Aptos Junior High School

This may be a duplicate of something I wrote earlier in the year, but it is important enough to post twice, so here I go.

7-1 is one of my cornerstones for working with junior high students. What is 7-1 you ask? Well I will gladly tell you. 7-1 is the concept that you hand out 7 positive comments for every 1 negative comment. The theory is that this will help reduce discipline at your site as well as create positive relationships with your students. This same theory applies to adults but that is another post.

My goal is to attempt to do this each day. Believe me it is tough. I find that I fall into “corrective” ruts. Comments abound from my mouth that have nothing to do with forming relationships, they are simply corrections. Don’t sit there, spit out your gum, stop running, throw away your trash and on and on. Those things are important but students don’t engage with you when you are giving out those comments, they simply ignore you or make a blank acknowledgement and move on. When I notice that I am in “corrective” mode I make myself do a an about face and start to look for things to that are positive. Thanks for picking up your trash, I like your hat, how was class, did you get a haircut and the list gos on and on. You would be surprised at how often I get a reply back when I am making positive comments and not just corrective comments. The students are genuinley interested in what I am asking them and they usually like to talk about the question.

This came to light when one of my wife’s co-workers went to observe a school and walked around with the principal during the lunch period. She told my wife that over the course of 30 minutes she never heard the principal utter an encouraging word-the principal was always in “corrective” mode. After hearing that I challenged myself to make sure I didn’t lose sight of my 7-1 concept and that I would work on recognizing when I had fallen into “corrective” mode.

Don’t get me wrong “corrective” mode needs to be there for a lot of reasons. Safety, consistency and for the general well being of the school. I just want you to know that the 7-1 mode is so much more fun. To be able to pass on compliments instead of corrections is so much easier. It is sort of like that old saying “It takes less muscles to smile than it does to frown”, well it is the same with the 7-1 concept. Saying positive comments is so much easier, plus it gives you a better outlook on the day.

I challenge you in your home to adopt the 7-1 policy. 7 positive comments for every 1 negative/corrective comment. Try it for a while and then let me know how it is going. You know where to find me!!!

Until next time,

Brian