At the heart of The Titusville Academy’s curriculum is a school-wide behavioral and emotional management system, coordinated among all staff – from the executive director, to teachers, para-professionals and even office and custodial staff – in every school environment. You’ll often hear both staff and students reinforcing this by starting a sentence with “around here, we…”
Behavioral expectations are described and explained consistently and regularly, at the beginning of each year, each week, each day, and each new transition. Coordinated and scripted coping skills are offered to students allowing them to manage their decisions, behaviors and emotions in order to meet each school’s school-wide expectations.
Appropriate coping strategies are detailed on signs and posters throughout the school, and delivered verbally by the teaching staff on a daily, regular basis.
This proactive approach to managing behavior relies on a number of factors:
- Each student’s relationship with his/her educational staff,
- The effective and positive communication each staff person delivers to each student,
- Student understanding of the offered coping skills in order to assist them in maintaining school-wide behavioral expectations,
- The validating approach in communicating with students
- The follow-through among all educational staff in maintaining both rewards and consequences that result from each student’s decision to cope or not to cope.
This system ensures that each student is accountable for his/her decisions and assists students in developing the personal management necessary for future success.