Two years ago we began our new 4B’s focus on behavior, which resulted in some significant positive changes in behavior across our school. We continue to be committed to fostering a community of respectful learners and want to continue to teach, expect, and reinforce appropriate, respectful behavior and positive behavior choices with every student. Throughout the month of September, we will be re-teaching and practicing our 4 Be Ready to Learn Rules: Be Prepared Be Responsible Be a Good Listener Be Kind to Yourself and Others. We have identified specific expected behaviors in every area of our school associated with our 4 B’s. Our entire faculty has committed to teaching, expecting, and consistently reinforcing them throughout the year in every setting. Throughout the rest of the year, we will continue to focus on our 4 B’s and also begin some focused work on teaching and reinforcing self-regulation skills. Students who are able to self regulate, delay gratification, and make better decisions about behavior are more successful in school and life (Levin and Nolan, 2006). This past year several teachers incorporated brain breaks and yoga strategies in their classrooms to help students develop more self regulation. We hope to extend that work to our school wide efforts focused on behavior. We need your support with our efforts to reinforce our expectations at home by reviewing these expectations with your child, reinforcing them as you talk about school with your child, signing our 4B’s Behavior Pledge, and supporting our efforts as students earn both positive recognitions for following our 4B’s and specific consequences if the 4B’s are not followed. To create a fair way of assessing student success we created the following criteria: 1. To earn a certificate, students need to earn all checks in the self management skills on their report card and have no office referrals; 2. To earn a certificate and a ribbon, students need to earn five pluses with the rest checks in the self-management skills on their report card and have no office referrals. As a way to celebrate our students’ success, we will recognize students who earn a behavior ribbon during an all school assembly. Students in grades one to five will have three opportunities during the year to earn these recognitions. Thank you for your continued support in providing a safe and fun learning environment for all children. The signed pledge is due back to school on Wednesday, September 5th.
