Archive for category Punishment, Rewards, Awards

Is a School Awards Ceremony the BEST We Can Do?

Jun 5

Posted by Chris Wejr in Leadership, Moral Stewardship, Punishment, Rewards, Awards, Strengths and Passion | 5 Comments

I was recently asked by educator Larry Ferlazzo to share my views on awards ceremonies as part of his article on Ideas for The Last Two Weeks of School. Here are my thoughts:

The final few weeks of school are often the time for meeting, choosing, and awarding the winners at our schools. Three years ago, our school made the decision to move away from awards ceremonies and consider other ways to honour all of our students.

Although I believe we need to move away from awards I also know this is a difficult decision in most schools as there are often lengthy traditions of trophies and awards. I am not advocating we lower expectations nor am I stating that every child should get some “top _____ award”; however, as we observe our formal year-end awards ceremonies, I strongly encourage you to reflect upon the following questions:

How many students have strengths and have put forth great efforts but are not awarded?
What impact does a child’s parents, culture, language, socioeconomics and current/previous teachers have on the winners/losers?
Does choosing a select few students as winners align with our school mission and vision?
Are there other ways we can honour and showcase excellence?
Is there a specific criteria or standard that must be met to achieve the award? If yes, then can more than one person be honoured or is it simply about awarding one person that is better than his/her peers in a specific area chosen by the school?
How does a quest for an individual award align with a culture that encourages teamwork and collaboration?
If we honoured and showcased student learning in a variety of ways throughout the year, would a year -end awards ceremony be necessary?
Do students have a choice on whether or not they enter this competition?
If awards are about student excellence and motivation in the “real world”, why do we not host awards ceremonies for our top children in our homes?
If we are seeing success in encouraging inquiry-based learning, focusing on formative assessment and fostering a growth mindset, how can we defend a ceremony that fosters a fixed mindset and mainly showcases winners often based on grades and/or scores?

I believe we need to honour and highlight achievements and student learning but I wonder… is an awards ceremony that recognizes only a select few, and is often held a few days before our students leave, the BEST we can do?

Here are some ideas to consider:

Host celebration of learning events throughout the year (or one at the end of the year) in which students highlight/share examples and demonstrations of a key part of their learning.
Host honouring assemblies in which each student is recognized at a point during the year not through an award but through stories and examples of his/her learning, strengths, and interests
Encourage class/department events in which each class showcases and shares areas they have been highlighting in their learning
Combine the above events with parent/family luncheons so more time can be spent sharing the stories.
Share online the wonderful work students and staff do in our schools. Provide digital windows that highlight various stories of learning.

Although there is no single best way to acknowledge the efforts and achievements of our students, we must be aware of our school traditions and cultures and also work together to reflect upon and challenge current practices to create positive change that seeks to honour ALL of our students.

For links to posts on awards ceremonies from a variety of parents and educators, please check out Rethinking Awards Ceremonies.

Tags: awards, awards ceremonies, Carol Dweck, growth mindset, honour, motivation, recognition

Movement is NOT a Reward

May 11

Posted by Chris Wejr in Punishment, Rewards, Awards, Teaching and Learning | 23 Comments

cc licensed ( BY SA ) flickr photo by Camdiluv ♥: http://flickr.com/photos/camdiluv/4441155157/

Kids need movement. We all need movement. Recess is a need. PE is a need. Energy breaks are necessary.

If I am in a longer session and I need to move, I get up and take a break. I bounce my legs. I type. This helps me to self-regulate so I can focus more and stay calm. I wonder how I would respond or how my learning would be impacted if I got up to take a break and was told to sit down and sit still.

At many schools, students are given energy breaks on a regular basis so students can spend the time in between the breaks being more focused on learning. Throughout the day at our school, you will obsever students walking/running around the school or climbing up and down our hill as we believe in the power of movement to help a child’s learning.

