By: Becky M.
What is the
“Be Positive” Campaign?
The
“Be Positive” Campaign is a school wide service project organized and run by
the 8th grade. The purpose of this campaign is to help make the IHM
students more positive and overall happier kids. It helps to improve the way
they treat their classmates, their teachers, and themselves.
Click here for a picture of Mrs. Falanga, leader of
the “Be Positive” Campaign
How did it
begin?
In
the beginning of this school year, Mrs. Falanga, the 8th Grade
Science and Religion teacher, would recognize two of her eight graders on
Fridays. She would recognize them as being more positive and more helpful over
the past week when their classmates voted for them. Simple things, like
tutoring a classmate, being a good team player, or even just being a good
person to talk to, were excellent reasons to nominate someone. This was having
such a remarkable effect on the eighth graders that Mrs. Falanga wanted to
extend her eighth graders’ ‘positivity’ to the whole school, and thus the “Be
Positive” Campaign was born.
8th
Graders working on the Campaign
How does it
work?
If a
student is ‘caught’ doing something positive, his or her teacher will give
him/her a sticker to put on the classroom’s chart. (The 8th Graders made every
classroom a chart at the start of the campaign.) When a student earns a certain
number of stickers (the number was left to the classroom teachers to determine)
they got to put something, such as a paper leaf, ornament, or shamrock on the
“Tree of Positivity”, which is located in the school’s cafeteria. The
leaf/ornament/shamrocks all have the student’s name and class on the front. The
“Tree of Positivity” and the things put on it stick to a theme, depending on
what time of year it is. For example, around Christmas time, the “Tree of
Positivity” was an evergreen tree.
Click
here to see the “Tree of Positivity”
How are students kept informed about the campaign?
The
campaign is divided into five sections: Being Polite, Using Kind Actions,
Respecting Adults, Respecting Yourself, and Respecting the Environment. Before
each new section was launched, eighth graders made up jingles and PA
announcements to use throughout the campaign to keep reminding the school about
it. Click on any of the following links to learn more about each section of the
campaign.
What about next year?
The “Be Positive”
Campaign was a huge success. Since the eighth graders are graduating, they will
obviously not be able to work on and promote the campaign, but the current
seventh graders might try to continue it.
January
Be Positive Article: Be
Positive
