Celebration Center
(The Power of Love & the Skill of Positive Intent)
The purpose of this center is to celebrate individual or group accomplishments and contributions to the school family, and life events. Celebrations could include: a new sibling at home, moving into a new home, birthdays, learning to tie shoes, learning to be a STAR, earning a good grade on the spelling test, being responsible for your class job, anything that is important to a child, a group, the classroom, or the whole school family.
Be very careful that you are not using Celebrations to reinforce behaviors you want to see again. This is not the Stimulus-Response behavioral model, as that skips the dash in between which is the thinking before you act phase. Celebrations are truly a way to see the best in every student and celebrate diverse talents and accomplishments.
Setting up the Celebration Center:
In the classroom, the celebration center is a specific place that you will gather for your celebrations. There may be a special chair, banner, etc... that is just for celebrations. You could also just bring the special chair to the front of the classroom if you don't have room for a designated spot. This could also be a place on the class website for older students. School Family School Wide Celebration Assemblies are at designated times, such as the first Friday of the month, the end of the 9 weeks, etc...
Introducing the Celebration Center:
You can introduce this the first day of school, or as the need to celebrate arises in your classroom. You may also have a scheduled time for Celebrations, such as Fridays at morning meeting, etc... Allow students to put their accomplishments in the Celebrations notebook, or to put them in a box, etc... to make sure everyone is celebrated. Their celebrations can be school related or not. "Every child has a gift for your class; your job is find it and celebrate it." You must establish procedures for sharing, and the structure is crucial. Keep the beginning and ending the same always, to maintain predictability and pattern. The middle can be changed however you'd like to keep the novelty. For example, always start and end with the same phrases, songs, etc...
*Create a Celebration Chair - This is a special chair that is just for Celebrations. Paint it fun colors, or decorate it.
*Celebration Bag - This bag is full of props, such as birthday hats, necklaces, boas, lais, small balloons, etc... This keeps the novelty and strengthens that intrinsic motivation.
*Celebration Station - print cards on postcard paper with pre-typed information for students to fill in and give to their peers when they see something good happening.
"You rock! You rule! I noticed _________! I appreciate that you ______! That was helpful! You did it! These could even be displayed on a bulletin board.
SHIFTING FROM EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION TO INTRINSIC MOTIVATION
This center allows us to shift from tangible rewards to celebrations that build self-esteem and focus on intrinsic motivation. "Shifting from rewards to celebrations is a slow process, but one that is necessary to create truly cooperative and compassionate School Families where healthy competition can emerge as children grow into middle school.....it's a difficult shift for these reasons:
1) Teachers have been systematically taught to use rewards in their professional training.
2) Rewards seem, for most children, to work in the short term.
3) Rewards do not ask adults to change internally. Rewards require us to manage paperwork and give out stuff, but do not require us to manage ourselves.
You are truly making the shift from a traditional classroom to a Conscious Discipline (R) Classroom once you have mastered the internal mindset change that allows you to move from rewards to celebrations. "The intent behind rewards is to motivate children to repeat desired behaviors labeled "good" and/or to achieve a defined performance standard....:"Reward" is defined as any consequence that is predictable and has market value to the learner. It's the stuff WE entice the student with to -behave. Recent research indicates that rewards reduce intrinsic motivation, impair higher-order thinking skills, reduce contextual memory and eliminate the love of learning. Having read the studies, examined the brain research and spent countless hours with children and educators, the answer is clear to me: Our use of rewards has hijacked children's natural motivation system." (Dr. Becky Bailey, Creating the School Family, P. 278-281)
When children are coerced by rewards, the brain operates differently than when children are intrinsically motivated to learn. "The brain traiggers the release of certain neurotransmiltters when we rely on rewards to manage behavior. These neurotransmitters inhibit ligher-order learning functions. Children become focused on the receiving or not receiving the reward instead of engaging in learning..... On the other hand when internal motivation is activated and anticipation of success is mounting, the brain triggers the release of dopamine, which maximizes learning potential. Dopamine is vital for learning and is considered the most important biochemical we produce for motivation and curiosity. (Hannaford, 2010) (Creating the School Family, P. 281)
Be very careful that you are not using Celebrations to reinforce behaviors you want to see again. This is not the Stimulus-Response behavioral model, as that skips the dash in between which is the thinking before you act phase. Celebrations are truly a way to see the best in every student and celebrate diverse talents and accomplishments.
