The Garden City Telegram
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A focus on the positive motivates
Published 4/13/2008 in News : Area coverage
Editor's Note: This is the 11th in a 17-part series that features a program at each of Garden City's 17 public schools. Today's story focuses on the P.R.I.D.E. Side student recognition program at Kenneth Henderson Middle School.
By EMILY BEHLMANN
ebehlmann@gctelegram.com
There are some things about last school year that Ty Carlson doesn't feel very good about. A seventh-grader at Kenneth Henderson at the time, Carlson said he missed a lot of assignments and was sometimes late for class, and his grades suffered because of it.
His friends started getting annoyed, he said, because it meant he never got to attend the celebrations or end-of-year trip for the Positive Respect Integrity Dignity Excellence (P.R.I.D.E.) Side student recognition program at the school.
"All my friends were telling me to do better," he said.
So he did. An eighth-grader now, Carlson said he decided he was tired of missing out on P.R.I.D.E. Side, so he started making sure to turn in all his assignments on time. And he hasn't been late to class yet this year, he said.
He earned enough P.R.I.D.E. Side points to attend celebrations in the fall, and he's on track to qualify for the May 19 P.R.I.D.E. Night, where top students are recognized with their parents.
"I like how they have an event at the end of the school year to show how good you were doing all year long," Carlson said.
The concept of recognizing the good students, the ones who quietly did all the right things, came up at Kenneth Henderson about two years ago, said interim Principal Jessica Bird. At the time, programs generally focused on kids who misbehaved or performed poorly, she said.
The idea came from social studies teacher Cynthia Corn, who said she had seen something similar at her former school district in Abeline. There, the focus was on the positive, not the negative, she said.
Corn said she took the idea to Principal Lori Peister, who "ran with it right away."
Peister said she liked the proposal because she thought more attention needed to be given to the kids who did what they needed to do every day, when they were supposed to do it.
"We kind of left those kids out of the loop," she said.
Bird, who took over when Peister went on medical leave last year, said school leaders thought about what academic and citizenship issues were most important at Kenneth Henderson. They decided to recognize students who had few absences or tardies, turned in assignments, earned good grades and avoided office referrals.
Everything has a point value, and students can earn up to 1,000 points per quarter.
The points are assigned by home room RAP (Responsibility, Academics, Pride) teachers, who meet regularly with students to talk about where they're doing well and how they can improve, Bird said.
Then, it's up to Kristy Galliart, administrative assistant, to keep track of it all. Galliart said it's a lot of work, but that she thinks the program makes a positive impact at Kenneth Henderson.
It makes kids feel more responsible for their grades, and it gives them another reason to avoid being tardy, she said. They ask her and the teachers all the time how many points they have, and try to make sure they'll earn enough to qualify for recognition.
The recognition comes in the form of quarterly celebrations, like last week's event where the Garden City High School Drum Line performed and the P.R.I.D.E. Side qualifiers ate Nestle Drumsticks and received T-shirts.
Those who earn 900 points in a quarter also get Gold Cards, which take them to the front of the lunch line and grant free admission to GCHS sporting events, Bird said.
The P.R.I.D.E. Night is for students who earn at least 2,800 points in the year, 70 percent of those possible, and the Denver trip is for those who earn at least 3,200 points, 80 percent of those possible.
Renee Scott, counselor for Kenneth Henderson eighth-graders, said last year's P.R.I.D.E. Night was a special event for the school, and parents expressed appreciation for the program.
Other members of current students' families are hearing about P.R.I.D.E. Side, too, Corn said.
"Now it's starting to trickle down to younger brothers and sisters," she said. "I think it was a positive focus to shift toward."
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