I wonder, however, how often we fail to listen to students telling us they need to move. When a child is hyper or continually getting out of his/her seat, our first response is often “sit down”. When a child is tapping their pencil or rocking in their child, we often tell them to “sit still” and ”be quiet”. Don’t get me wrong, I know that there are times when it is important to not distract others but I also wonder how much effort we put into meeting the needs of students by providing an outlet for needed physical activity. We have teachers/staff at Kent that promote the use of wiggle seats, fidget toys, exercise balls, and also encourage some students to stand up as a way to help them; I see this as a huge benefit for students. The challenge for teachers and staff is to determine an appropriate balance of movement, noise, and quiet, calm time. My concern is that we confuse our needs with student needs and sometimes observe behaviours as a choice to act out and misbehave rather than a message of what their bodies need.

So if movement is a need that helps us all, how do we feel about these statements?

“If we all behave, we will have 5 minutes at the end to go outside.”
“If you don’t sit down, you won’t be able to go out at recess.”
“If you don’t get your work done, you won’t get to go to PE.”
“Every time you are out of your seat, you get a strike. Three strikes and you stay in at recess.”
“Thank you, Sarah, for staying in your seat and remaining quiet. Here is a ticket.”
“Just ask your PE teacher if you can miss PE class to work on your assignment.”

As a former PE teacher, I realize the unfortunate hierarchy of physical education in schools. I also realize that students need to get the learning activities completed and movement can also be used as avoidance. We also know, however, that we all need movement to help us regulate so let’s put ourselves in the shoes of students during a school day and reflect upon seat time and movement time.

Let’s work to create solutions to academic and behaviour problems without looking to PE and movement as a reward or something that can be taken away. This sends the wrong message about physical education and often ignores what they are telling us – they need movement and other sensory solutions! Each student often requires different movement needs. Let’s work to create the sensory conditions for students to get these needs met so they can better focus on their learning. For educators this is no easy task; however, by working together to implement strategies to increase opportunities for movement, this will not only benefit student learning but also the stress level of staff in schools.

Special thank you to Marc Landry, an occupational therapist from BC, for inspiring this post.

NOTE: Although I disagree with the punitive response of keeping a child in at recess I do know that there are times when this extra 1:1 time with the teacher can effectively help to meet the needs of the child. We have staff that are often giving up their breaks to work with students to support them in many different subjects… including PE. As always, we need to reflect upon the needs of each child and try to create an effective learning environment for each student.

Tags: Marc Landry, movement, PE, physical education, rewards, self-regulation

Creating the Conditions: A Love of Reading

Oct 10

Posted by Chris Wejr in Educational Change, Instructional Leadership, Professional Development, Punishment, Rewards, Awards, Strengths and Passion, Teaching and Learning | 30 Comments

A gr. 6 student reads aloud to gr. 2 students during lunch.

This is the second part of a series on motivation called “Creating the Conditions”. For part one on student discipline, click here.

No charts. No stickers. No pizza parties. No awards. No certificates…. and LOTS of reading!

Following the post by Joe Bower, “Daddy, I Want a Book Buck!“, Joe and William Chamberlain encouraged me to share the story of how Kent School has created a positive culture of reading without the use of prizes and incentives programs. It is difficult to sum up in a few paragraphs but I will make my best attempt to remember the MANY things that the staff and community of Kent School have done to create the conditions for students to motivate themselves to learn through an interest in reading.

In the past year there have been many moments that have made me step back and take note. Here are a few:

