Part of a successful school day includes providing students with the expected rules, procedures, and routines. All staff members take time at the beginning of every school year to teach, model, and review these rules, procedures, and routines. We also believe it is important to share these with families; this creates an awareness of what we expect from students at school. In addition, it provides families with common language that can be used at home as well. This provides students with the consistency needed to model the positive behaviors that have been taught. At Hillrise, we teach these behaviors by explicitly modeling different areas of the school, such as recess, hallways, bathrooms, and lunchroom. In the coming weeks, I will be sharing these expectations each week with parents so they can be reviewed at home. This week, I've included what we use for Walking Club. I met with all grade levels this week to teach our expectations for Walking Club. We also provides students an opportunity to practice these behaviors. We appreciate your partnership with this, as it benefits all students and ensures Hillrise is a safe place for everyone.
Topic: Walking Club
Hillrise Expectations:
● Practice Respect: At Walking Club, this means keeping your hands, feet, and objects to yourself.
● Act Responsibly: At Walking Club, this means keeping your backpack and coat on, so we aren't swinging in around.
● Work Together: At Walking Club, this looks like including everyone and being kind.
● Stay Safe: At Walking Club, this looks like walking, not running; it also means staying on the designated walking path to stay safe.
LEARNING GOAL: “Today we are going to practice respect, acting responsibly, working together and staying safe during Walking Club.”
LEARNING ACTIVATION:
● Review behavior expectations above.
● “Could someone tell us what we are going to learn and practice today and why it is important?” “It is important for students to follow rules before school. By following the rules, students will have a positive start to the day by being respectful to adults, being safe when outside of school, remaining accident free and keeping the school grounds clean.”
INSTRUCTION:
● All teachers are outside the first week of school and review procedure daily and model.
● Teachers take classroom students outside and practice walking safely on the designated path around school.
● Teachers model appropriate Walking Club conversations.
● Show classroom designated Safety Patrol posts and talk about listening to important directions.
● Lead class in a discussion of non-examples for each expectation.
○ Positive examples:
■ Students walk on the designated path with closed backpack, using an appropriate voice level. They leave enough space between themselves and other students to be comfortable.
■ A teacher notices a student shouting during walking club. He asks the student to stop, and the student follows directions.
■ A student has an electronic device (phone, iPod) in his backpack. His friend asks him to see it, but he keeps it in his backpack to remain safe.
■ Students keep hands, feet and objects to self.
○ Non-examples:
Students at walking club are shouting, turning around, and calling each other names.
■ A student takes out personal items from backpack (ie books, candy) and shows or shares it with friends while walking.
■ Two students are standing in line and begin swinging their backpacks at one another. They end up hitting a student behind them in the eye.
■ A student is walking backwards so he can talk to his/her friend behind him. He ends up running into someone, either a student or a teacher.
■ Students play tag.
■ Students choose to stand by the front doors instead of joining walking club.
