Friday, March 29, 2024

Brewster students 'caught being good' earn rewards

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There are a lot of kids (the vast majority, actually) at Brewster High School and Brewster Junior High who do the right thing, day in and day out, week in and week out. They didn't always get a lot of recognition, or attention. Of course virtue is its own reward, but teachers and administrators thought students deserved a little something extra.

So the Caught Being Good program was born.

Caught Being Good was the brainchild of math teacher Scotti Wiltse, said principal Linda Dezellem; the idea is to shine the spotlight on good behavior, said assistant principal Lynnette Blackburn. It's based on the junior high and high school discipline program, which uses the school mascot to make its point. The "BEAR Basics" are being on time and being prepared for class, excellence at school, attitude and achievement, being responsible and respectful and acting in a safe and civil manner at school. Add in the district's new dress code and that's the discipline program in a nutshell, Dezellem said.

Adults sometimes take knowledge for granted, Linda said, thinking kids know how to behave or dress or do homework, when in fact they don't. She cited an example from the dress code. "We assume the kids know what baggy clothes are," she said, "but we don't think they do." Caught Being Good is designed to show those behaviors to kids who don't know about them, and to reinforce them in kids that do. (Part of what's going on here is to determine if kids are doing things because they don't know better or do know better and just don't want to do it, Blackburn said.)

Teachers, administrators and aides hand out the Caught Being Good coupons; teachers set the standards in their classrooms within the basic guidelines. Along with the coupon students receive an explanation of how they were caught being good. Students can keep the coupons--some teachers let kids collect them, Dezellem said--and they can enter them in the biweekly prize drawings.

They're pretty good prizes, too. District patrons have donated certificates for Subway sandwiches, movie tickets at Rio Theater, gift certificates to local businesses; the Jostens company donated one class ring. Local business owners and district patrons have been very willing to donate goods and services, Dezellem said. She cited one district patron who wanted to do something, even though his business wasn't really geared to teenagers. So he bought sandwich coupons instead.

But there are a lot of kids out there who are getting caught doing good things, and it's a long school year. "We could always use more sponsorships," Linda said. People who are interested in participating in the Caught Being Good program can contact Dezellem or Blackburn at Brewster High School.

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