LOWER POTTSGROVE — Everyone wants school children to demonstrate and practice good behavior.
Like many things, it has to be taught, ideally, both at home and at school.
Pottsgrove’s three elementary schools were recently recognized for doing just that.
Ringing Rocks, West Pottsgrove and Lower Pottsgrove elementary schools have been singled out for the continued implementation of Positive Behavior Interventions and Support.
This program, adopted statewide, is geared toward promoting and teaching positive behavior inside and outside the classroom as a tool for bolstering academic and post-graduate success.
The program’s primary goals are to reduce major disciplinary infractions, antisocial behavior, and substance abuse. Other outcomes include improving academic engagement and achievement, reducing bullying and victimization, improving school climate, and reducing teacher turnover.
The Pennsylvania Positive Behavior Support Network was set up to annually identify and publicly distinguish school sites for the successful implementation of the program and this year, Pottsgrove’s three elementary schools were among them.
“The PBIS implementation involves explicitly prompting, modeling, practicing, and encouraging positive expected social skills across settings and individuals,” according to information provided by Gary DeRenzo, the district’s director of community relations and co-curricular activities.
“When students are taught to effectively use relevant expected social skills for themselves and with others, school climates are described as more positive, learning environments are designated as safer, and student-educator relationships are referred to as more trusting and respectful,” DeRenzo wrote.
The Pottsgrove School Board, and the public, got a taste of what those kinds of programs look like Tuesday when fourth-grade students in Julie Young’s class at Lower Pottsgrove Elementary gave a presentation during the board meeting.
There, the program the children explained is called “Second Step,” and, as the children explained, it teaches them “appropriate ways to respond to your own feelings,” as one student described it.
Appropriate responses to those feelings, and the action of others, are modeled in the classroom and behaviors and perspectives such as “empathy, respect, walking in someone else’s shoes and listening with attention, to show others what they are saying is important,” are among the skills being learned, one of the students told the board.
Another example is knowing the difference between being assertive, passive and aggressive.
“Being assertive is a way of showing yourself that your feelings matter,” one student said. “And being passive is showing yourself that your feelings don’t matter.”
But, being “aggressive is showing other people that their feelings don’t matter,” said one student.
As an example, one of the students walked over to another and said “I get you like football, but you don’t have to be mean to other people for liking basketball.”
“I like learning how to stand up for yourself,” said one student.
The board even had a chance to practice those skills as part of a demonstration being given a scenario in which a friend wants to copy another student’s assignment.
The board members were reminded: “Remember, being assertive means standing up for yourself in a respectful way that allows facing the person, keeping your head up, and using a calm-but-firm voice and using respectful words.”
“I don’t want you to copy from me. I’ve worked hard and I’ve learned it, and I feel good about learning it,” Superintendent David Finnerty told School Board President Al Leach and board member Patti Grimm, who portrayed the copy-hungry students. “And if you work hard, you could feel good about learning it. I don’t like being copied from.”
The adults received high marks.
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