LYNN — Perseverance paid off Tuesday for a group of Brickett Elementary School students.
As part of Lynn Public School’s district-wide initiative to follow the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) model, Brickett has held monthly assemblies since last year showcasing students who have best demonstrated each month’s core values in the classroom.
Tuesday, the school recognized students who portrayed the February core value, “perseverance,” the best, said Principal Shirley Albert-Benedict.
“So there’s a lot of research actually, that supports the PBIS model, which is … (a system) providing kids with lessons about why certain things are important and how to behave in school, and also rewarding them and giving them feedback whenever they do something that’s expected behavior,” School Social Worker Elizabeth Goldmann said. “So, there’s a lot of pieces of the PBIS plan, but the assembly is really important so that we can have the kids be recognized. It gives them something to work towards and motivates them.”
Albert-Benedict said that each teacher picks a student from his or her class who best demonstrated the core value as the “Student of the Month.” During Tuesday’s assembly, each student chosen received a certificate and a large round of applause from fellow students.
After February’s awards were given out, Goldmann and Albert-Benedict introduced the school to March’s core value of “acceptance.”
Goldmann asked the student audience what they believed acceptance meant. One student said acceptance is, “when something doesn’t go your way, you have to accept it.”
Another student raised the question, “you know how sometimes people just don’t like to play a lot? You can accept that, because they don’t have to do what you say.”
One final student contributed his ideas on acceptance, saying, “Acceptance is, if you get something that you don’t like, instead of saying, ‘I don’t want this,’ you can say, ‘thank you, I like this.’”
Goldmann agreed with every student who provided opinions on the matter and shared her own.
“It’s like when someone’s different from you. They have different hobbies or they wear different clothes than you might; or they’re from a different part of the world and you’re not from there. You can accept them, and make them part of our Brickett family,” Goldmann said.
Two fifth-grade students, along with Goldmann, acted out two skits showing the difference between non-acceptance and acceptance. The first skit showed one of the girls not wanting to be friends with another girl due to their differences. In the second skit, the girl demonstrates acceptance, being happy to become friends with someone new, no matter their differences.
“We go to school in a community that’s full of many different people. People (who) are not always the same; they may speak a different language, they may come from a different country, they may have different ideas; and we accept everybody and make everyone feel welcome,” Goldmann said.
February students of the month include Kindergarten students: Jhuliette Cabrera, Nali Rodriguez, Hunter Lee, Aryia Quintana, Hunter Gorcheck; First-grade students: Joel Perez Lopez, Phatima Vicente Hernandez, Besenty Banatu-Gomez, Sebastian Ortiz Caraballo, John Mendez Garcia; Second-grade students: Anthony O’Neil, Lia Aquino, Brayden Barthelmes, Liam Grant, Magali Perez Lopez; Third-grade students: Avin Castro, Xander Pena, Christopher Joseph, Josiah Maiy-Ly, Yesenia Chilel Chilel, Greyson Lee; Fourth-grade students: Jael Hernandez, Leslie Vazquez Licona; and Fifth-grade students: Maryam Guelman, Abel Searle, Rasheiliz Mejia Nunez, Llimy Deleon Lopez.
