As I reflect on my time as an educator, I find myself comparing current times to when I was in school. If I think really hard, I can remember my time in Elementary school. I say “think hard,” because that was a really long time ago. As I reflect and compare, I have come to a conclusion that every student, teacher, support staff, and administrator will agree with: It is a long time until May.
I make this statement looking through the eyes of our students and remember my time as a student. We would have a Halloween party, we would have a Christmas party, we would do something for Valentines day, and we would have an end of year party. The parties leading up to the end of the year were fun and enjoyable. We would get to eat lots of cakes, cookies, and all of the stuff we were not allowed to eat at home. They, however, were not the party I looked forward to the most. That end of year party was special. Not because it was the end of the year and I would now have three months of summer. Not because I was getting promoted to a new grade. This party was special because we got to celebrate all of the good things we did throughout the year.
The more I thought about it though, I wished we would have celebrated more throughout the year. I wish we could have had all of the celebrations that we are going to be doing here at Rockdale Intermediate. Not just that end of award perfect attendance, not just that end of year A/B honor roll, not just the end of year reading or math award, these are all important of course, but what about all the other great things that happened throughout the school year?
Why did we not celebrate the kid who picked up their first book and read it cover to cover? Why did we not celebrate the student who knew absolutely no English when he came to school, but passed a spelling test? Why did we not celebrate the young lady who had a hard time with math because she was dyslexic but was able to pass a multiplication quiz? Why did we not celebrate the young man who made it to school, not always on time because his mom got off work at the same time the bell rang, but he was still there? There are great things happening in our school more than just at the end of the school year, but every single minute of every single day. And for that reason, we need to always be celebrating.
Now, I’m not saying we should drop everything we are doing and have a party every time someone does something great. What I am advocating for is that we do not wait until the end of the year, or even the end of the semester to celebrate greatness. We need to always be celebrating. With all of this celebrating, you may ask, “when will they be learning?” You could also say “less celebrating, more homework.” I am currently reading a book entitled “Leaders Eat Last” by Simon Sinek. In this book, Sinek says “Dopamine is the reason for the good feelings we get when we find something we’re looking for or do something that needs to get done. It is responsible for the feeling of satisfaction after we’ve finished an important task, completed a project, reached a goal, or even reached one of the markers on our way to a bigger goal” (Sinek, 2012.p. 49-50). Our students get that dopamine when they accomplish one of their goals. But when we celebrate that goal as well, the dopamine continues to flow. The more dopamine, the better the student feels and the better they perform. The better they perform, the more dopamine they produce and the cycle continues. Here are some of the great things we will be celebrating this year at Rockdale intermediate and increasing our students’ dopamine, or feel good, level.
Our first thing is Tiger Cash. This is an instant reward system that students can earn by Being Safe, Being Respectful, and Being Responsible. If they earn a predetermined amount of Tiger Cash (First 6 weeks it is 30), we will have a party. For the first six weeks, we will be having a popsicle and dance party. Each 6 weeks we will have one of these parties. Students will be able to celebrate when they earn Tiger Cash, and then we will be able to celebrate with them during the Tiger Cash party.
The next thing we will be celebrating is our math foundations program that we are calling Tiger Math. Each day, our students take a 5 minute math quiz that focuses on foundation concepts such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. If they pass the quiz, they move on to the next concept. If they come up short, we will send the exact same quiz home for them to get more practice and they will take the exact quiz the next day. It’s all about getting as many touches as possible.
There are close to 200 quizzes, so with 170 school days, students will not be able to get to every quiz. We asked each grade level to look at the lists of quizzes and set levels. This year we adopted an Olympic theme. There will be four levels that students can strive for. We have a Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Championship level. When students reach a level, we will take their picture, put that picture on a bulletin board, and announce their name on the morning announcements.
Students will be able to see their progress and be able to see how they are doing compared to their peers. The levels are very attainable and we will be able to celebrate students as they achieve each level. It should also be noted that students with different needs are adjusted accordingly, so we can celebrate the achievements they are making as well.
Another way we can celebrate academic success is with our AR points. Students will read a book, take a test, and then get awarded a certain amount of points, or AR points for reading that book based on its levels. While we are not doing a school wide celebration on this, each grade level and class are setting levels and holding celebrations when students reach a certain level. Again, each individual student’s abilities are taken into consideration, so if you are a beginning reader or advanced, we get to celebrate your accomplishments.
These are just some of the many celebrations that we are holding at Rockdale Intermediate. We believe that we should always be celebrating and including all students in these celebrations. Over the past 18 months, our students have been through a lot. They have missed times with friends, they have missed time with instruction, and they have most importantly missed time of being a kid. We need to celebrate those students that are making it to school. We need to celebrate those kids who are reading an entire book for the first time. We need to celebrate those kids who just passed their first math quiz. We need to celebrate being a kid. We need to “Always be Celebrating.”
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