Alumnus' creative social skills program helps area students excel

Like most elementary schools, the hallways of Elmwood Elementary School in Mechanicsburg are brightly decorated with student artwork, projects such as hand-drawn maps of Pennsylvania and creatively illustrated biographies of notable people. Interspersed with the student-created
decorations are posters with simple advice for students about how to share, how to ask for what you want, and how to stay on task. These posters reflect a well-developed program spearheaded by Mitch Baum, school counselor at Elmwood Elementary School, as a means to improve student productivity and discourage misbehavior.

Several months ago, a Harrisburg Patriot-News article about how Elmwood was teaching students the importance of healthy social skills and peer recognition shone a spotlight on Baum, a 1991 graduate of Messiah College, for his work coordinating and administering the successful programs. While Baum humbly deflects the praise to a whole team of teachers and
administrators at Elmwood, he admits that social skill instruction has made a significant difference at his school.

In a school of nearly 450 students representing a variety of physical, emotional, social, and behavioral needs, Elmwood identified school-wide instruction about a variety of social skills as a means of easing some of the discipline problems that the school was facing. Baum, who helps train new teachers in the district in The Well- Managed Classroom program from which the Social Skill of the Week idea evolved, explains, “When you teach kids social skills, it helps them be more productive in school.”

The Social Skill of the Week is introduced to the students during the Monday morning announcements. The fifth graders responsible for videoing and recording the announcements talk about the skill and why it’s important, and then encourage students to practice the skill throughout the week. Each week a member of the teaching staff is designated as the mystery person responsible for monitoring how well students are practicing the skill. On Friday mornings, the mystery person reveals his or her identity and also announces the names of 3–5 students who they saw excel at demonstrating the week’s skill. Those students are then eligible for tickets, which can eventually earn them a prize.

Baum notes that many students are motivated by the praise of their teachers and the possibility of winning a prize, so they work to demonstrate the Social Skill of the Week. This program, adapted from Girls and Boys Town and explained in the teacher training program, The Well- Managed Classroom, is especially successful at Elmwood. And, since being featured in the Patriot-News, Baum has spoken with other local counselors and professionals anxious for more information about the positive impact of the program.

In addition to helping administer social skills instruction, Baum also facilitates the Elmwood All-Stars, a peer-recognition program that provides opportunities for students to publicly compliment classmates by writing individualized, short notes which are posted on classroom doors. Students
praise each other for good manners, academic and athletic achievements, and simple acts of kindness. “The program focuses on students’ achievements, attributes, and actions,” says Baum about the All-Stars. Teachers recognize students as well in a separate Local Heroes program.

Baum is the only counselor at Elmwood Elementary School. Daily he interacts with students for a variety of reasons, but, overall, Baum notes his strong desire to be a helper as the impetus to choose counseling as his vocation. His undergraduate work as a behavioral science major with social studies teaching certification, as well as his proceeding years as an admissions counselor at Messiah laid a positive foundation for his graduate work at Shippensburg, which has led to 12 years of being a school counselor.

Baum lives in Mechanicsburg with his wife, Sally, a nurse in the Engle Center for Counseling and Health Service at the College and a ’91 alumna, and their two boys—Nathan, 10, and Jonah, 6. The Baum family actively participates in a variety of programs at West Shore Evangelical Free Church, and they enjoy frequenting HersheyPark in the summer months.