Winston Salem Times

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools issued the following announcement on January 21.

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools

JANUARY 21, 2022 – At Moore Elementary one morning, the second-graders in Patrice Hayes’ class divided up into teams and went on a “scavenger hunt.”

It was a mental rather than physical adventure. Poring through papers together, team members looked for the written “treasures” – vocabulary words and special phrases – they were seeking.

As they worked together, they kept in mind “Our Class Expectations.” There are four of them:

“We will work quietly.”

“We will be polite to others.”

“We will get out of our seats with permission.”

“We will follow directions.”

The scavenger hunt on Friday Jan. 14 was that day’s version of the Good Behavior Game – an ongoing program created to “help students develop positive behavior skills including teamwork and self-regulation.”

Good 19The AIR Good Behavior Game is being implemented across all Winston-Salem/Forsyth County elementary schools in grades 1 through 3. Each school has at least two teachers trained in AIR GBG who are participating.

The district partners with RAND Corp. and the American Institutes of Research (AIR) to offer training and coaching supports during the 2021-22 school year.

Hayes has found the project valuable for both her and students.

“The great thing about GBG is it fits into whatever you’re already doing,” she said. “I have done it more than once in a day.”

“My kids enjoy it. They ask to play it every day.”

For Hayes, one of the more challenging aspects of the game early on was not following her natural impulse to go over to help a student who raised a hand. One of the “rules” of the game is for students to turn to a fellow student rather than the teacher when they have a question. So she had to help students learn to turn to another student rather than her when playing the game.

Group 28She also works to avoid offering suggestions or asking leading questions while they are playing the game so that, again, they will learn to rely on each other.

The rest of the school day she responds to raised hands and answers questions or offers suggestions.

While they are playing, Hayes does offer oodles of positive feedback, letting them know when they are doing well.

Hayes is a big fan of stickers, and, for the students, the stickers she gives them when they do well on this or that activity are an enjoyable bonus. She picks up the stickers here and there – on Amazon, Dollar Tree stores, the Kaplan Early Learning Co.’s outlet store in Lewisville.

Students have received so many stickers that the plastic containers they use to store supplies are covered in them.  

Hayes also holds miniature celebrations with the students. She may invite everyone to do the “chicken dance” or zip around their desks when they finish playing the game.

Teachers work with coaches who support the program at more than one school. Coaches observe class play every other week and meet with their teachers to talk about their experiences with the game.

Group 24

On hand this morning was Michelle Beekman, an AIR GBG trainer and coach who supports the GBG program at Moore, Vienna and Lewisville elementary schools.

Hayes does a wonderful job with students, Beekman said. “She is an amazing teacher.”

At least two GBG teachers at every elementary school have been trained in the program, Beekman said. At Moore, the other GBG teacher is Lisa Burchette, who teaches first grade.

The training gives teachers behavior strategies that work with individuals and with the classroom as a whole.

“For students, it promotes working together,” Beekman said. “This is a whole classroom strategy.”

“Because it is so flexible, it is very user-friendly for teachers.”

And the stickers Hayes gives students and the reward activities, such as the chicken dance, help support it all, Beekman said.

“It’s designed to reward that positive success.”

When Beekman stops by Hayes’ classroom, students often show her the latest stickers they have received.

Sticker 42

“They love to show me the stickers,” she said.

For students, the focus is on the game, Beekman said. Learning is an invisible byproduct.

Beekman said that the game has had great results at all of the schools she supports.

“It’s been great!” she said. “I have repeatedly heard from teachers, ‘This is what I was looking for.’”

“I have been able to see the growth.”

Hayes, who was Teacher of the Year for the 2020-21 school year at Moore, volunteered to participate in the program.

“I wanted something different,” she said.

She is delighted to see what playing the game has done for students.

“They are more independent even when we are not playing the game,” Hayes said. “They work together well.”

“It spills over into other parts of the day.”

Hayes said that she and her students play the Good B

Sticker 5

ehavior Game at least four times a week.

“Three of those times students know that the game is being played - the other they do not know it is being played,” she said

“My students enjoy playing because they are not only competitive with others, but they are always trying to outdo their self. The program easily meshes with PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) because it provides positive reinforcements.”

“In my classroom, each of my table groups are a team and the teams work together to win the game…I provide praises and redirections to the entire class, individual teams, or specific students throughout the game.”

AIR GBG can be played while students complete assignments in any content area. Studies have shown that participating in AIR GBG reduces aggressive and disruptive behavior. To learn what they need to know about the game, participating teachers took a 2-two-day training before the school year began, and they will take another one-day training before the school year is over.

Sean Gaillard is the principal at Moore.

He and others at Moore appreciate what Hayes and Burchette have done for students through the program, Gaillard said.

“It is making a positive difference for our kids. They are good instructional leaders.”

Run 45Griffith Elementary is another WS/FCS elementary school that participates in the Good Behavior Game program. Jenean Moss, who teaches first grade at Griffith, is one of the participating teachers there.

“This summer, our principal told us that we were implementing ‘The Good Behavior Game’ next year and that we needed to attend a two-day workshop.”

“’What?’  I thought to myself.”

“We were already implementing a new math and social studies curriculum.  Why something else as well?  I was very pessimistic and thought that I already had a pretty good behavior management system in my classroom after 26 years of teaching. I thought I had seen it all and could handle it all.”

“I attended the workshop to see what else we were going to have to do this year. As I sat through the workshop the first day, I was asking questions and thinking negatively about the whole thing.”

“That night, thinking about all the struggles I had gone through dealing with teaching during COVID and not knowing who I was as a teacher anymore, I decided to give it a try and had a better mindset the second day of the workshop.  I listened, but still had not fully committed to this new program.”

Dance 47“The first day of school, I implemented the four rules of the game and by the second week of school, my first-graders started playing the game. By the end of the first six weeks, my students were ‘first grade’ professionals, and I was amazed.”

“The game promotes positive behavior and promotes students working together collaboratively.  It builds the classroom community that all teachers desire and helps students become responsible and caring students.”

“It works for ALL students. No more trying to find what motivates that one student who doesn’t conform to rules, no more wasting precious time trying to find things that work, the GBG works for all students.”

“After 26 years of teaching, I would not start another year without this program in my classroom.”

She offered a couple of quotes from her students about the GBG game:

Jonathan Abreu: “I like the Good Behavior Game because it is quiet in the room.  I can concentrate.  It is fun.”

Wyatt Gribben: “The Good Behavior Game helps me be calm and have a gentle voice.”

Original source can be found here.