A student running into me as I walked down the hall because he was so into reading the book he just checked out from the library.
Our teacher-librarian shouting out to a primary student passing by, “Leila, I found some more books on pixies for you” and the student responding, “Yay, I will come see them in the morning!”.
A student, who less than 2 years ago was a non-reader, coming into the library and asking for any more Dav Pilkey books.
Seeing and being part of the seemingly endless activities in our “For the Love of Books” month. Please check out our teacher-librarian’s blog posts on “For the Love of Books”.
Getting the results back from our student survey that asked: do you like to read? 97% said YES
Seeing a teacher holding up a huge poster board that had all the book and author recommendations from students from the previous year.
Seeing EVERY teacher in the school reading aloud to their students on a consistent basis.
Being part of numerous author and illustrator visits.
Checking out all the teacher “Hot Picks” books on display outside their doors.
Hearing teachers ask powerful questions about reading; also observing teachers trying new things (to our school – like the Daily 5/CAFE) to help teach and encourage reading.
Have a teacher-librarian working virtually side by side with our community-librarian to promote reading.
Seeing a line up of kids so excited to read with our volunteer community readers on Tuesday and Thursday mornings before school.
Seeing students so excited to write letters to their favourite authors
Observing our grade 6 lunch leaders reading aloud to both groups and individual students.
Being part of a school-wide “Read-In” in which all our students packed into the library (in shifts) to read.
Watching children aged 4 and under take out books in an area of their interest as part of our Family Library Card program.
Walking into a classroom and seeing kids sprawled everywhere – in every corner and even in cupboards – choosing a spot in which they LOVE to read.
Discussing the idea of our kindergarten students walking to our senior care facilities to have our elders read to them.
Seeing students so excited about our book swap and book shops in our library.
Observing our teacher-librarian read to our Strong-Start (birth to age 5) students each Friday afternoon.
Hearing our staff state how important the teacher-librarian position is to our school and using their voice to ensure that we maintain this in our budget. (although I need very little nudging to keep this as a key part of our budget ).
Having our previous librarian choose to go back to the classroom to share her passion with reading with her students AND state that she felt the position should go to our current teacher-librarian who was completing the TL program and was excited for the opportunity.
Seeing our buddy readers march from the intermediate end down to the primary end each Friday.
Having a student so excited to say to me, “Mr. Wejr – I finally got a book on girls’ hockey!”
Knowing that every teacher is committed to DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) time – and students are not forced to read books in which they have no interest. Not enjoying the book? Head on down to the library and get a different one.
Watching groups of teachers and staff members meet and discuss on their own time how we need to work to create a culture of reading at our school.

I am sure there are so many things and conversations that occur in our classrooms and libararies that I do not see but the items in the list above have significant impact on our kids’ interest in books. The best part of all of this is that I have had very little to do with leading this culture of reading. Teachers have used their professional autonomy to meet during professional development time (and beyond) to discuss and implement many ideas to help our students become more engaged readers. One group of teachers used Steven Layne’s book, Igniting a Passion For Reading, to fuel professional dialogue around doing just what the title has stated; these conversations have spread to the staff room, staff meetings and into other classrooms. At our school, I am so proud to share that we have large number of teachers who are truly excited about reading – they model this in how they teach and what they do every day. We also strongly believe in the role of the teacher-librarian in our school; our library is slowly converting into a learning commons area and is definitely the literacy and learning hub of our school.

Although this post is primarily to share the story of how a staff can create a positive culture of reading without the use of prizes and other extrinsic rewards, there are embedded stories about the importance of professional autonomy, tapping into the strengths of teachers, teacher leadership, student motivation, staff collaboration, and the power of a school library with a passionate teacher-librarian.

I often hear that students with little home support NEED extra incentives to get them to read. The staff of Kent school have worked hard to prove this theory incorrect. It is not about pizza parties, book bucks, and stickers – it is about creating the conditions for students to develop a love of reading.

Thank you to the students and staff of Kent School for all they have taught me about the power of promoting a real love of books. Images are a powerful way of sharing stories; please check out the video below for images of what we do to encourage reading at our school (I realize here is a spelling mistake as I could not fit the title in ).

Tags: For the Love of Books, Joe Bower, Kent Elementary School, literacy, reading, reading incentives, school literacy, teacher-librarians, William Chamberlain

Creating the Conditions: Student Discipline

Sep 27

Posted by Chris Wejr in Educational Change, Moral Stewardship, Punishment, Rewards, Awards, Relationships, Teaching and Learning | 21 Comments

“The proper question is not, ‘How can people motivate others?’ but rather, ‘How can people create the conditions within which others will motivate themselves?’ ” — Edward Deci

In the past number of years we have gone through a very positive and significant transition at our school. Through the work of the staff (current and previous), we have moved from a punish and reward mentality to one that is focused on creating the conditions for students to learn the skills to be successful. We have gone from long line ups of students at the office at the end of lunch to maybe one or two students ‘arriving’ at the office during an entire day. Most of the issues we now deal with are minor and dealt with in the moment in a learning manner, away from “the office”.

