindergarten through fifth grade. Wiseley, a special education teacher now in her 17th year teaching at Glenwood, is one of two "coaches" for the program, along with another longtime teacher, Deana Cooper.

Wiseley said the children already have an inkling of what the PBSIS program is all about, but she expects the Thursday kickoff event to create that "buy-in moment" when the benefits of the program become apparent.

"The program is only as good as what you put out there," she said. "Its important that you have the staff buy in to it, so that they are modeling how the good behavior can be exciting and rewarding for the students. The climate of the school by nature begins to adjust, gets more respectful and safer -- the kids are walking, not running in the hall, for example, or holding a door open for one another, or being more attentive in class.

"There's a lot of people, students and staff, putting a lot of effort into this and offering a lot of positive support. We think it's going to have a positive effect. Hopefully, as the months go by, we will be able to see the fruits of our labor."