GMES is excited to announce a few new ways we are supporting students in positive and meaningful ways!
In the past, students earned Warrior Pride tickets for demonstrating the Warrior Way: being Safe, Respectful, and Responsible. Students placed their ticket stubs into a container for our daily Warrior Pride drawing. When a student’s name was called, they were invited to the office to choose a prize from the prize box.
Now, students get all of that plus an exciting new opportunity! Students can use their Warrior Pride tickets to purchase items at the Student Store. Our student leadership team shared that this addition motivates students to earn even more tickets while being rewarded for positive behavior—exactly what we hoped to accomplish!
At GMES, we make decisions based on data. After reviewing behavior data, our Foundations Team identified that the most common office referral in November was for Inappropriate Writing, Gestures, or Language. In response, the Foundations Team created the Tootle Challenge for the month of December.
What’s the opposite of a tattle? A tootle! Instead of focusing on negative behaviors, students were encouraged to write Tootles to recognize their peers for the positive things they do each day. This became a schoolwide challenge to see which grade level could write the most Tootles. The excitement spread quickly—staff even joined in by writing Tootles to one another!
Since both 4th and 5th grades each wrote over 1,000 Tootles, those students earned a Hot Cocoa Party on the last day of school before Winter Break.
So, did the Tootle Challenge work? Absolutely! Incidents of Inappropriate Writing, Gestures, or Language were cut in half!