So how has the staff of our school worked to create these conditions?

A few teachers and special education assistants often talk about “backing up to where they are” when working with kids. When we discuss student discipline or “behaviour plans” we do not discuss what needs to be done TO the child but rather what can be done FOR the child. Appropriate behaviour is full of self-regulation and social skills that needs to be taught; punishment and rewards do not teach. There is no standardized boxed program (or one in a big white binder) that we can buy that will solve our discipline issues. Students are individuals and the conditions need to be created that not only help school culture but also help the student. At our school, staff work hard to create the conditions so we can back up to where the student is and help him/her develop the self-confidence and social skills needed to be more successful in a school setting.

For about the past 4 years, we have had a group of boys that are the rough and tough jock type. They have turned every square inch of our school and field into some sort of hockey rink at some point. I love these guys… I coached them at recess times when mini-hockey sticks were almost regular sticks to them; however, their drive and ultra competitive nature often gets the best of them. Last year, their aggressive play came to a head as we seemed to be dealing with some sort of minor altercation almost every day. We banned hockey for a few days and then the game of choice became “touch” football (their definition of touch turned out to be different than mine). It seemed like any activity they played turned into a physical battle. I met with a Special Education Assistant (who is also a supervisor at recess/lunch) as well as a few teachers (and phoned a parent who has a similar perspective on student discipline) and we asked the question, “what conditions can we create for these students to be successful?”. The answer came to us: they needed a coach. They needed someone nearby that could bring them into a huddle every now and then to have some reflective discussions so they could come up with their own rules to create more fair play in the games. Also, this coach would help some students to understand when they needed a break to regulate their emotions. We decided we would decrease the area in which they could play – not as a punishment but but to create the conditions for them to have an adult closer if/when needed. This small group of boys decided they wanted to play soccer and have the supervisor nearby to help them with any disputes. They came up with some rules together and then began the games. What happened next was one that made me sit back and smile. What started out as a game of 8-10 boys turned into a game of 12…. then a game of 16. A week later there were over 30 students – of all genders, skill levels, needs, and ages – playing soccer in this small area. The game had the conditions – a level of intensity coupled with a sense of fairness – that made these students all want to play.

The start of something special – a few more students join the reflective huddle with the recess “coach”.

Of course we still have students that struggle with behaviours and some learn much faster than others; however, when we change the lens of discipline from one of punishment and rewards to a lens of skill development and self-regulation, we see students begin to develop and actually shine in an area of their life in which they once struggled. There is not one main thing that can be pinpointed as something that changed the culture of discipline at our school. Through the years before and during my time at the school, there has been dialogue on restitution, strength-based teaching, growth mindset, mediation, First Nation culture, awards ceremonies, leadership/mentorship, relationships, etc… all with a focus on kids. All of these conversations have pushed us forward and provided us with more tools in our toolbox so we can work together to create the conditions for more student success. We still have a lot to learn but I believe we are definitely on the right track.

All students are good kids – some come to school with more skills than others in certain areas. When we have a student struggling with reading, we find ways to create a support network to teach the skills; this support network also must be developed when children struggle with behaviours.

Create the conditions for students to be successful: back up to where they are, support them through coaching, be patient… and watch them flourish.

Tags: behavior, creating the conditions, leadership, rewards and punishment, student discipline

Starting the Conversation on Rethinking Awards Ceremonies

Jun 16

Posted by Chris Wejr in Educational Change, Instructional Leadership, Moral Stewardship, Organizational Capacity, Punishment, Rewards, Awards, Relationships | 29 Comments

Since I wrote about our school’s decision to end our awards ceremony and change the the way we honour students, I have been asked a few times how people could start the conversation in their schools. I realize that most schools have already hosted their year-end awards ceremonies but while it is fresh in people’s minds I wanted to provide a place for the conversation to continue.

