1/21/22 - Friday Forget-Me-Nots by Jim Silcott

Photo Caption: Our Tiger Tributes!

Dear Our Lady of Peace Family,

For the last four years teachers and staff have been catching students doing good things and awarding them a Tiger Tribute for their efforts. It is a good way to acknowledge our students and reinforce good behavior and making good choices during the day.

The Tiger Tribute is about half the size of a small business card. On the back are listed Gospel values: Community, Servant Leadership, Respect, Gratitude, Humility and Understanding, Wellness, Patience and Perseverance, Diligence, and Integrity. Teachers or staff members write the student’s name on the back of the card and circle the value which the student has demonstrated.

Children bring their tributes to my office. It is a nice way to make the principal’s office not just a place to go when you are bad but as a reward for being good. The younger students come in beaming when they hand me their card. The older students don’t beam (I don’t know too many young teenagers who beam much!) but they still have a sense of pride in being recognized by an adult. Younger students proudly tell me what they did to achieve their tribute. Older students usually just say “I don’t know,” but I suspect they really do. The less conversation with a principal the better even when relaying good news for our young adolescents.

Sometimes the tables are turned and students award a teacher with a Tiger Tribute which is great. The teachers do a lot of beaming when that happens!

The daily tributes are place in Guido’s chef hat and each week I draw about five tributes out to award prizes. First prize is usually a $10-$25 dollar gift card for food or to Target or another store. The other four prizes are various small boxes of candy. Some students have won multiple times, some students never but all have an equal chance at winning. It would be nice to award every student who garners a tribute but there is always some excitement as I draw the cards out of the hat and announce the winners.

At the end of each quarter I place all of the Tiger Tributes into a box to do one grand prize: a $100 gift card. In the days before that drawing I usually get older students turning in tributes that they have been hoarding so that they can have multiple chances to win the big prize.

All of the prize expense for the Tiger Tributes are funded by an anonyomous donor so this recognition program doesn’t cost the school any money. 

The old school person inside me sometimes chides this principal for rewarding good behavior. But then I find myself chiding that old school fellow back. We certainly ding students for being bad. This is an opportunity to praise them for being good. 

Beginning in February students will have the chance to give a Tiger Tribute to a family member; a parent, grandparent or sibling. They will have to circle the Gospel value being exhibited and we will do a separate drawing for those outside of our student body. So, if you want a chance to win a prize pick one of the values above and model it for your child! 

Jim Silcott