Oakbrook Elementary School MYD Parent Guide
Make Your Day Overview
Make Your Day is a citizenship and discipline program that allows teachers
to teach and students to learn by creating a building environment in which
everyone has the right to learn, free from interference. This environment
provides all students with:
1. The opportunity to learn in a positive, caring atmosphere.
2. The opportunity to evaluate and self-correct their own behavior.
3. The opportunity to Make Their Day.
The program is based on one school rule.
No one has the right to interfere with the learning, safety, or well-being
of others.
Make Your Day provides a school-wide citizenship and discipline system. It
provides a common language for staff, students, parents/guardians. All
staff hold high expectations for students and students are responsible for
their own actions. Make Your Day provides predictable consequences for
students’ behavior choices.
Make Your Day is based on these core principles:
1. All students are capable of success.
2. Parents are directly involved in their students’ education by asking
about their day.
Student success occurs when students make appropriate choices at school and
there is open communication between school and home.
Make Your day is based on two parts: Points and Steps. Points are used to
assess students’ citizenship and allow them to take responsibility for their
behavior. Steps are to provide a student a place to reflect on his/her
behavior that interfered with the learning, safety or well-being of others.
Points
Each day students are expected to: “Do what is expected and do it the best
you can.” At the end of each period students are asked to review their
performance during that period and report their Make Your Day points. These
points are based on whether they met expectations to the best of their
ability. Students record their points in their planner.
After students have self-reported their own points, other students and staff
have an opportunity to give feedback to each other, under the direction, of
the teacher in a process called “Concerns.” The Concern Process is designed
to allow students to help other students succeed and honestly self-evaluate
their own behaviors. Concerns are managed by the teacher and are not
designed to allow other students to blame, retaliate, or be hurtful.
Steps
Students are allowed to choose steps by a staff member when they display
behavior that interferes with the learning, safety, or well-being of
others. Choosing steps is a consequence not a punishment. Students have
control of whether they choose steps by their behavior. There is no
punishment associated with choosing steps. When a student chooses steps they
are temporarily removed form the learning environment. Students’ academic
grades are not directly impacted by choosing steps. However, if a student
repeatedly chooses steps and thereby removing themselves from the learning
environment it may negatively impact their grade. Moving through steps is
completely the student’s choice.
Summary of Steps
As a reminder students only choose steps when they interfere with learning,
safety, or well-being of others.
Step 1: Sitting quietly facing away from the learning environment for 3-5
minutes. This often means a student is facing the back of a classroom. It is
not designed to have a student sit in the corner. After the appropriate
amount of a time the student will have a short conference with the teacher
before returning to the learning environment. The student will be asked how
they choose Step 1 and whether they are ready to return to the class. A
student may request more time and will always have a chance to talk with the
teacher in the step process. If a student feels the teacher made a mistake,
which occasionally happens, the teacher will apologize and the student
immediately return to class. Since Make Your Day is not punitive, there
will be no disciplinary consequences, such as a detention, because of the
student’s choice.
Step 2: If the student fails to sit appropriately on Step 1 or continues to
interfere with the learning, safety or well-being of others they will choose
a Step 2. Step 2 is standing quietly facing away from the learning
environment for 3-5 minutes. As in Step 1, a teacher will confer with the
student before they choose to return to step 1 and eventually the learning
environment.
Step 3: If the student fails to stand appropriately on Step 2 or continues
to interfere they will be given a choice of escalating to a Step 3 where
they focus on a sign featuring the Make Your Day rule or they may chooses to
advance to a Step 4. The purpose of this is to assist the student in
choosing appropriate behaviors. After an appropriate time the teacher will
briefly confer with the student and the student will de-escalate through
steps in order.
Note: Steps 1-3 allow the student to remain in the classroom as they
attempt to correct their behavior. They will continue to earn Make Your Day
points if they follow the procedures correctly.
Step 4: Inappropriate behavior on Step 3 demonstrates the student has
chosen a Step 4 conference. In this case students will be sent to the office
to contact their parent/guardian to request a time to meet.
Parents/Guardians will be requested to come in for an immediate conference.
The student will remain out of their class and school activities until a
parent-student-teacher conference can be held A Step 4 Conference can occur
at anytime during the school day. The Step 4 Conference will allow the
parent/guardian to determine if a student is ready to return to class for
the purpose of learning.
Parents/Guardians are expected to come in for a Step 4 Conference as soon as
possible. A student will be assigned to an alternate classroom or “buddy
room” for the remainder of that school day or until a successful conference
occurs. Parents will be requested to keep the student home the following day
until a conference takes place. After a successful Step 4 Conference a
student will de-escalate through each step. As a reminder a Step 4
Conference is called by the student and not the teacher in order to help
address the student’s behavior.
Successful Step 4 Conferences
Step 4 Conferences are designed with the purpose to help the student
understand the behavior choices expected at school. At a Step 4 Conference
a student has requested a parent be present at a conference concerning
his/her behavior. The student will conduct the conference with the parent
and typically the staff member with whom the incident happened.
At a Step 4 Conference the student will:
State the problem or behavior choices.
Express and accept responsibility for his/her choice.
Offer an alternative method for managing his/her problem.
Express a desire to return to class.
The parent/guardian will decide if the outcome of the conference is
acceptable and make the determination if a student is ready to return to
class. After a successful Step 4 conference a student will be expected to
make their way off the previous steps before returning to class.
A Step 4 Conference is designed to address the specific behavior choices of
the student that occurred. Another conference can be scheduled before or
after school to discuss academic progress.
Shadowing/Automatic Step 4
In most instances students will progress up and down steps in order. There
are two exceptions to this rule: Shadowing, Automatic Step 4
Shadowing: When another student responds to or interacts in any manner with
a student on steps, he or she has chosen to “shadow” or follow his or her
fellow student through steps. No other student should be involved with a
student choosing steps.
Automatic Step 4: There are some behaviors that will automatically place a
student on step 4. An example of such behavior is leaving Steps without
having a conference with a staff member. Some behaviors include: profanity,
harassment, cheating, and fighting.
*The Principal reserves the right to make final decisions that may step
outside of the MYD Program.
**Any action by a student which constitutes physical danger to
himself/herself or another will be dealt with immediately and aside from the
MYD plan.
Making Their Day
Students Make Their Day by earning a set number of points each day. At the
end of the day, students will total the points they earned throughout the
day and report whether they made their day.
Students who do not earn enough points to Make Their Day will be given a
Make Your Day Form to take home to their parent/guardian. This slip is
designed as a communication tool for parents or guardians. The form will
tell you that your child did not “make his or her day” today. This is not a
sign of failure nor a reason for punishment. It is a positive sign that
your child is taking responsibility for choices made today. In order to
help your son/daughter make better choices tomorrow, we encourage you to
review the information on the slip with your child and discuss possible
better choices for tomorrow. Parents and students will be asked to sign the
form and return it to school the next day.
