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Last updated on Monday, January 7, 2013
(WASHINGTON) - In an effort to improve the quality of classroom learning and teach students a life skill that goes beyond an academic subject, the staff at Washington High School has instituted a new rewards system to encourage students to be on time.
Mike Myers of the Washington Times Herald reports that WHS teacher Dave Harman, a member of a committee that has brought the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports program to Washington High School, explains that the program is a way to reward students' good behavior.
Harman says the incentive will be rewarded for getting to class on time. Some of those rewards might include a one-day extended lunch period for seniors, who are allowed to leave school for lunch or allowing under-classmen, who are not allowed to leave the campus for lunch to leave class early and head to the cafeteria.
On an individual basis, students who don't draw a single tardy during a month will have their names entered into a drawing for prizes such as being first in line at lunch time or, for students who drive to school, a student without a tardy might win the chance to park in principal LeAnn Kelley's parking spot for a specified period of time.
The program started a year ago under then WHS Principal Paul White and is part of a larger plan to improve education at WHS, with the next step in the program an effort to increase attendance at the high school. Parents will be kept apprised of the progress of the program through a newsletter.
WHS Academic Dean Tony Barnard emphasized that the program is a shift in an approach to discipline from just giving negative consequences for wrong behavior to rewarding good behavior.
While the benefits to having students in class on time are important, Kelley says the lesson being taught is meaningful in a broader sense as well by teaching students it's important to be on time.
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