Behavior Program
At Echo Mountain Intermediate, our goal is to help students learn to assess their own behavior and understand how their actions effect their own learning and safety, as well as those around them.
Make Your Day
- About
- Points and Concern
- Taking Students 'Off Points'
- Daily Communication Between Home and School
- Extra Communication Between Home and School
- Out-of-Class (or Common Area) Expectations
- Out-of-Class Recourse (for Students)
- Classroom Recourse (for Students)
- Inappropriate Behavior - Steps
- Additional Information Regarding Steps
- Shadowing
- Conferences with Parents
- Frequent Use of Steps
- Contracting
- Opting Out
- Automatic Step
About
Points and Concern
Taking Students 'Off Points'
Daily Communication Between Home and School
Extra Communication Between Home and School
Out-of-Class (or Common Area) Expectations
Out-of-Class Recourse (for Students)
Classroom Recourse (for Students)
Inappropriate Behavior - Steps
Additional Information Regarding Steps
Shadowing
Conferences with Parents
Frequent Use of Steps
Contracting
Opting Out
Automatic Step
Make Your Day Program History
The Make your Day Program was implemented at Echo Mountain at the start of the 1998-99 School Year. The spring of 1997 we formally surveyed students about their perceptions of the effectiveness of their school. The students indicated a strong discrepancy between the level of respect they expected from other students and the level at which that respect for other students actually existed.
In 1996-97 the number of disciplinary referrals in the office exceeded 500, and the following year, 1997-98, there was only a small drop. In 1996-97 we raised our expectations and accomplished the goal of making students accountable to all adults on campus, rather than just the homeroom teacher. In 1997-98 we became aware that students were continuing to misbehave when they thought there was no adult near by. We started looking for a way to address this in our 1998-99 student management plan.
A team of teachers interested in this problem researched different programs and surveyed the staff. Parents were also surveyed in the spring of 1998. Staff members visited other Make Your Day schools, listened to presentations from staff at other schools that are using the program, and voted in support of starting the program. The program was explained to the site council, and at a spring PTSA meeting. The entire staff, including aides, teachers and administrators, receives ongoing training in the use of the program.
The challenge for future years is to refine the implementation of the program. Our goal is to assure that students and parents truly feel that allowing steps and assessing points are used to help students define their choices, rather than punish them. We expect this challenge to remain until everyone is as concerned about the learning of every other student, as they are about their own wants and needs.