RIFLO Revamp Encourages Positive Behavioral Changes
New stickers and classroom posters remind students of Pioneer’s core values and expectations.
By Ariella Just Milender
New stickers and classroom posters remind students of Pioneer’s core values and expectations.
By Ariella Just Milender
As part of the 2022-23 school year campus goals, RIFLO stickers were introduced to Pioneer with the goal of reminding students and teachers of the campus’ core values.
The values, labeled with the acronym RIFLO, serve as a reminder to students and staff of what positive behavior looks like on Pioneer’s campus. R, which stands for Respect, motivates students to restrict cell phone usage to appropriate times, follow directions and use appropriate language while on campus. I, which stands for inclusiveness, encourages kindness and makes everyone feel welcome and known. The third value, marked by the letter F stands for Flexibility, which shares encouragement for being patient, persevering and adapting to situations. L then stands for Listening, which reminds students to listen actively and allow room for others to speak. The final value of Open-Mindedness, marked by the letter O, reminds students to practice awareness of unconscious bias and avoid assumptions and stereotypes.
“RIFLO was started as a way of rewarding positive behaviors, so it's part of a positive behavior intervention system and support system. It’s to highlight things that we’re seeing that we like on campus,” said Assistant Principal of Student Services Kiera Strockis.
In order to further integrate the core values, Pioneer’s climate committee decided to take it a step further, debuting the sticker program in the fall.
“(In the past) we would just give random referrals and then kids would get a piece of paper. So this year we wanted to take it up a notch and make it more public,” said Strockis. “I figured doing something every six weeks, like these certificates, would be more beneficial and then having something that could happen on the daily, like the RIFLO stickers, would be helpful too. So that it’s something that’s lived, not just something that we occasionally hear about and don’t fully understand.”
Once students receive all five stickers, which don’t have to all come from one teacher, students receive a special decal and are entered into a raffle for a gift card. Administrators are also planning to give out Mustang Way certificates every six weeks where teachers can nominate one to two students, who have shown the five values but have not gotten all five stickers yet, to get a certificate and a pizza party at lunch.
So far, the new program has been well received by teachers, such as math teacher Whitney Goodman, who has felt that RIFLO implements life skills to be used even further.
“I think RIFLO is a way to remind students how we’re supposed to behave in an academic setting, and not only that, but also in life in general, like being respectful, inclusive, flexible, a good listener and open-minded. Those things are just life skills, not necessarily that a single teacher can teach but just in general that we need to adopt into our lifestyle. I think that (the RIFLO stickers) bring it forward in our minds,” said Goodman.
History teacher Peter Glasser agrees that the stickers have been a positive way of implementing the values on campus.
“I love these stickers because I think they call attention to when people are doing good things and that’s the best way to learn to do good things,” said Glasser. “I think it’s super motivating to be recognized for doing something you’re doing well.”
Strockis also agrees that the feedback they have received from teachers so far is that the program has been working.
“Teachers have felt like there’s been a lot more open communication happening in a lot of their classrooms and kids are actually starting to use the RIFLO language which is really nice,” said Strockis. “They’re starting to call it out and they’re starting to use it with their teachers, which wasn’t really happening as much before.”
Although the stickers have gotten mostly positive feedback from staff, students have had mixed reactions. Sophomore Meaghan Donohue has found that the stickers have acted as an incentive for showing the core values on campus that students have really wanted.
“I think that (the stickers) encourage people to be respectful, inclusive, listen, and open-minded, said Donohue, “A lot of people want stickers so they’ll really work to get stickers.”
On the contrary, Senior Tegan Wicks has also felt as though the stickers haven’t been as effective as intended.
“I think the RIFLO stickers are a waste of resources,” said Wicks. “I do not believe the new stickers have helped promote the school's ideals because either the teachers don't know how to give them to students or the students don't care enough to receive them.”
As the program is fairly new to campus, many teachers have begun thinking of other ways to promote positive behavior.
