Weeks before leaving for Miss America, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit J.E. Robins Elementary school in Kanawha County. The students at this school were particularly well behaved and now I understand why.
Each month the children have an assembly to recognize those who have had excellent behavior. All month you have the opportunity to keep all of your “points” because of good behavior and at the end of the month your classroom, lunchroom, and recess behavior is tallied up. The students were having their monthly “Excellence Assembly” and I was able to serve as their assembly speaker.
Each and every one of the students who had maintained all of their monthly points, lost only one, two, or three, were rewarded at the assembly. The principal there told me that he started this Excellence program when the school behavior was proving to be a distraction from the classroom. “The students respond very well to receiving praise for their behavior at an assembly, in front of their other classmates. This provides an incentive and push to be a good student not only in the classroom, but also exhibit good behavior. The Excellence Awards provide a sense of rivalry between the students in the classroom and pushes everyone to be the best behaved student. It has been a very positive tool and one we will continue to use.”
After the assembly, I visited some of the classrooms and was even serenaded to by a group of three girls. They sang “Halo” by Beyonce and a 2nd grade classroom sang their class version of Jingle Bells. One of the teacher was a friend of mine when growing up. It was great to see her again and in here 'element.' Pictured below:
