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Bringing it all
Together at Greenville Middle School
Stand Up and Stand Out! We’re Worth It!
As the first nine weeks draws to a close, many different facets at
Greenville Middle School are coming together to prepare a positive
environment that recognizes and encourages student positive
decisions. Students at Greenville Middle School ‘Stand Up and
Stand Out because It’s Worth It!’ (phrase coined by Principal Chris
Mortensen). The school wide initiatives have been streamlined to
‘bring it all together’ through assemblies, guest speakers, school wide
positive behavior acknowledgements systems, activities, and character
education.
The first opportunity this year to reinforce positive decision making
was a large screen assembly presented by Camfel Productions titled
“Worth It!”. Students in grades 3-8 attended the motivational,
musically enhanced presentation in September. This provided an
opportunity to stress the reasons for making good choices and being
motivated for the future. The assembly is, “designed to erase the
insecurities and fears students face daily, replacing them with an
understanding of their true potential and the desire and motivation to
be the best they can be in whatever circumstances they face”
(camfelproductions.com).
Following the assembly, Greenville Middle School’s Positive Behavior
and Intervention Support Team gave the acknowledgement system a face
lift. What has been formally known as B.U.G. Awards (Being
Unusually Good) is now called WAVE Awards. Staff will use this as
an immediate acknowledgement of students’ positive decisions and
connections made to the weekly social emotional learning
curriculum. A student is given a WAVE Award slip to trade for an
immediate prize when a staff member is able to recognize positive
actions.
To support academic intervention as well as social emotional learning
opportunities, the Middle School schedule has been adjusted to provide
a 30-minute period at the end of the school day. Once a week, the
entire school has a mindset lesson. The 7 Mindsets curriculum
solidifies the positive decision focus at Greenville Middle School by
focusing on a different Mindset each month. For example, the month of
September's mindset was ‘Everything is Possible’. Students and staff
explored dreaming big and making goals for those dreams to happen.
Through the 7 Mindsets Academy, the students experience a social
emotional learning curriculum that helps them develop, “a) a firm
belief in their potential, b) an optimistic vision for the future, and
c) a strong sense of personal authenticity, perform better academically
and forge more substantial relationships in life”
(7MindsetsAcademy.com).
Aligned with the ability to make good decisions is the need to empower
the students of Greenville Middle School to Stand Up and Stand Out
against drug use. In conjunction with Greenville Elementary
School and St Mary’s Catholic School, Greenville Middle School has been
awarded two separate grants from the Coalition for a Healthy Darke
County. One grant will support the purchase of a t-shirt for each
student that will be worn for a variety of school wide walks,
assemblies, and activities to support good decision making and standing
up and out against drug use! The second grant will be used to
bring motivational speaker Logan Weber to passionately encourage the
participants to bring it all together on a personal level
(http://www.weberassociates.com/Logan_Weber_Bio.aspx).
Through all of the initiatives at Greenville Middle School, there are
many advantages to the changes being made. The best way to help our
students make concerted and sustained changes in their attitudes and
behavior is to ground their beliefs and activities together in a
variety of ways. At Greenville Middle School, the students and
staff are bringing it all together to ensure that good decisions and
the ability to Stand Up and Stand Out is foundational in all that is
done because we are Worth It!
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