Ask me anything about Elevate.
Teachers, principals, and parents send questions. I answer them here, in public, so the next person with the same question doesn’t have to ask.
Common questions
These are the questions that come up every time I talk about this — written and answered by me. Scroll down to add your own.
When will it work?
The honest answer? It will work when you believe it — and your students are going to push back before they get there.
If you have a kid of your own, you already know this is normal. I could tell my son that is a beautiful blue sky, and he would argue it is really more of a light grey.
Quick story. Every time we went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant, we would order cheese dip. We always said, son, give it a try, it is great. And then we would try it, make a big deal about it, and see if he would buy in.
He did not. For like, years.
We were guilty of eating out more than we should, so he probably ate at that restaurant about 8–10 times a year. After he said no, we said okay. And continued to eat it. He would say I want something to eat. And we would say there is chips and cheese dip right here, son. If the plain chips are not enough, you should really try the dip. He would say no. Maybe ate a chip or two, but really just enjoyed his sweet tea while he waited for his food.
Until finally one night. We went to dinner. Ordered the same drinks, cheese dip, etc. Cheese dip comes and my son picks up a chip and asks if he could try some dip. He did. And he loved it.
Folks, this is natural pushback. People who do not want something — do not want it.
So how do you handle the buy-in time? You grind it out. You keep giving them the option of having a great time, your attention, and your love.
A lot of us are teaching some of the brightest teens in conditions that are barely livable. Some of us are walking through golden halls — teachers lounges at every corner, copies for days, fully staffed. But either way, you still must allow those young people to buy in to your ideas.
Those that do not receive love might not know how to respond at first. So it is fight or flight — and my kids ain’t flying anywhere. So they will fight against it.
They will buy in when they buy in.
Isn’t starting every student at 100% just being soft on them?
No — and this is the objection I hear first, every time. Elevate has no fewer expectations than a strict room. Phones away, follow directions the first time, carry your share of the group work, treat people right. None of that moved.
What changed is where the effort goes. A strict room spends its energy proving the rules are real. Elevate spends it proving the student is. Kids will work for someone who they believe is on their side, and they will not work for someone they think is waiting to catch them. Respect up front isn’t a discount on the standard — it’s what buys you the right to hold the standard.
What happens when a student keeps going after the third step?
The third step isn’t a last chance — it’s a conversation, and the conversation can happen more than once. When I pull a student aside and ask what’s going on, I usually find out something I didn’t know. That answer changes what comes next.
If a student is genuinely disrupting other people’s learning after all that, the school’s discipline policy still exists and I still use it. Elevate doesn’t replace your referral process. It just makes sure a referral is the last tool I reach for instead of the second.
Can I start this mid-year with a class that’s already gotten away from me?
Yes, and honestly that’s when the “yesterday was yesterday” part does the most work. You tell them plainly: whatever this class has been up to this point, it’s done. You start today at 100%.
Expect them to test it. A class that has learned you’re keeping score will spend a couple of weeks checking whether you actually dropped the scorecard. That’s not failure, that’s the process. Give it at least 30 days before you judge whether it’s working — and give yourself some grace in the meantime.
How is this different from PBIS?
It isn’t opposed to PBIS — it sits inside it comfortably. The difference is that most PBIS rollouts I’ve seen become a points economy: kids earn tickets, tickets buy prizes, and within a month the kids who need it least are hoarding tickets and the kids who need it most have stopped trying.
Elevate has no currency. Nothing to earn, nothing to lose, nothing to track in a spreadsheet. The reinforcement is specific, spoken recognition of a named behavior, delivered while the behavior is still happening. If your school runs PBIS, this is the teacher-level practice that makes the framework actually land in a room.
Do I have to buy anything, print anything, or track points?
No. There is no chart, no app, no clip system, no tickets, no store. That’s deliberate — anything that takes tracking gets abandoned by November.
The only paper involved is a reflection sheet for after a rough moment, and that’s optional. Everything else is language and habit.
Does this work in high school, or is it an elementary thing?
I built it in 9th and 10th grade. Older students are actually the harder case and the better proof — a sophomore can smell performative praise from across the room, which is exactly why the specificity rule matters so much. “Good job” gets you an eye roll. “You changed your mind when he showed you the source — that’s the whole skill” gets you a kid who sits up.
The principles carry down to elementary fine. The wording gets simpler, the traits stay the same.
My school already has a discipline framework. Does this conflict with it?
Almost certainly not. Elevate is about what a teacher does in the first three minutes of a problem — before anything reaches a form, an office, or a policy. Your framework governs what happens after that, and it stays exactly where it is.
When I work with a building, the first thing we do is map Elevate onto the expectations you already have posted, in your language. You shouldn’t be running two systems.
How do I recognize a quiet kid who never does anything wrong — or anything notable?
That student is the reason the seven traits exist. Listening, flexibility, and cooperation are invisible in a gradebook and easy to miss all year. A kid who never causes a problem can go from August to May without hearing their name said warmly once.
So watch for it on purpose. “You adjusted when the group changed direction and you didn’t complain about it — that’s a real skill.” Thirty seconds, said quietly, means more to that student than it does to anyone else in the room.
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