Thursday, February 4, 2016

Positively Reinforcing School-wide Expectations

Each day during morning announcements, the students and staff at Gary D. Wright Elementary School join together in The Wildcat Creed, where we pledge the following:

We will show respect for our school community each day.
We will accept responsibility for all of our actions.
We will come to school ready to learn, with a positive attitude.
These three R’s make Wright Elementary a great place to learn.

These school-wide expectations are part of our school’s focus on fostering a safe and effective learning environment.  Just as we teach our students to read and write, we must also teach them our expectations for their behavior while at school.  The expectations outlined above apply to all areas of our school, including the classroom, bathroom, playground, cafeteria, and hallway. Throughout the school year, staff recognize those being positive models of behavior with various incentives including issuing students “Pawsome Cards”.  Recently, as a result of earning 100 Pawsome Cards and redeeming them at the Pawsome Store, GDW Fourth Grade Student Rocco Sauer chose to have “Lunch with the Principal”.  Rocco and I enjoyed our time together, and he even surprised me with a delicious sandwich for lunch.   During lunch, Rocco filled me in on what to expect during Candy Bar Bingo, which was another great event that was recently held and sponsored by the GDW PTO.  It was my first time attending a Candy Bar Bingo event, and I quickly learned that combining bingo, candy, friends, and family will result in a lot of smiles and a good time had by all!