As students progress throughout their high school careers, it is easy for them to lose motivation and burn out quickly, especially when dealing with more advanced classes. That motivation has a direct link to the student’s grades and attendance. That is where the Specific Positive Feedback (SPF) tickets come in. These small slips of paper are swiftly being introduced to GHS as a way of driving students to participate more in class. Social studies teacher Alise Pape brought up the idea for the tickets.
“Lincoln East had a very similar system, and I saw the positive impact that it had on kids when they were recognized for doing the right thing,” Pape said.
Students may recall this ticket system from elementary and middle school due to its positive impact on students.
“It’s a fairly common MTSS practice based on positive behavior systems,” Vice Principal Theresa Huttmann said. “Lots of schools do it in a lot of different ways. Our MTSS team met, and one of our teachers, Alise Pape, talked about its positive impact on her last school and suggested that we try it here.”
Each teacher has received and will hand out three tickets every two weeks, which will align with the specific MTSS attribute the student accomplished: Giving Kindness, Staying Safe, and Practicing Accountability (GPS). The teacher will then sign their name on the back and leave a note explaining why the student received the ticket. The student can then place the ticket in a basket in the office to be officially entered in the bi-weekly raffle for GHS gear, gift cards and more.
“I wanted Gretna High School to have the reward system because I feel we, like, have so many students at Gretna High who are constantly making the right choice for themselves and those students don’t get enough attention or recognition from staff,” Pape said.
Every year, staff, students and parents take a survey. One of the questions on the survey is if GHS recognizes the positive behavior of kids, and according to Huttmann, it is one of the lowest answers. These tickets will finally address this and hopefully see a rise in positivity for that question on the survey.
But how do students feel about the tickets? Are they concerned about the coddling of soon-to-be college students, or do they find the tickets exciting and positive? Rhett Keiser was surprised and happy to receive an accountability ticket for paying attention to a lesson.
“I think the tickets are cool,” Keiser said. “I like how I get rewarded for my behavior and I enjoyed it because I got a chance for free stuff.”
The MTSS team hopes the positivity spread from the SPF tickets will continue for years to come.
