Educator Insights

The first week of school plays a crucial role in shaping how students will engage, behave, and feel all year long. It’s the prime opportunity to define expectations, establish routines, and begin building the classroom culture you want to sustain all year.

Research shows that routines and structure improve learning by reducing anxiety and creating a sense of safety and belonging (The Iris Center, n.d.). But structure alone isn’t enough. When paired with character education, those routines help students connect classroom expectations to real-world values, such as respect, responsibility, and kindness. By learning to act in alignment with shared values, students build both a supportive classroom community and essential life skills that prepare them for success in relationships, future workplaces, and managing responsibilities at home.

This article outlines a five-step structure for the first week of school that blends behavioral psychology with character education—while using tools like the Be Kind Token Economy Plan, available in The BE KIND Academy™ Classroom Management Resources, to build engagement and accountability from day one.

When students help shape the classroom environment, they become more invested in maintaining it. Even something as simple as student choice in seating arrangements makes a dramatic difference in student engagement (Travis, 2017). Use the first week to co-create your class’s norms and expectations through simple collaborative activities.

Here’s one way to do it:

1. Invite students to brainstorm class rules that reflect The BE Kind Pledge™ skills.
2. When a rule is proposed, the class discusses it together.
3. If everyone agrees, the rule is added to a classroom poster that will stay up all year.
4. If someone disagrees, they respectfully share their reasoning, and the class works toward a compromise or modification that everyone can accept.
5. You can also hold a final vote after revisions to determine if the rule truly reflects the classroom’s shared values.

This process models real-world decision-making and reinforces the interpersonal skill of respectful dialogue. It also sets up the Token Economy Plan (see Step 4) to be more meaningful because students have helped define what behaviors are worth rewarding.

Before students can demonstrate positive behaviors, they need to know what they look like in action. Take time each day during the first week to introduce one of The BE Kind Pledge™ skills, clearly explaining what that skill means in your classroom.

Use a variety of strategies to teach and remind students, such as:

• Role play: Act out a common scenario with one skill (e.g., how to apologize with honesty)
• Class discussion: Ask students what a skill feels like on the giving or receiving end
• Visual anchors: Post examples of the skill around the room or link it to classroom rules

Include examples students can relate to, such as:

• Admitting a mistake models Be Honest
• Offering to help a classmate clean up at the end of the day models Be Helpful
• Sincerely saying “thank you” after someone explains how to solve a problem models Be Thankful

Link the behaviors to your classroom rules and routines so students see how these values are part of everyday classroom life, not just abstract ideals.

If you follow the Pledge Skill of the Month program, this step is a great opportunity to go deeper! You’re not limited to teaching just that skill—instead, explore how it interacts with the others. If February’s focus is Be Considerate, connect it to:

• Be Supportive – recognizing when someone needs space or help
• Be Helpful – taking action to assist without being asked
• Be Respectful – considering how your actions affect others
• Be A Friend – showing empathy and including others

This layered approach helps reinforce that all 10 Pledge Skills matter all the time, not just during their assigned months. It also builds critical thinking and values-based reflection by helping students understand how character skills work together in real life.

Looking for more ideas to teach each skill?

Explore The BE KIND Break™ for quick, classroom-ready activities that align with each Pledge Skill, or dive into The BE KIND Academy™, which houses a full library of interactive lessons, videos, games, and resources across all grade levels and content areas. Each activity is aligned to at least one of the 10 Pledge Skills, so you can find meaningful, age-appropriate ways to reinforce these values all year long.

Once students have helped shape the classroom rules and seen character skills in action, the next step is reinforcement—and this is where the Token Economy Plan comes into play.

What is a token economy?

A token economy is a behavioral reinforcement system in which students earn symbolic “tokens” (stickers, points, check marks, or other small indicators) for displaying specific target behaviors. These tokens can later be exchanged for a reward—like a classroom privilege, small prize, or recognition opportunity. This system increases the likelihood that students will repeat the behavior, especially when the expectations are clear and the rewards are motivating.

According to behavioral research, token economies are highly effective because they:

• Offer immediate feedback for desirable behaviors, which helps shape behavior in the moment
• Allow for delay of gratification, teaching students self-regulation as they work toward a goal
• Can be tailored to individual or group needs, making them scalable across developmental levels and learning profiles
• Foster a sense of accomplishment by connecting everyday behaviors to longer-term rewards

As noted in the literature, token economies are especially effective in classrooms because they “build behavioral momentum” by creating a consistent, structured way to notice and respond to positive actions (EBSCO, n.d.).

In classroom settings, token economies are most effective when they help students make connections between the behaviors they’re practicing and the kinds of rewards or consequences they’ll encounter outside of school. Novak and Hammond (1983) identified two strategies—self-reinforcement and natural contingencies—that support long-term behavior change. These strategies allow students to internalize expectations and notice how their actions naturally lead to certain outcomes, such as earning trust, being invited to participate in group activities, or being seen as dependable.

In a classroom study, the group that combined token reinforcement with both self-reinforcement and natural contingencies showed the strongest long-term gains—even after token rewards were removed. This suggests that students are more likely to maintain positive behaviors when they understand the why behind them and begin to experience real-world reinforcement from peers, teachers, and their environment (Novak & Hammond, 1983; Kazdin, 1982). Framing classroom rewards this way not only increases student buy-in, but also helps shift motivation from external tokens to meaningful internal and social outcomes.

Many teachers unintentionally create reward systems that highlight only a few standout students. The first week is your chance to build a culture where every student feels seen.

Using the Token Economy Plan, you can track both high-visibility and quieter acts of kindness. A student who cheers on a classmate deserves as much praise as one who aces a quiz. During daily or weekly reflection time, ask questions like:

• “Who did you notice being kind today?”
• “What’s something helpful someone did that others may not have seen?”
• “What’s a behavior that made our class better this week?”

These questions reinforce intrinsic motivation and help shift classroom culture away from performance and toward community contribution.