The Dean of Students' goal is to improve interpersonal relationships
After just two months of direct contact with high school students, parents and teachers, Pauljames Bekanich has become well-known in school. Ever since he arrived, the new Dean of Students can be seen interacting with students at different times and places in school. At the cafeteria or at the library, he is surrounded by students, helping them organize after-school groups, discussing topics for activities or even talking about homework assignments, for example
When describing his responsibilities at Chapel, Pauljames explains that he uses strategy and tactics to refine - or, in some cases, improve - the rapport among students, and between students and teachers, observing individual and group needs, creating solutions, implementing them, and following up to see if the goals were achieved.
The educator illustrates his work methods with an everyday occurrence, like students who cause a commotion when they arrive late, and explains how solutions can be created to address these issues. In this case, he infers that the student who is late is stealing time from his own learning experience, that is, he is cheating himself. Thus, the student will need to make up for lost time.
The idea for the Responsibility Center being set up at Chapel came from this, but is not a reward. The goal is for the student to notice that doing positive things for himself and for the group will lead to repeating these attitudes throughout his life.
"Students can understand and solve many behavioral problems through rational conclusions, when everything is fair and makes sense," asserts Pauljames Bekanich.
There is no doubt that Chapel is well-placed in the international ranking of best schools and that its students are, therefore, well trained academically, but Pauljames says "that is not all that matters." A few days ago, at gym where he works out, he started up a conversation in English with another jiu-jitsu practitioner. After complimenting the young man on his fluency in English, he was surprised to find out that the fellow had learned English at a school in Granja Julieta. When Pauljames Bekanich told him he taught in Granja Julieta at a school called Chapel, he saw the young man's eyes shine as he said with heartfelt emotion: "I studied at Chapel, (it's) my second home; I loved studying there and have excellent memories of the school."
Pauljames Bekanich knows that even though the methodology, which requires following up on students individually, meeting with parents and talking to teachers, may not yield immediate results, it will be imbued in the students for life. "They might not remember the exact words they heard, but they will remember the attitudes that were instilled," he concludes.