Setting up the Celebration Center:
In the classroom, the celebration center is a specific place that you will gather for your celebrations. There may be a special chair, banner, etc... that is just for celebrations. You could also just bring the special chair to the front of the classroom if you don't have room for a designated spot. This could also be a place on the class website for older students. School Family School Wide Celebration Assemblies are at designated times, such as the first Friday of the month, the end of the 9 weeks, etc...
Introducing the Celebration Center:
You can introduce this the first day of school, or as the need to celebrate arises in your classroom. You may also have a scheduled time for Celebrations, such as Fridays at morning meeting, etc... Allow students to put their accomplishments in the Celebrations notebook, or to put them in a box, etc... to make sure everyone is celebrated. Their celebrations can be school related or not. "Every child has a gift for your class; your job is find it and celebrate it." You must establish procedures for sharing, and the structure is crucial. Keep the beginning and ending the same always, to maintain predictability and pattern. The middle can be changed however you'd like to keep the novelty. For example, always start and end with the same phrases, songs, etc...
*Create a Celebration Chair - This is a special chair that is just for Celebrations. Paint it fun colors, or decorate it.
*Celebration Bag - This bag is full of props, such as birthday hats, necklaces, boas, lais, small balloons, etc... This keeps the novelty and strengthens that intrinsic motivation.
*Celebration Station - print cards on postcard paper with pre-typed information for students to fill in and give to their peers when they see something good happening.
"You rock! You rule! I noticed _________! I appreciate that you ______! That was helpful! You did it! These could even be displayed on a bulletin board.
SHIFTING FROM EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION TO INTRINSIC MOTIVATION
This center allows us to shift from tangible rewards to celebrations that build self-esteem and focus on intrinsic motivation. "Shifting from rewards to celebrations is a slow process, but one that is necessary to create truly cooperative and compassionate School Families where healthy competition can emerge as children grow into middle school.....it's a difficult shift for these reasons:
1) Teachers have been systematically taught to use rewards in their professional training.
2) Rewards seem, for most children, to work in the short term.
3) Rewards do not ask adults to change internally. Rewards require us to manage paperwork and give out stuff, but do not require us to manage ourselves.
You are truly making the shift from a traditional classroom to a Conscious Discipline (R) Classroom once you have mastered the internal mindset change that allows you to move from rewards to celebrations. "The intent behind rewards is to motivate children to repeat desired behaviors labeled "good" and/or to achieve a defined performance standard....:"Reward" is defined as any consequence that is predictable and has market value to the learner. It's the stuff WE entice the student with to -behave. Recent research indicates that rewards reduce intrinsic motivation, impair higher-order thinking skills, reduce contextual memory and eliminate the love of learning. Having read the studies, examined the brain research and spent countless hours with children and educators, the answer is clear to me: Our use of rewards has hijacked children's natural motivation system." (Dr. Becky Bailey, Creating the School Family, P. 278-281)
When children are coerced by rewards, the brain operates differently than when children are intrinsically motivated to learn. "The brain traiggers the release of certain neurotransmiltters when we rely on rewards to manage behavior. These neurotransmitters inhibit ligher-order learning functions. Children become focused on the receiving or not receiving the reward instead of engaging in learning..... On the other hand when internal motivation is activated and anticipation of success is mounting, the brain triggers the release of dopamine, which maximizes learning potential. Dopamine is vital for learning and is considered the most important biochemical we produce for motivation and curiosity. (Hannaford, 2010) (Creating the School Family, P. 281)