The PAX Good Behavior Game is a universal preventive intervention used by teachers and schools to teach self-regulation, self-management, and self-control in young people. The game is way to encourage good behavior in and out of the classroom by focusing attention on good behaviors.

Cambridge City School District has implemented the PAX Good Behavior Game at the Primary and Intermediate schools and is seeing the positive impact the PAX is having on students.

Most teachers find that implementing the game in their classroom and in the school improves the behavior of the students and allows them to spend more time teaching academics. 

More importantly, the game has a positive impact on students. They tend to be kinder, more supportive, and more encouraging to their classmates and more respectful to their teachers and other adults. 

According to the PAXIS Institute, research has shown that playing the PAX Good Behavior Game radically improves outcomes in schools including:

Statistics also indicate that students who learn the PAX Good Behavior Game are less likely to use drugs or alcohol or get into legal trouble.

A grant from the Mental Health and Recovery Services Board (MHRS) paid for the first level training of all of the Pre-K through fifth grade teachers in Cambridge. In addition, MHRS funded internal PAX Partners training, PAX Heroes training and PAX Community Partners training. 

Last year, in cooperation with AllWell Behavioral Health, the school district hired a PAX external partner to help develop the program at the Intermediate and Primary schools. The position is funded in part by Allwell Behavioral Health, Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the MHRS Board of Zanesville. 

The external partner helps the district develop the PAX Program further by developing in-house teams, modeling the various kernels and developing a level of sustainability within the staff to maintain a strong PAX program.

A strong PAX program means students feeling good about themselves. 

PAX is not a discipline program and it is not a class management program, although it can be beneficial in both of those areas. It is a strategy to increase positivity. The idea is for kids to feel positive about themselves.

Each classroom starts the school year by creating a PAX Vision. Teachers and students decide together what they want to see, hear, feel, and do more of, and what they want to see, hear feel and do less of.

It is extremely important for the kids to be involved in creating the vision. If the students come up with the ideas for the vision, they are more likely to believe it and follow it. The vision sets up expectations; not only what teachers want, but what the students expect from each other.

While PAX behaviors are encouraged at all the times, during the PAX Good Behavior Game, teachers watch the student’s behavior more closely. The game might be played for a minute or can extend to 45 minutes. Students may be divided into teams or may participate as a group.

The idea of the PAX Good Behavior game is to get through the predetermined time period with a minimum number of “spleems.” Spleems are behaviors the teachers and students want to see less of. The goal for a Good Behavior Game is to have three spleems or less. If a team or group has three spleems or less, they receive a reward.

Students are rewarded with a Granny Wacky Prize which is a short activity that encourages students to have a little fun. The prizes are pulled from a bag of Granny’s Wacky prizes or selected from the PAX app and can be something as simple as doing jumping jacks beside your desk.

Spleems are usually earned for inattentive behaviors like looking off into space, constantly getting up and moving, or fidgeting with an object that may cause a distraction to other students. The idea is to draw down inattentive behaviors and create more instruction time for teachers.

Other PAX kernels that are implemented are PAX Quiet where a teacher or student holds up the peace sign with their fingers. A teacher blows a harmonica – which is a more peaceful sound than a whistle – and the kids will get quiet and bring their attention to the teacher because it’s time to move on or the teacher has a direction to give.

PAX Sticks – popsicle sticks with student’s names on them -- are pulled from a jar to call on students to answer questions or sign up for classroom jobs, etc.

PAX Hands and Feet is a way to talk about what a student should be doing with their hands at certain times. For example, when walking down the hallway, hands should be at the student’s side and not touching the walls or other students.
Other kernels include PAX Voices, Beat the Timer, and PAX Okay/Not Okay. All PAX kernels lead to the Good Behavior Game.

After students complete the PAX Good Behavior Game, they spend a few minutes reflecting on the game by talking about how they did. They talk about things they did well and things they can do better. Because the PAX Vision is a living document, the students can decide to add to the vision or take things off the vision that they have been doing well.

The reflection time encourages students to self-regulate which helps teachers with time management and provides time for the positive reinforcement.

Another way students receive positive reinforcement in the PAX Good Behavior Game is with tootles.

A tootle is a positive note that lets a recipient know that someone noticed their good behavior.

A tootle tells students that they did a great job and that someone is proud of them. It is something that goes with them that they can have forever. When they are having a bad day, they can pull out their tootles and feel better about themselves.

Tootles are often given by teachers to students but can also be given by students to other students, by students to teachers, and by students to their parents or other community members.

While there are a number of benefits to the PAX Good Behavior Game, the biggest is that students learn to be PAX Leaders.

 

PAX Leaders are not elected by classmates or appointed by the teacher, any and every student is a PAX Leader.

 

All of our kids are PAX Leaders. Students to see themselves as PAX Leaders because they helped a friend, or helped a teammate win the game, or helped the teacher, or helped a brother or sister or somebody in the community.

If the PAX Good Behavior Game works, it permeates everything the student does in and out of school. Parents are encouraged to implement PAX at home. In fact, there are trainings available for parents, guardians, and community members, called PAX Tools, so they can learn how to implement PAX strategies at home and in the community.

PAX may begin as a program in our schools, but the goal is that it becomes a way of life. PAX equals peace, productivity, health and happiness; those are basics for living. They are objectives that everyone hopes for and works towards.