This Month's Best Practice

Each Month the Maryland Center for Character Education (MCCE) picks one of the Best Practices from a Character Education award winning school to share with you.

JANUARY

This month's Best Practices is from an award winning school from 2005-2006.

 

BEST CHARACTER EDUCATION PRACTICES

 

School: Fountain Green Elementary School

Address: 517 S. Fountain Green Road, Bel Air, MD 21015
Contact: Angela Morten, Principal   or
         Sherre Taylor, Guidance Counselor
Phone: 410-638-4220
E-Mail: angela.morton@hcps.org
              sherre.taylor@hcps.org

 

Title of Best Practice: The Golden Tray Award

Primary Character Trait(s) Emphasized: Respect, and Responsibility

Objective(s): Celebrate students and classes who work together to achieve a positive climate in the cafeteria. By being respectful of others and the rules as well as being responsible for their own words and actions, students work together to achieve the GOLDEN TRAY AWARD. This will help students make the connection between good character and positive consequences.

Brief Description (including such items as materials needed, persons responsible, sequence of activities, observable results, references, etc.)

Overview:

The Character Education Program is comprised of 4 components: direct instruction on character traits, modeling of good character by all members of our school community, a home/school connection, and recognition and celebration of positive character traits in our students. The School Improvement Team created a Character Development Professional Learning Community which consists of a representative from special education, special area classes, every grade level, administrators, and the school counselor. The PLC meets monthly to discuss student needs and to make specific plans for the implementation of the Character Education goals in the School Improvement Plan. Much of our work is based on, Educating for Character by Thomas Lickona. Through our PLC work, we determined a need for a cafeteria behavior management plan that will reduce the level of office referrals for inappropriate behavior and one that will celebrate the positive character and behavior of our students. By doing so, we are helping students make the connection between good behavior and positive consequences.

 

Materials Needed:

1 cafeteria tray (spray painted metallic gold) per grade level, construction paper stars, All-Star Café Rules Chart (3 for the cafeteria and a smaller copy for each classroom), traffic light posters at the end of every row of tables hung on the cafeteria walls, yellow and red laminated circles, certificates (given weekly), and a STAR CHART (a sentence strip labeled with each teacher’s name and 5 boxes. A star is recorded every day that a class follows all 4 of the rules.)

 

Procedure:

Education and Buy-In: Prior to school starting, the Golden Tray Award was explained to the faculty and school-wide buy-in was encouraged.
How the cafeteria management plan works:

• 4 Basic All-Star Café rules were established and discussed with all classes. The rules are posted in every classroom, in the hall outside the All-Star Café, and inside the café as well. With these visual reminders, students are aware of what is expected of them.

• The cafeteria is staffed with 2 staff members. The principal, assistant principal, and the school counselor each cover one hour segments and additional staff rotate at half hour intervals. The staff monitors and encourages positive student behavior. If the volume is too loud, a clothespin is moved from green to yellow on the traffic light poster. If students respond positively to this reminder, the pin is moved back to green. Classes who ignore the reminders are then moved to red on the poster. If the majority of the class is being respectful and responsible, but one or two individuals are making inappropriate choices, a yellow or red circle is given to the individual as a reminder.

• At the end of the lunch period, classes line up at the exit door. A large All-Star Café Rules poster is by the door. A staff member leads the class in a self-evaluation of their performance by referring to each of the 4 rules on the poster. Students respond with thumbs up/down.

• A construction paper star with the date is given to each class that follows all 4 rules. The stars are displayed in the classroom as a reminder of their good character.

• A star is recorded on the large Star Chart on the cafeteria wall for every class that followed the rules that day.

• All teachers touch base with a cafeteria staff member to find out how the class did that day. Teachers enthusiastically respond to the report or in the case poor behavior, the teacher expresses his/her concern. Plans are made for improvement.

• At the end of each week, all classes that earned a star for every day of the week are entered into a drawing for the GOLDEN TRAY AWARD. There is one golden tray awarded in every grade level every week.

• On Mondays, the principal reveals the names of the Golden Tray winners on the morning announcements. The teacher sends a responsible student to the office to pick up the golden tray. The tray is proudly displayed in the classroom for the entire week.

• Class certificates are given by the principal.

 

 

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The Maryland Center for Character Education
29 West Susquehanna Ave., Suite 300, Baltimore, MD 21204

Phone: 410-823-4902
Fax: 410-828-9661
E-Mail: MCCEcharacter@aol.com