Catching Kids Doing Something Right

As a feeder school to Columbine High School, it goes without saying that we want to prevent major “behavioral earthquakes.” Research has taught us that efforts to prevent serious incidents are more successful if the “host environment”—the school as a whole—supports the adoption and use of evidence-based practices. These practices include teaching and rewarding students for complying with basic rules for conduct: “be safe, be responsible, and be respectful.” Some believe that students come to school knowing these rules of conduct and those who don’t follow them simply should be punished. However, research and experience has taught us that systematically teaching behavioral expectations and rewarding students for appropriate behavior is a much more positive approach than waiting for misbehavior to occur before responding. It also establishes a climate in which appropriate behavior is the norm.
With “Catching Kids Doing Something Right:”
• We hope to increase awareness of positive behavior by “catching” examples of good behavior on video.
• We hope that as we create these podcasts, we are creating an understanding and a love for a new form of technology while celebrating positive behavior.
• We hope our efforts will decrease inappropriate behavior because we have found that our students inherently love to be “hams.”
• We expect that the collaboration of lower grade students with upper grade “media techs” will foster “buddies” that will extend beyond the production of the video.
The potential impact of these creative, fun productions could be huge. First of all, students have to be engaging in positive behavior to be “caught.” Students who have been “caught” will be eligible to be part of the podcast crew-filming and producing the podcast. We have the opportunity to impact every student with video podcasts of positive behavior. It is a win, win project!

Program Description
At Leawood, the 3 Be's - be respectful, be responsible and be safe, are an integral part of our school environment. We have posters throughout the building of proper behavior for each of these categories. For example, by the bathroom we have a poster of how to be respectful in the bathroom, how to be responsible and how to be safe. We have these in the lunch room, hallway, car pool area, bus area, etc. If a class or student is caught following these rules then either the whole class or just a single student earns a “Pride Buck.” There are classroom goals to meet and there is the “Principal’s” goal chart. The rewards vary with age level, but the result is the same-we celebrate and reward safe, responsible, respectful behavior.

The technology integration available with the Best Buy’s “Catching Kids Doing Something Right” program would create an opportunity for our students to get up-close and personal with a new technology.



Implementation Plan

Leawood is committed to technology integration as opposed to “technology classes” where students learn technology in isolation. We will encourage authentic learning with the podcast productions of “catching good behavior.” The PBS program is fine-tuned at Leawood. Students, teachers, administrators and parents are all on the same page. The one challenge we hear is that the rewards for good behavior are a bit more difficult to design for the middle graders. A cool sticker or pencil is a great reward for a primary grade student-not such a big deal for a sixth grader! One of the goals of PBS is to create intangible rewards for the older students-this project fits the bill.

With the delivery of the production equipment, we could be ready to go. Our current thought is to have five students at a time check cameras out and be lookouts for positive behavior. The cameras we have chosen are easy to use and can quickly be “fired up” to capture good behavior. Many of our parents are both technology experts AND have the job flexibility to be in our school during school hours. They can help students with these productions. Once the podcasts have been created, they can be aired over the school network, be a part of the morning newscasts, and be uploaded to the school’s podcasting website. (Leawood has just committed to Apple’s hosting service to host future podcasts.)

Our parents will help students and teachers learn the ins and outs of the podcast production process and the uploading to the school’s podcast site.

Sustainability
Initially the training, the rewards and the material support for our PBS program was funded with a grant. We are now in our third year and the funding is no longer available. The costs of stickers, pencils and other small rewards are now purchased out of our school’s general fund. Leawood has made great strides in technology integration in the last year. We will obviously be limited to the number of students who can work at one time, but starting small can be a good thing. PBS is here to stay at Leawood. The teachers, the administration and the parents are 100% behind the program. If our parent “experts” are effective teachers-of both staff and students, the program will be robust and sustainable.

Measurement
If we are able to begin in the fall, we will start by introducing the project at an all-school assembly. With the help of the teaching staff, we will select the first team of media techs and send them off, cameras in hand, to “catch” good behavior in and around the school. Teachers have a reward and reporting system in place now that can track increased positive behavior. It is our hope that students will want to be part of the production team and will behave positively to get “caught.” Word should spread quickly-teachers, particularly in the upper grades, should see more positive behavior as students vie for a place on the team. Teachers now track how many “Pride Bucks” they give to students for positive behavior each week. With our program, can we dream of doubling or tripling that number? Kids love technology, new technology and they are definitely goal oriented.