Valley Springs Elementary used the Mileage Club program to raise funds for our Walk for Water program, providing water filters and thereby clean drinking water to Haiti school children. They designed an elegant plan where every 20 laps a child walked or ran earned $1 towards the filters. They raised $240, providing a total of 12 filters (including matching funds) and safe water for hundreds of school children in Haiti.
Thank you to all the children who participated!
As I mentioned in the first part of this series, awareness is the vision that shows children where they could be heading and who they can be. This creates a tension between where they are now and the vision. This tension will beg to be resolved.
Commitment is the resolution process that ends in a decision. Commitment says “I am going to do something about this!” This is the point when a child decides that he/she is ready and willing to invest. We have all experienced this feeling when we decide we are going to get fit, study more or eat healthier meals. You always know you should change before the point when you actually decide to change. That decision point is commitment.
When developing classroom incentive programs to foster a desired behavior (bring proper clothing for PE, be on time to class, etc.) you don’t always need to get a commitment from the child. They commit because they are part of the class and the class/authority figure has included the child in the program. Except not all children will make that assumed commitment. There is a group of children who need to flip that internal switch that says “I am going to do this!” This step is often lacking in our plans: obtaining a verbalized commitment from children prior to implementing the incentive for the appropriate behavior. This is not always easy for the teacher—we all have a method of engagement that is comfortable for us; for some authoritative, others laid-back, and many somewhere in between. Effectiveness requires us to do what is required to get the job done. When the job is “changing behavior”, engagement in the process by the student is always better than the “just do it” approach.
Here is a simple plan. Educate and create awareness of the issue. Talk about it again in the next class session and ask the children for a commitment to make a change in lifestyle. It can be done with a simple show of hands, a nod of heads, or maybe a written contract signed by the child. The commitment should not be mandatory (that defeats the idea of commitment as a cognitive change that must occur first). Each child will not make this commitment, and many will make a partial commitment (I will bring my shoes to physical education class, but I am not playing softball). Every child who voluntarily commits, no matter the level of commitment, has our assistance with the follow up discipline and perseverance. All change requires that part of the brain that makes the commitment to fire up for successful outcomes. Some will come to it on their own, some will need to be led to that place of commitment.
Are you already involved in using incentives to change children’s behavior and attitudes in the classroom? Are you educating and providing positive feedback? Consider adding commitment to the process and see how your long term results change. Let me know how it works.
Next we will discuss discipline, the get your shoes on and get out the door portion of making a change.
Last week I discussed the four steps a child will go through to make a change. Most of you realize that this is based on work that was very popular in the 1990’s. It was developed by Prochaska and his team of researchers and centered around quitting smoking—but the principles apply to any change in behavior. They call it the Transtheoretical Model of behavior change, with six steps a person goes through as they make a change.
To move from one stage to the next people requires one or more change processes to occur. What Prochaska calls the change process is divided into a group of 5 cognitive processes and 5 behavioral processes. The awareness stage is squarely in the cognitive area, becoming conscious of the problem or a desire to be different than we are right now. It includes analysis of self and others around us as we look at the vision of where we want to be. This is part of the teaching that goes along with any education promoting change.
The behavioral processes relate to putting ourselves in a position to succeed. This includes all of the 3 remaining steps that we will be discussing in the coming days and often in the future. This is the step that our company Fitness Finders specializes in, the behavioral processes of change. We will be discussing these more in the future.
I want to point out that in Prochaska’s work, when moving from awareness to commitment and beyond, our actions aren’t likely to bring someone from having no interest in the behavior we are promoting to being a full blown convert. It is unlikely in one walking program lasting 6-12 weeks that we will take a sedentary child and turn them into a lifelong runner. We need to look at progress like a therapist does, looking for steps in the right direction, moving a person from one stage to the next. “All or nothing” attitudes most likely will end up with nothing given the short time we have to influence children, but progress occurs when we focus on moving from one stage to the next.
Here are some great examples of people Shaping America’s Future!
Los Gatos Plans School Safety Improvements
http://www.mercurynews.com/los-gatos/ci_15010526?nclick_check=1
Demoney Second Graders Lay Down the Miles
http://www.esthervilledailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/505887.html?nav=5003
Foothills School Wins Fit 4 CO School Challenge
http://cbs4denver.com/local/coal.creek.canyon.2.1648575.html
East Lansing Schools Mileage Club promotes fitness
http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20100423/ELANSING02
If you are going to change the lives of kids forever, how do you do it? Should you be an institutional cheerleader, rooting our youth on in their fight for “the good life”? You could be an encyclopedia, sharing your knowledge for all to use as they desire? Or a gardener, nurturing tender young shoots as they grow to adulthood?
To be really effective as an agent of change, you are all three and more. Change is a process that comes from within. We cannot force it upon anybody by telling them they have to change for their own good. But it does follow a very consistent pattern.
So what is the formula that allows us to be all of the instruments above? What do we need to help children to do?
Here are four basic steps that each child (or adult) will go through on their way to making a change.
Let’s discuss the first.
Awareness is the first step to changing anything—You must have an awareness that looks at where we are as well as a vision of where you want to be. For a child, this could be a desire to have a healthy heart or to be able to read chapter books. It could be growing up to be like Dad, or even like Michael Jordan if you are a basketball player. This is the knowledge sharing portion of leading through change. You don’t need to be an encyclopedia, though. You need more knowledge than those you are teaching. That is all that is required here.
So think about what changes you would make in the children around you to “make a difference”. Think about fitness, health, reading, character, writing, sports skills, or any of a myriad of behaviors and skills that you could choose. Can you create a story for children and help them see their potential, what they can attain. This is the vision. You know the youth that you can influence, so only you can write the story in a way that means something to them.
It is easy in this day and age, as we work our way through a struggling economy, political upheaval and advancing technology, to lose the forest for the trees. Why did we start in the business of teaching, coaching or directing youth? The clear answer is “to make a difference”, but be more specific. What kind of a difference did you want to make?
We come from a health and fitness background, so we want to see young people obtain all of the benefits of physical activity. We know that physical activity alone, while continuing to eat like the average American teenager, is setting up future failure. We need to advocate for proper nutrition and eating.
What else affects the future of our youth? Regardless of your ultimate academic goals, reading will get you farther in life than not reading. This is a particular challenge in the highly technological world we live in.
And all of this thinking leads to character. Character determines choices and choices determine behavior. Behavior is not a direct line to outcomes, but it certainly trends in that direction. The future leaders of our communities, of our businesses, and our nation need a foundation that they can build on. We all know what happens to the house built on the sand. We need to be building on rock.
As we continue to think along this path, we direct our efforts to help make a difference in all of the areas we see as crucial to success in life. What do you think? Do you agree that these are foundational? What would you add? And how do you lay the foundation where you work?