As many are aware, when I arrived at my current school, the conversation had already been occurring for a few years; although I was part of the final decision, I was not part of the initial discussions (this was started by staff, parents, and admin prior to 2007). Having said this, I have often thought about how I would approach initiating this dialogue in a different school now that I have seen and experienced the success of a school without an awards ceremony. Keeping in mind that each school culture is different and that each school probably has lengthy traditions of trophies and awards in schools, this is not a decision that people can make without the support of some key parents, students and staff. Once you have a few people (your support network) questioning the idea of only honouring a select few in a created competition in which the winner is decided by staff, here are some possible leading questions (I need to be clear, though, that I am NOT advocating for expectations to be lowered nor am I supporting the idea that EVERY child gets some sort of “top _____ award”):

Does your year-end awards ceremonies and/or student of the month program align with your school vision, plan and/or goals?
What does research say about the use of awards/prizes to motivate (or demotivate) learning?
At which age do awards become necessary – 5? 10? 15? Why?
How much of the award is based on culture, language, parents (particularly cultural capital and income) and teachers that the winner has/had and how much is based on the person’s work ethic?
What if, as a first step in changing awards ceremonies, we honoured students who met a certain criteria? This would be rather than selecting one person as a winner (often when many others have worked just as hard).
What does “top ______ student” actually mean? Does this mean they have done well or does it mean they have just done “better” than everyone else? IS the top student in a class of 12 the same as the top student in a class of 120?
If awards ceremonies are important for kids, why do we not do this in our homes?
Is it possible for an award winner to struggle with success later in life? Is it possible that there are a few (or many) people out there who have achieved success that did not win an award?
If we agree that formative assessment,inquiry-based learning & encouraging a growth mindset are the direction we need to go in education, how can we defend a ceremony based on a fixed mindset that showcases winners based on grades?

The more I discuss and read about human motivation, the more questions I seem to have. I wonder if we all provided ongoing feedback that personally honoured and challenged our students and we continually worked to form trusting,caring relationships with kids… would we need public recognition at all?

This post is not about questioning whether or not we should have awards (here are many other posts that ask that question); this post is about providing a platform to share ideas and engage in dialogue around the idea of starting the conversation about rethinkng the way we do awards ceremonies in schools. If you have questions and/or thoughts or if you have initiating successful (or unsuccessful) discussions in your school, please share in the comments section below.

Tags: assessment for learning, awards ceremonies, growth mindset, intrinsic motivation

Engaging Without Carrots & Sticks

Apr 22

Posted by Chris Wejr in Punishment, Rewards, Awards, Teaching and Learning | 31 Comments

CC Image from http://flic.kr/p/5PbHjR

Dr. Jeffrey Wilhelm and I were recently asked by educator and author Larry Ferlazzo to respond to the question: HOW CAN WE KEEP STUDENTS ENGAGED WITHOUT CARROTS & STICKS? My response originally appeared at Education Week here but I wanted to cross-post on my blog as well.

Becoming a father and making the transition to teaching primary students has made it very clear to me that our kids begin their lives with an inquisitive mind and an enviable level of excitement for learning. Primary students seem to have an energetic curiosity and require very little motivation for engagement; however, as these students progress through our system and the focus moves from the child to the curriculum and learning to grades, they often seem to lose that drive. We, as parents and educators, often influence a shift in this drive by focusing on results and external motivators. By dangling things such as grades, praise, prizes, awards, and threats of punishment, we unintentionally rob students of responsibility and their intrinsic drive for learning; we alter the focus to what they will get rather than what they are doing. By the time students reach high school, their inquisitive desire to learn is often shifted to a quest for grades. For those students who do not see relevance and purpose in this quest, they often disengage as learners and then we feel the need to resort to motivating by offering carrots and threatening sticks.

