This year WMS has been working to improve our school culture and we have been using Live School points as a way of tracking those moments. As we work to continue to build a culture around the GIANT standards, we are asked to watch for those actions and reward students who display these traits. Another way WMS has been working to improve our school is through Town Hall Meetings which allow for the administration to check in with the students about their behavior. In March, Mrs. Holloway held the monthly Town Hall meetings with grades 6 through 8 and used it to address the lack of kindness being shown in our school. Prior to meeting with the students, the teachers showed a video of the book Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson. The story tells about a student reflecting on a time when she was unkind to a new student, not just one time, but multiple times and how one day this student does not return to school. The student was never able to make up for her unkind behavior and she thought about all the ways she could have been kind. The teacher in the story shared the idea of the ripple effect of kindness with the students, “Each little thing we do goes out, like a ripple, into the world”. After hearing the book, the students met and discussed their takeaways from the story. They were able to then share times when they were kind to someone else. Some of the responses are now up on display across from the cafeteria. Please stop by and read some of the ways our students have shown kindness.
By: Mrs. Relevo
