What Is the Choose Well Program?
In this episode, educator Stephanie Feagin, and I (Mister Brown) talk about school culture, paradigm shifts, and explain what The Choose Well Program is.
The Choose Well Program and School Culture
[0:30] At it’s most basic, The Choose Well Program is about making better choices. Our motto is, “When you make better choices, you will live a better life, so choose well. Oh yeah!” We truly believe that message. The logical outcome of making better choices is that our lives will be better. Maybe not right away, but definitely over time.
“When you make better choices, you will live a better life, so choose well. Oh yeah!”
When I started The Choose Well Program, my focus was working with students. The focus has now shifted to impacting school culture. I can deliver a positive message to students all day, but it is more impactful when educators and families connect with the message as well.
When everyone in the school community is making better choices to live better lives, the whole school culture can be affected in positive ways. The Choose Well Program empowers everyone in a school community to make better choices every day.
What Is a School’s Culture?
[1:28] A school’s culture is the way that educators, families, and students interact within their school community. Everyone in a school community impacts the school culture. Janitors, bus drivers, yard duty, teachers, families, and students all relate to each other in different ways.
The Choose Well Program strives to include all of these people to work towards a positive school culture. Creating a positive school culture starts with building relationships between educators, families, and students.
All Means All
[2:12] The Choose Well Program is really successful in schools when we start with a gathering of all of the educators. All educators means everyone from the aides and lunch room staff to the teachers and administrators. I believe that if you have a job in a school you are an educator. It doesn’t matter if you are not a teacher, all educators have an impact on the students that they serve.
The Choose Well Program gathering of educators is usually done as professional development time. This usually means that all of the educators at a school or school district come together in one space at one time. I deliver a version of The Choose Well message to them, so that everyone knows what I am going to say to their students before I actually come and do assemblies with students.
The professional development is also a time to encourage educators and empower them in their professional and personal lives. I believe professional development with all of the educators, is vital to creating a positive school culture. It lets all of the educators know that first, they have value and that they matter to the school and to students lives. Second, it draws educators into a shared experience with the students at school.
When educators know and advocate for The Choose Well message to make better choices, the students will be even more motivated to make better choices. All educators can be a positive person in a student’s life. Stephanie Feagin has known yard duty and library personnel to form strong bonds with the students they work with.
SEL & PBIS Supplement
[5:55] Many schools use character development curriculum. There are many social and emotional learning (SEL) and positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) curricula. The Choose Well Program doesn’t come into schools in order to change the curriculum. Instead, it serves to come alongside what schools are already doing.
The Choose Well Program’s focus is always on positively impacting a school culture. It works to bring the educators, families, and students all together under the same message. The message of making better choices is a great fit for getting everyone to use the same language and have a shared experience.
"Never underestimate the power of a moment."
Through The Choose Well Program, I encourage educators to never underestimate the power of a moment. Any time we are interacting with students we have an opportunity to connect with them and to build them up. This isn’t something taught in curriculum, but it can be implemented in the education system. That is what SEL and PBIS are doing and that is what The Choose Well Program is doing too.
Bringing the Families Along
[7:40] Let’s be honest. A lot of the time schools do not communicate very well with parents about the SEL or PBIS curriculum that is being used. A student might be involved in a restorative circle and the parents are not informed about what that means. This lack of communication with families creates suspicion and mistrust between families and schools.
The Choose Well Program values bringing families into the school culture. We need to do a better job of communicating with families about what their students are learning.
Math, Language Arts, P.E. - these are obvious curriculum topics for most people. But SEL, PBIS, Second Step, and many others are foreign material to most families. When we don’t communicate with families, it makes them feel dumb and like they don’t matter when it comes to their students’ education. The Choose Well Program wants to change that practice.
I believe the Choose Well message can go along with any message. Positively impacting a school’s culture all comes down to what kind of choices educators, families, and students are making. After meeting with educators and visiting with students, The Choose Well Program can come in for a family engagement event.
A family night or literacy night are great ways to include a shortened message to families about choosing well. Games are played and food is served and now the whole school community has heard the Choose Well message. Now the whole school community has the same language and shared experience to move forward in building their positive school culture.
A Paradigm Shift
[12:05] There needs to be a paradigm shift in how schools interact with families and educate students. To positively impact a school’s culture, schools and educators can be the guides for empowering families and students to become the heroes of student education.
Maybe this looks like having family engagement events that are timed well with a school community. It’s looking at whether weekend events are better attended than week night events. Does offering a meal draw families into the school? Would having something like The Choose Well Program work to be a catalyst for family engagement? And maybe none of those things work, but something else can.
Being creative and looking at families and students as heroes in the education process is important for building up a positive school culture. Better accessibility to their students’ education, helps families feel connected and motivated to be invested in their kids’ education. Schools and educators can participate together and learning together with families to impact students’ lives.
Take Care of Yourself
[18:10] So far, we have talked a lot about how The Choose Well Program encourages family and student involvement in the education process. As I said in the beginning, I like to begin The Choose Well Program message in schools with speaking to educators. A good part of this professional development time is spent helping educators see that they need to take care of themselves.
“If my output exceeds my input my upkeep will be my downfall.”
Most educators that I meet, including Stephanie, are passionate about educating kids. They love what they do and they make a lot of personal sacrifices. It is great that we have people like this educating our kids, but they need to remember to take care of themselves too.
Bigger Than You
[19:05] One of my goals with The Choose Well Program is to help school administrators and staff respect each other. Sometimes it seems like there is a battle between different groups of educators. The reality is we are all on the same team. We all have the same end in mind, educating and equipping students for life. We may have different roles to play, but we all should work together to make a stronger school culture for the kids. No one is better than or worse than another based on the role they have at the school. This takes realizing that what we are a part of is bigger than any one of us. Sometimes we need to choose to disagree, but commit to cooperate.
“What you are a part of is bigger than you.”
If we all can say that we want the school culture to succeed, we must put our differences aside. We can choose to disagree, but commit to cooperate. This would be hugely impactful on students. Educators choosing to cooperate even when they disagree, models for students that they can do this as well. Students model what they see and hear.
“We can choose to disagree, but commit to cooperate.”
Building up a school culture is about including everyone in the school community. Educators, families, and students all have a role to play and should have a voice in the school culture. For The Choose Well Program, building up a positive school culture is a corporate effort. To really impact a school’s culture, everyone needs to be on the same page. Educators, families, and students need to understand the school’s goals and they all need to be invested in moving towards those goals. The Choose Well Program strives to do that.