I strongly believe that (to adapt from Edward Deci and Richard Ryan, researchers of motivation at the University of Rochester and written about by Daniel Pink), we cannot motivate students; we can only create the conditions in which students can motivate themselves. We cannot MAKE kids learn; we can make them behave a certain way, memorize and complete tasks in the short-term when we are supervising them but this does not mean they are gaining the skills and receiving the support needed to be learners.

Even in a system dominated by curricula, scores, and grades, we can still work to tap into that intrinsic drive by focusing on:

Relationships – a trusting, caring relationship helps students to understand the learning is about them rather than test scores and curricula. In order for us to make the curriculum relevant to their learning we must build relationships with our students.
Ownership – Work WITH students so they have a voice in their learning. Through a focus on Assessment For Learning, we include students in assessments and provide ongoing dialogue around descriptive feedback (rather than grades) based on agreed upon criteria and goals. Harvard professor and author Dr. Ross Greene states that “all students can do well if they can”; we need to provide the feedback on behaviour and learning skills so kids can do well. Too, we need to include students in this conversation.
Choice – Provide students with more autonomy of HOW they will learn and demonstrate their learning.
Relevancy – Relate the curriculum to the interests and passions of our students. They need to see meaningful connections and purpose for real learning to occur.
Success – Tom Schimmer, a BC author and leader in Assessment for Learning, says that we need to “over prepare ‘em” for that first summative assessment. Push back those first few assessments and ensure students do well then build on this experienced success. We need to focus on strengths, support the challenges, and help students have a growth mindset so they can experience failure and success as feedback and develop the belief they can all be learners.

Our students arrive at school motivated to learn. Through accountability measures and other structures we are often forced to produce short-term results. Unfortunately, this can lead to the use of extrinsic motivators which place the focus away from the learning and on the immediate result rather than the skills and support needed for long-term engagement and success. As educators, we must continue to work to create the conditions to best support our students so that they can maintain that intrinsic drive for learning and not become someone who only reaches for that dangled carrot.

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

Tags: assessment for learning, Deci & Ryan, engagement, growth mindset, intrinsic motivation, Larry Ferlazzo, motivation

It ALL Starts With Relationships

Nov 14

Posted by Chris Wejr in Punishment, Rewards, Awards, Teaching and Learning | 2 Comments

CC Image from Beatnic http://bit.ly/uttoUC

I am thrilled to have a former student, Kenny Kou, write a guest post on my blog. Kenny and I have been conversing (and challenging each other’s ideas) for the past few years on the topic of education reform through email while he was enrolled as an math/engineering student at the University of Waterloo. He has now started a new journey as a grade 5-7 teacher in Nigeria. He sent me an email about his experience during his first 6 weeks; his narrative demonstrates the importance of working WITH students by building relationships through understanding.

By Kenny Kou

On the first day of one of my creative writing classes, some of my students were acting up, so I asked them to stay behind afterwards. Instead of cussing them out (as was my initial plan), I decided to listen instead. I asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up, and what they enjoyed about school. One of the students said he wanted to be an engineer. After a few leading questions, he made the connection that to be a successful engineer, he would have to be able to write well. He’d have to be able to articulate his points, and outline his ideas in proposals. Since that class, he’s been very co-operative and friendly.

I’m also teaching Language Arts to a class of five Grade 7 students. All of them are quite energetic, but one of them takes the cake. He is always jumping around, spouting out random comments during the lesson and interrupting both his classmates and me while ignoring instructions. Even when it comes to his writing assignments, you can see the energy flying all over the page as he’ll frequently go from one idea to the next without completing the first thought. One day, I pulled him aside at lunchtime and spoke with him about the upcoming story-writing project. We talked about what he was going to write, and then he gave me a few of his ideas. They were all fantastic ideas, and he could have made a great story out of any of them. But then we talked about how it was important to create structure for his ideas. That he would be able to write a great story once he put his ideas into the framework and combine the structure with his creativity. After that chat, he started to pay much more attention to instructions, as he could finally see the value in them. Although he still gives me trouble occasionally, his behaviour has vastly improved. Some of the other teachers in the school have complained about him being difficult to teach, but he has been a welcome presence in mine.

