I want to start by saying, I was not compensated for my article review… meaning, this is a totally honest review of an awesome product! I feel this is very helpful to school counselors and staff. So, I want to personally promote this product and this wonderful lady!

Do you ever have issues with bus behavior?
If your answer is a resounding…. YES!

I feel your pain! This is hands down, one of the biggest problems we face at our school.
I also know that most of these bus issues go to our principals to sort out… and not me, the school counselor!
However, what if I said we could help out? What if… character has a huge impact on bus behavior? Then… would we be able to make a difference? You better believe it!

Character & Bus Behavior

I want to introduce you to a wonderful lady named, Gina Crump.

Gina is a veteran educator and former school counselor, who came up with the brilliant idea that character and bus behavior do, in fact, go together! She began developing an interest in working with drivers to solve the issues that were affecting the students on the school bus. She decided to take her expertise in a new direction and took a position as a staff development trainer for a statewide character education program.

After talking with hundreds of educators she quickly found that schools who made the biggest impact on the lives of their students, did so by encouraging all adults who worked with children, including the bus drivers, to be positive role models and to focus on using character traits such as respect and responsibility. She holds the belief that the same expectations for good behavior and strong character in the school building should carry over to the school bus. However, she also understands that drivers can’t be expected to follow through with this expectation without support and training.

Character Curriculum for Bus Drivers

Realizing all of this, Gina developed a character education curriculum specifically for bus drivers and teaching kids to Respect the Ride®, by taking responsibility for their own behavior on the school bus. She started by taking on the task of getting her CDL license in order to fully understand the struggles that school bus drivers face. She then purchased a 1997 Bluebird, which she named Zoe! This is where ZoeBus®was born! Zoe became a high-tech modified school bus, equipped with TV monitors and a sound system, for students to engage in character lessons about respecting the ride and promoting bully prevention.

So like I said before, character and bus behavior are linked… but to make the biggest impacts, bus drivers need the proper training and support. Gina has taken it a step further and created a student behavior training tool for your bus drivers!

This DVD is designed to be used in Safety Meetings or viewed by individual drivers (new or veteran), this DVD includes 7 short episodes that cover basic tips on building relationships with students and how to proactively manage behavior on the bus.

Here is a sneak peek of this wonderful material…

This DVD Training includes:

• Practical ideas for managing behavior proactively
• 7 three-minute episodes
• Discussion questions at end of each episode
• Option to run all 7 episodes on a continuous loop

You can find this DVD on ZoeBus.org.

Want Even More?

She is also super supportive and devotes her own personal time to go live on Facebook every Monday night… it’s called Monday Minute with ZoeBus. She talks about modifying behaviors on the bus, setting clear expectations, being proactive with bus management + Much More!

You can connect with her on Facebook by clicking here.

Even though we are not in charge of transportation, as school counselors, Gina shows us that our character initiatives reach farther than our buildings. When we can be a resource and promote positive student behaviors… we need to!
Please, take some time and share this article with others at your school. Let them know there is support out there for bus drivers and good bus behavior can be expected.

Let me know what you do for bus behavior by commenting below. As always, I hope this can be helpful to your staff and students.