“I would love to see a student-led RIFLO option. Right now it's on teachers to give out stickers, but what if there’s a box somewhere that says ‘Hey, you caught someone being inclusive’ or ‘you caught someone being respectful’ and just put a little note in with their name and how they showed it and have it be more student-led as opposed to teacher-led,” said Goodman.
The values, labeled with the acronym RIFLO, serve as a reminder to students and staff of what positive behavior looks like on Pioneer’s campus. R, which stands for Respect, motivates students to restrict cell phone usage to appropriate times, follow directions and use appropriate language while on campus. I, which stands for inclusiveness, encourages kindness and makes everyone feel welcome and known. The third value, marked by the letter F stands for Flexibility, which shares encouragement for being patient, persevering and adapting to situations. L then stands for Listening, which reminds students to listen actively and allow room for others to speak. The final value of Open-Mindedness, marked by the letter O, reminds students to practice awareness of unconscious bias and avoid assumptions and stereotypes.
“RIFLO was started as a way of rewarding positive behaviors, so it's part of a positive behavior intervention system and support system. It’s to highlight things that we’re seeing that we like on campus,” said Assistant Principal of Student Services Kiera Strockis.
In order to further integrate the core values, Pioneer’s climate committee decided to take it a step further, debuting the sticker program in the fall.
“(In the past) we would just give random referrals and then kids would get a piece of paper. So this year we wanted to take it up a notch and make it more public,” said Strockis. “I figured doing something every six weeks, like these certificates, would be more beneficial and then having something that could happen on the daily, like the RIFLO stickers, would be helpful too. So that it’s something that’s lived, not just something that we occasionally hear about and don’t fully understand.”
Once students receive all five stickers, which don’t have to all come from one teacher, students receive a special decal and are entered into a raffle for a gift card. Administrators are also planning to give out Mustang Way certificates every six weeks where teachers can nominate one to two students, who have shown the five values but have not gotten all five stickers yet, to get a certificate and a pizza party at lunch.
So far, the new program has been well received by teachers, such as math teacher Whitney Goodman, who has felt that RIFLO implements life skills to be used even further.
“I think RIFLO is a way to remind students how we’re supposed to behave in an academic setting, and not only that, but also in life in general, like being respectful, inclusive, flexible, a good listener and open-minded. Those things are just life skills, not necessarily that a single teacher can teach but just in general that we need to adopt into our lifestyle. I think that (the RIFLO stickers) bring it forward in our minds,” said Goodman.
History teacher Peter Glasser agrees that the stickers have been a positive way of implementing the values on campus.
“I love these stickers because I think they call attention to when people are doing good things and that’s the best way to learn to do good things,” said Glasser. “I think it’s super motivating to be recognized for doing something you’re doing well.”
Strockis also agrees that the feedback they have received from teachers so far is that the program has been working.
“Teachers have felt like there’s been a lot more open communication happening in a lot of their classrooms and kids are actually starting to use the RIFLO language which is really nice,” said Strockis. “They’re starting to call it out and they’re starting to use it with their teachers, which wasn’t really happening as much before.”
Although the stickers have gotten mostly positive feedback from staff, students have had mixed reactions. Sophomore Meaghan Donohue has found that the stickers have acted as an incentive for showing the core values on campus that students have really wanted.
“I think that (the stickers) encourage people to be respectful, inclusive, listen, and open-minded, said Donohue, “A lot of people want stickers so they’ll really work to get stickers.”
On the contrary, Senior Tegan Wicks has also felt as though the stickers haven’t been as effective as intended.
“I think the RIFLO stickers are a waste of resources,” said Wicks. “I do not believe the new stickers have helped promote the school's ideals because either the teachers don't know how to give them to students or the students don't care enough to receive them.”
As the program is fairly new to campus, many teachers have begun thinking of other ways to promote positive behavior.
“I would love to see a student-led RIFLO option. Right now it's on teachers to give out stickers, but what if there’s a box somewhere that says ‘Hey, you caught someone being inclusive’ or ‘you caught someone being respectful’ and just put a little note in with their name and how they showed it and have it be more student-led as opposed to teacher-led,” said Goodman.