In my Grade 5 Language Arts class, two of the students have exceptional difficulty reading at grade-level; when they failed to follow along with their classmates, they resorted to misbehaving, which set off a chain reaction of the other boys joining in and goofing off with them. Since the second week, I have had two hours per week of class time with just those two boys to work on their basic language skills. During those sessions, we joke around with one another, talk sports and keep the atmosphere really relaxed; but, we also get through the lessons. We’ll intersperse social and academic, while occasionally blending the two together to make the lesson individualized and relevant to their own interests. Over the past few weeks, they have demonstrated great growth in their comprehension abilities. As a bonus, their behaviour in the class has also substantially improved. Not only are they not acting up in class, they’re preventing their classmates from stepping out of line by calling them out whenever anyone misbehaves.

Only six weeks down, but I’ve learned first-hand so much about the importance of working WITH the students. As opposed to resorting to discipline as a first strike, I’ve been working to understand WHY the students behave the way that they’re behaving. As a teacher, it’s my responsibility to make the lesson meaningful to the students. In order to do that, I have to learn about what is important to them and figure out how to incorporate those values into creating a lesson that they will buy into. Only then will I be able to provide them with the education that they deserve. It’s been a great learning experience so far and it truly has been learning with the students.

Here are more thoughts from Kenny from previous emails…

The students are able to see me as their ally instead of their boss. It’s allowed them me to connect with them, and improve the overall classroom environment and their attitudes toward learning.
My next battles: education is not a race and convincing students that learning is more important than grades. Despite my efforts thus far, “Is that an A” is still a very common question and “I’m done” is a very common phrase in my class.

I look forward to hearing more reflections from Kenny during his journey as a new teacher. Thanks for taking the time to share, Mr. Kou!

Tags: behavior, listen, motivation, student discipline, student voice

Changes to Awards System at Mt. Scopus College

Oct 29

Posted by Chris Wejr in Educational Change, Punishment, Rewards, Awards | 3 Comments

CC Image From http://bit.ly/s9fS8Q

I am pleased to have a guest post by Greg Hannon, Head of the upper elementary school at Mount Scopus College in Melbourne Australia, write a post describing how his school has decided to move away from the traditional awards ceremony structure. One of my Twitter friends, Edna Sackson (@whatedsaid), introduced me to Greg as she is a teacher at the school. Thank you to Greg and Edna!

This post is part of the series “Recognizing ALL Students: The Movement”. If you know of other schools that have altered the way they honour their students, please contact me to join the movement.

CHANGES TO AWARDS SYSTEM AT MOUNT SCOPUS COLLEGE

This year I decided to tackle a protocol that has taken place over many, many years at our College, a protocol I never believed in but one in honesty, never had the courage to confront – the giving of awards at our Year 6 Graduation Evening.

Past families and students have left endowments to be awarded on an annual basis for high achieving students in Literacy, Numeracy, Hebrew and all the major sports. These awards grew over the years, now numbering 24 separate awards, that would be presented during the graduating ceremony.

So, after four years as Head of the Primary School, I now have the confidence and conviction to not only question, but make changes to programs that have operated within the College for many years that possibly didn’t get reflected upon as rigorously as perhaps they should have. My first target was the Year 6 Awards!

I knew to successfully end the tradition I had to firstly record the reasons as to why I didn’t believe in them.

Graduation is a celebration for every student associated with the cohort, not just the select few with specific abilities and talents.
Some families pressure their children and in fact teachers that their child is worthy of an award.
Some children have left the evening in the past feeling upset and in fact in tears at not receiving an award that they thought they deserved.
Some awards are very subjective.
The evening becomes more of an awards night instead of a celebration of learning and collective achievement.
I question whether or not our Year 6 children need to be subjected to potential disappointment in relation to not receiving awards. That will occur as they grow older.
What are we standing for as a College? A school that celebrates only the talented few or a school that recognises the achievements of all.

