Mistakes are often the greatest teacher.

At Bennett Elementary School, when students make behavioral mistakes, administrators view these as teachable moments—opportunities to help students understand the greater impact of their actions. Using a process known as Character Connections, the staff members are having remarkable success in fostering a positive climate and culture at the school.

“Character Connections is a movement that we use in our school to support students who have made mistakes,” said Shelley Pohzehl, principal of Bennett Elementary. “We use Character Connections and an accountability project to help children reflect on their actions, think about who was impacted by their behavior, learn from it, and then make amends and heal the broken relationship.”

Character Connections is not a replacement for consequences. It is used for more minor missteps in behavior, ensuring that students learn from their mistakes in a constructive manner. For more serious infractions, students are disciplined as outlined in the Code of Behavior. This balanced approach helps students understand the importance of accountability while also providing them with the support they need to grow. 

Because expectations for behavior at the school are clear, the Character Connections process is only initiated when a teacher issues a student referral for additional behavioral support.

“We go and visit the student and do our investigation to determine what type of error it was,” Pohzehl said. “Sometimes it’s something that can be resolved very quickly and sometimes it is a situation where the child needs an opportunity to learn from their situation and also to fix that relationship.”

Character Connections uses consequences, such as staying after school or missing fun parts of their school day, to begin the behavioral change process. Next, trained staff and administrators provide students with coaching sessions to discuss the details of what happened before, during, and after the behavioral incident. The most powerful part of the process, however, occurs in the student’s reflection of their behavior’s impact.

The last part of the Character Connections process involves learning from their mistakes through a research project. Students learn to articulate their behavior, its impact, and why it was wrong.

“We had a group of students in fifth grade a couple of years ago who mistreated substitutes. So, as they stayed after school with me, we made an interview list of questions and they interviewed three substitutes to ask them why they substitute,” shared Pohzehl.

 “One of the ladies responded and said that they loved being with kids and they want to be here to help children. That made such an impact on the children that they did not repeat that behavior afterwards.”

After creating their research projects, students share them with fellow students, parents, staff, and those impacted by their behavior. This provides an opportunity for the impacted individuals to reconcile and heal the relationship that was strained by the student’s behavior.

“I like that you can learn from your mistake and take ownership of what you did,” said one fifth grade student who had completed the Character Connections process.

“It feels a lot more meaningful when you are presented with a project where the students have to talk about who they impacted,” said another student. “It’s a lot better than just hearing them say they’re sorry because you know they’ve had to think deeper about it.”

With the latest positive climate and culture survey data showing a more than 5% increase in ratings for employee satisfaction, feeling of safety at school, positive climate, sense of belonging, and reduction in bullying, Pohzehl can see that the program is working.

“We don’t have children missing out on learning because they know and accept and understand how it is to function in a community,” she said.