September 10, 2014 at 4:51 p.m.
Following Pelican's lead, Crescent School adopts behavior rainbow
Following Pelican's lead, Crescent School adopts behavior rainbow
Following the lead of its sister school, Pelican Elementary, Crescent began implementing its behavior rainbow last May and now all students are participating.
"Just like we did the last six weeks of the school year last year, we sent a letter home to parents at the beginning of the school year explaining the rainbow and how children all start at green every day, which symbolizes that they're ready to learn," Principal Kelly Huseby said.
"Throughout the day children can move up and down based on their behavior and their choices. Children can go all the way to excellent. Anything in the greens and blues represents desirable behavior and acceptable behaviors."
As anyone who was a student or has a child knows, school can be stressful and sometimes outbursts happen. Some children have a hard time sitting still while others have to let their desk neighbor in on a secret even if the teacher is talking and they know they shouldn't be whispering.
When undesirable behavior occurs, Huseby said students move down the rainbow and are given opportunities to reflect on and correct their behavior so they can get back into the green and blue sections.
"If children are struggling a little bit during the day, they may get moved to the yellow 'think about it' section which may be done in the classroom. It might just be a little break that the child takes in the classroom to think about their behavior. It's kind of like a check yourself kind of time for the kiddos," she said.
"They may need a 'think about it' down in our calming room as well, with our calming room supervisor, just to spend a brief amount of time down there thinking about their current behavior and working their way back to green or ready to learn."
If thinking about it doesn't work, the next step is talking about the behavior, Huseby said.
"The orange 'talk about it' section may also happen in the classroom or it may be handled in the calming room with the calming room supervisor so that learning can continue and the classroom can keep moving forward," she said.
"A 'talk about it' is a little more involved and takes time from the teacher or the calming room supervisor to really get at the heart of the behavior and why the child is down there needing to talk about it. Then there's a sheet that kiddos fill out with a staff member that will go home to families."
If neither of those interventions work, then it's time for a break.
"Our red 'crash' section, is a little different than Pelican's rainbow. A crash may mean that a child truly just needs a break from whatever's happening in the classroom and given enough time to pull themselves back together and to collect themselves and regain that self-control that we're looking for," Huseby said.
"That will help them get back to being ready to learn, get back to green, and that process is done out of the calming room as well."
Pelican implemented the rainbow at the beginning of the last school year, allowing Huseby and her staff to research Pelican's version and go from there.
"We studied it and did site visits to Pelican last year. Our entire staff went over at least once, some more than once, and we ... worked with our staff and their staff to plan all this out," Huseby said.
Even though Crescent's rainbow has only been in use since last May, Huseby said she has seen positive results.
"From the start of last year when we didn't have either of these pieces in place - the rainbow or the calming room - to the start of this year, this year we've already had students utilizing the calming room during the first week of school as well as this week," she said.
"We're off and running and children understand the expectations because they've been taught by their classroom teachers what the behavior rainbow means. ... It's really working wonderfully."
Pelican Principal Martha Knudtson said her school has seen similar results from Operation Rainbow.
"It's just been such a wonderful tool for us. We've had a really great response to it. Our parents seem pleased," she said.
"What's making it so successful is everybody in our entire building is on the same page. We're using the same language. We've had numerous discussions on it so that we're all implementing things the same way and that's what makes the program strong."
Both principals said they look forward to continuing to utilize the rainbow for years to come with the goal of keeping kids in the green as often as possible.
Marcus Nesemann may be reached at [email protected].
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