Once I had recorded my beliefs, I met my year 6 staff individually, to explain my aspirations. Pleasingly, most were very supportive of my intentions. I then canvassed senior staff and all agreed that the policy of awards was out dated and needed attention.

Now, having the confidence to make the necessary changes I made a meeting with the College Principal and College President. This was a particularly pleasing meeting and once I had articulated my reasons for making the changes they were both overwhelmingly supportive of the change.

It was decided at that meeting to convey the changes to the parents in a ‘drip feed’ manner. I met with all Year 6 students and explained to them the reasons as to why I was removing all awards from the primary school and making the Graduation Evening a celebration of every students achievements, not just the naturally talented or bright! This information went home and to my surprise, not one complaint. Just the opposite actually with two parents commenting on how it was a positive step forward.

As a College, we recognise special achievements at our weekly assembly. We don’t give out certificates or prizes, we just verbally acknowledge and celebrate the achievement.

Moving forward, our Graduation Evenings will now be a positive experience for ALL students and hopefully the entire cohort leave the evening feeling recognised, special and happy.

Greg Hannon
Head Mount Scopus College, Melbourne Australia

For more thoughts from other educators on awards, please go to “Rethinking Awards Ceremonies“.

Tags: awards, awards ceremonies, Mount Scopus College, talents

Questioning Honours

Oct 10

Posted by Chris Wejr in Educational Change, Punishment, Rewards, Awards | 8 Comments

Image from http://bit.ly/naHH9V

A few years ago, our school ended our traditional awards ceremony, student of the month awards, and honour roll. Instead we try to honour EVERY child for the strength and passion while challenging and encouraging them to grow in their areas in which they struggle. We continue to honour our academic students; however, now ALL children are honoured for who they are.

My question is: how important is it to publicly honour people? If we praised and challenged their efforts each day (ie. Dweck’s ‘Growth Mindset’), would we need to host public events to celebrate students?

Next time you discuss the select few that are honoured at your school, please reflect on the images from the Sagan Series and the words of Richard Feynman in this short video below.

Note: although the video mentions a religious figure, this post is in no way written to initiate a discussion around this but merely to question how society honours particular people, skill sets, and positions.

Thank you to @sheilaspeaking, @hhg, and @nunavuttweeter for bringing this video to my attention.

Tags: awards, awards ceremonies, honour roll, honours, student of the month

They Need Teaching… Not Punishment

Sep 16

Posted by Chris Wejr in Punishment, Rewards, Awards, Teaching and Learning | 30 Comments

Last year, during the reading of Dr. Ross Greene’s book “Lost at School” (another must read for any parent or educator), the following question helped me to further drive my views on student discipline:

Why is it that when a student that struggles with reading or math… we support… yet when a student struggles with behaviour… we punish?

As some of you are probably aware I try to avoid using punishment and rewards to try to get students to behave in a certain way. When we change our mindset from a role of someone who gives out punishment to someone who teaches and supports, students end up learning the skills needed to be successful in a social setting. As Greene states, when we change our lens from “kids do well if they want to… to kids do well if they can“, we see much greater growth in our children.

If a child acts out in class or on the playground, the principal can punish by taking things away from the child, reward by offering bribes/prizes/privileges for changed behaviour OR he/she can sit with the child and try to determine the reasons for the acting out. Once the student and the adult have come up with reasons together, then can then work together to come up with strategies to teach lagging skills. Punishment and rewards might work for that moment but the use of them fails to teach the child the appropriate skills needed to learn, change, and grow for the long term. Punishment and rewards will not teach a child to do something they simply cannot yet do.

I am privileged to have a staff who sees those students who struggle with behaviours not as bad kids but as students who are lagging in skills needed to do well. As a school, our strategies focus on working to develop these skills so that not only these students can become more successful but also those around them.

I highly recommend Dr. Ross Greene’s method of Collaborative Problem Solving and Assessment of Lagging Skills and Unsolved Problems.

Also, please take a moment to watch this short video: