North Cedar program keeps things positive

CLARENCE - I've thoroughly enjoyed my three years at North Cedar High School.

The friends I've made, the connections I've had with teachers, all the clubs and organizations I've gotten to be apart of and all the successful sports teams I've gotten to be on.

Regardless of all those amazing things, however, I noticed some students' attitudes seem to get worse and worse - and they become more and more disrespectful toward not only their peers but their teachers, as well.

The household I live in and grew up in would never allow this. If I were to behave this way, the repercussions would ensure I would never act that way again. Growing up in a house like this has done nothing but help me succeed in life. It also has done nothing but fuel my anger watching kids in class disrespect the teacher. Watching my valuable class time waste away due to another student's misbehavior is not how I, or the teacher, imagine spending class.

This year however, North Cedar has decided to put a stop to it in a POSITIVE way.

PBIS is a new program here at North Cedar. The acronym stands for Positive Behavior Intervention System. While this is a new program for the high school students, it is not a new program at North Cedar. This program has been instilled in our elementary schools for years. It is a positive reinforcement system. If a student does something good or positive they receive a ticket. The student writes his or her name on the ticket and puts it in a yellow jar located in every teachers' room in the school. The point of this program is to focus on the positives instead of the negatives to create an overall positive environment here at North Cedar.

It has really worked.

But should we have to reward students for bringing the right supplies to class or being respectful to teachers? No. But unfortunately in this generation, there are few students who know those things should be common sense. Every school faces these disciplinary problems, not just North Cedar. North Cedar is just handling them in a different way by taking them and turning them into positives, and kids are really taking to it.

Personally, I don't get very many tickets because I have always behaved how I was supposed to, but for students who haven't, getting these tickets really is making a change in their attitudes and behavior at school. If a student does receive a ticket, they have a chance to be the weekly winner, the winner at midterm or even the winner at semester. The more tickets you get, the better chance you have and this is what is pushing those kids to be better.

The students want tickets because tickets win prizes. Some prizes you can get for the weekly winnings are packs of gum, fuzzy socks, first in the lunch line passes and open campus for lunch passes. The prizes for the midterm winners or the semester winners are bigger and better.

It's nice to come to school again with the feeling of wanting to be here, the feeling of happiness and not sadness, and the feeling you're getting the most out of your classes you can, all thanks to PBIS.