playworkIf you get outside to observe school recess today, what will yous come across? Are kids snickering when a student kicks the ball and misses or are they giving high-fives and saying, "Skillful chore, nice try!" Is the basketball game court filled with a sea of boys or are girls joining in also? How are conflicts resolved when information technology isn't clear whose turn is adjacent—past pushing and shoving or past using rock, paper, scissors?

And what does this recess environment say about your schoolhouse culture? Chances are, whatever you run across happening outside is besides happening inside. Students bring their negative or positive energy from recess dorsum into your school'south classrooms and hallways.

Here are three ways schools are improving their schoolhouse culture by partnering with Playworks, an organization that helps schools positively transform recess.
Adult engagement and clear expectations at recess can support a safe, healthy play environment.

i. Adults Actively Play Games with Students

Peter Wilson, the principal at Burbank Elementary in Hayward, California, used to describe schoolhouse recess as chaotic. "A lot of kids would get in trouble and get hurt." The school had a total of 118 suspension days in a twelvemonth due to discipline issues, and Wilson knew something had to be done. He and virtually 12 teachers and recess staff began monthly training and regular consultations with Playworks, and as a event, that number plummeted to just 44.

The trainings aren't your average professional development workshops. Adults have fun, actively learning in their tennis shoes by playing recess games and creating a recess action plan. The staff at Burbank Unproblematic got to practise the fun, playful strategies that they eventually modeled for students on the playground.

Adults didn't cease playing afterwards the trainings either—they proceed to take an active role in playing with students at recess. In fact, at Burbank Elementary, information technology's not only the schoolhouse recess staff that play games similar Helping Easily Tag or Switch. The assistant principal himself has become a regular participant in his school'south playground games.  Wilson leads by example; he positively impacts his school's civilisation by modeling the type of beliefs he hopes to see from both staff and students.

"I'd rather exit and exist nowadays outside, active and involved spending 15 minutes playing every solar day instead of spending 30–45 minutes suspending a kid," says Wilson. "Now, part of my job is to play with kids and teach them how to play instead of laying down the law."

Students playing wall ball at school recess.

2. Students Practice Empathy on the Playground

During school recess, Matthew Harris, principal of John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Daly Metropolis, California, used to observe his students fighting over everything from space on the blacktop to positions in line to who'due south friends with whom. While many of these conflicts started on the playground, they persisted in the classroom. This wasn't the school culture he wanted, so Harris decided to partner with Playworks to assistance students practice empathy at recess, with the hope that the life skills students used on the playground would transfer into classrooms.

Coach Wayne, JFK'southward Playworks site coordinator, helped school recess staff and students learn how to lead inclusive games, share their space, and resolve conflicts with roshambo (a.m.a. Rock-Paper-Scissors). He too trained junior coaches—fourth and 5th graders—to model positive behavior for younger students by leading inclusive games.

"Now, a educatee who used to be in my office constantly for getting into fights is one of the most proactive in asking other kids to join in," says Harris. "Kindness begets kindness; we've seen more students wanting to help out for the sake of existence helpful."

Harris has seen improvements that go beyond the school chiliad. When conflicts are resolved earlier students leave the playground, issues that have been lingering since recess don't interrupt teachers' lessons. In fact, a study by Mathematica Policy Inquiry and Stanford Academy shows that fourth dimension teachers spend transitioning students back to form afterwards recess decreased past 34% in schools that employ Playworks.

The positive changes at JFK, notwithstanding, didn't cease there—Harris says he's too seen a positive change in schoolhouse civilisation. "At the school level, promoting empathy creates an environment in which students feel safety, respected, and ready to learn."

three. Schoolhouse Recess Support Staff Feel Empowered

When you lot're edifice a positive school culture, call up your support staff. In Rochester City, New York, more than than 400 adults from across Rochester Schoolhouse Commune, including endless back up staff, partnered with Playworks to assist transform the school recess programs at their schools.

Only ane in three schools in the Rochester School District offered recess—nigh of those did not offer recess daily. The Greater Rochester Health Foundation decided to work with Healthi Kids, a customs-based grassroots coalition that encourages daily play, to revamp the district'south health policy with a goal of ensuring that every child receives 20 minutes of school recess every twenty-four hour period.

This meant that many of the commune's lunch aides had to be trained to monitor recess. The Playworks trainers inspired everyone who participated in their workshops, from teachers to recess supervisors to lunch aides, to all take an active function as teachers on the playground to make a divergence in the lives of the students.

"I think my favorite story that came out of the workshops was listening to the lunch aides. They learned that they are really teachers too," said Erick Stephens from Healthi Kids. "No ane had ever told them that before. Playworks empowered them to await at their jobs from a different perspective and for them to say, 'Yeah I practice thing, I do make a departure in the lives of these children.'"

Exist sure to download your free Recess Heroes Posters to promote positive play at your school by hanging them in your lunchroom or the hallway leading out to the playground!

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