Academics
Turner Middle School
Focusing on the Positive at Turner
We will continue building a positive climate and culture at Turner through our PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports). We are keeping our Dragon Tokens from last year for teachers and staff to hand out to students who positively affect our climate and culture. Students are able to turn in these tokens to purchase items from our school store, the “Dragon’s Lair.” Last year students were excited about the Dragon’s Lair and items available in the store. They worked with the staff member that ran the Lair to get additional items students were interested in having there. We collected over 500 tokens each semester.
Our purpose with Dragon Tokens is to view behaviors as a teaching opportunity. We are using a merit system versus a demerit system. The goal of this model is to help all students become intrinsically motivated to “do the right thing” and to know what that appropriate behavior looks like. When we see these positive examples we reward the student with a Dragon Token and specifically telling the student why he/she is receiving the token. Tokens are collected and turned in at our Dragon’s Lair (store) for prizes. Prizes range in cost from 1 token (purchase a cool eraser) to 20 tokens (purchase a sling backpack).
Castles:
We have created towers and castles to further support our positive climate and culture building. Each student belongs to a grade level tower. There are 3 towers, one 6th, 7th, and 8th that then belong to a castle. We have 8 castles this year: time, energy, metal, rock, ice, water, wind, and fire. Each tower meets once a week to work on lessons (social emotional, schools success strategies, Sources of Strength, respect, and wellness), team building, mentoring, and discussions. Twice a quarter each castle meets for group activities and a few times this year all of the castles will come together for assemblies.
Student Recognition: Castle Kudos
Teachers can fill out a Castle Kudos for a student based on our traits criteria. The teacher turns in the form, the administration calls that parent to let them know what their student has done, and both the teacher and student are put into a drawing two win a breakfast burrito.
Staff Recognition: Staff completes the form for another staff member explaining how he/she has made a positive impact. Both staff names are placed into a drawing to win a cup of coffee.