Bus Buddies
Hebron-Harman Elementary School creates a caring school community by using fifth grade students as bus helpers to aid the primary students to board their buses safely. Each fifth-grade teacher chose two students from each bus to participate in this program. Through this experience, these students develop a strong sense of responsibility. They cooperate with students, teachers and bus drivers and provide useful assistance to younger students by helping to make sure they get to the correct bus. Having a role as a peer helper, these students practice kindness and cooperation with younger students by helping them on the bus as needed (e.g., reminding a student who is exiting of a forgotten book bag), mediating student disagreements, and assisting the bus driver during bus drills, or as needed. The school provides regular feedback to these peer helpers about their ‘job performance’ so they can celebrate their successes and learn the areas they can improve upon.