Esprit De Corps

Our Life Principle this week was esprit de corps which means spirit of the group. Our class is trying to improve the spirit of our group, so this week we had a Bad to the Bone Monkeys team meeting to come up with ideas on how to make our classroom a more positive place.

The students decided they should have a class president - someone who could keep the class positive and help the other students with problems or homework. We took nominations and held a vote. The results? Tiffany Ward is our Main Monkey, and Tiffani Beissel is our Vice Monkey.

The students also wanted a treasure box in our classroom to reward students with good behavior. When I told the kids I couldn't afford to buy toys or candy each week for them, the students decided they would handle the matter, and I have had several students already donate such things as toys, notebooks, markers, and stickers (I think they are cleaning out their closets and lockers!). Our main and vice monkey created a classroom chart to keep track of students' progress through the week. They will place a sticker by the students' names if they had no behavior warnings for the day. Five stickers at the end of the week means a trip to the treasure box.

The students also decided after two weeks of positive behavior the class could earn a party of some sort (movie, popcorn, pizza, dance). A day with less than three behavior warnings on our behavior log counts toward the party, so we have to accumulate 10 days of good behavior for our reward.

Let me remind you that all of these decisions were student made and student led. Frankly, I am blown away by the responsibility and maturity my students have shown with their decisions. I am very impressed with all of you!