The Woonsocket School has implemented a new program to encourage students to exhibit strong character traits. The program called HAWKS, which stands for Helping All Willing Kids Succeed, is based on a teacher-nomination system and helps to choose a student of the month in three age brackets each month of the school year.

The process is simple. Any staff member can nominate a student with an explanation of why they chose that student as a nominee for student of the month. Students are chosen in the three groups according to grades K-4, 5-8 and 9-12. Then, at the end of the month, the names are put into a hat for each age group, and one is drawn as the student of the month. The kindergarten through fourth and fifth through sixth winners get to eat at a special table setup by the HAWKS committee one day a week for the whole month. The high school student of the month gets to park in the special parking spot for the month. Each winner also gets a free T-shirt with the sponsors listed on it, and at the end of each month, all the nominees have a little party and get to enjoy a smoothie from The Muddy Cup. 

The HAWKS committee is made up of teachers from each grade level and one administrator. The committee was created as part of the “school improvement plan.” Their hopes are that this program will not only improve students’ behavior in school but also in the community, thus it could be considered as part of a “community improvement plan,” as well. 

…See pictures of the last two Student of the Month groups in this week’s issue of the Sanborn Weekly Journal!