Seaford Elementary School has started taking extra steps to recognize students who show signs of excellence.
“We [have] an honor roll, which is a great goal, but a lot of our kids are doing the right thing everyday,” said Barbara Nagel, the school’s principal. “We wanted to celebrate kids who consistently practiced kindness and perseverance and are doing their best.”
This semester the school started the “Signs of Excellence” program where faculty and staff pick students from each grade level that show various “excellent” qualities and honor them with a special sign in the yard.
The signs read “My school is so proud of me!” and are delivered by Nagel and other faculty that can participate.
Nagel said what makes the program special is the signs are delivered in front of the student’s family and community so it truly feels like they’re being recognized and supported by those around them.
“What a great way to get to know the families and have the children see their teachers outside of school settings to know they care about them,” Nagel said.
So far, the school has only gone through one rotation of the program in January but Nagel said the plan is to go through the process every three weeks, depending on the weather. Once a student’s time with the sign is up, Nagel goes to their locations and collects them for distribution to new students.
The idea for the program occurred during the summer when the school was looking for opportunities to get out into the community and do more home visits. Lisa Jalomo, the school’s assistant principal, suggested the yard signs as a way to bridge the school-home connection.
“All great education begins at home, so we want to have that partnership with our families,” Jalomo said.
The program, Nagel said, is a chance for the community to learn more about the school and the student’s success. For example, during the first rotation of the program one student’s family had the sign delivered to them while they were at their church so the student could be surprised in front of everyone they knew.
Jalomo said the school already has a Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports initiative to teach students the impact of positive behavior.
“We’ve taught that when you do the right thing, your parents, teachers and communities are proud of you,” Jalomo said. “We teach that our actions have an impact on the world around us.”
Nagel said the school tries to take every opportunity to teach students about positive behavior, from classroom visits with administration to integrating the topic into the subjects being taught in class.
With the new Signs of Excellence program, students can receive a little bit of extra recognition for doing behavior and doing the right thing.
“A lot of kids are doing great things everyday but unfortunately, focus tends to fall on the ones not behaving well,” Nagel said. “So we wanted to flip that.”
So far, the response from the school community has been overwhelmingly positive. Nagel said she has even had people stop her in the grocery store to tell her how much they appreciate seeing the signs around town.
Nagel said the program will continue throughout the school year and staff are even considering starting something similar to recognize teachers. She said the worst that could happen is she has to buy more signs.
“I think people are hungry for positive stories right now,” she said. “This has been a great thing for not only the school but the community.”
