At the annual promotion ceremony, in 2022 on the Wednesday before Christmas, seven Instituto Michelle Tavares students received more than well-deserved promotions to new belts or new stripes on old belts. These seven won trophies for the inaugural IMTAV Values Awards, for being the ones their classmates determined to best represent one of seven qualities of character.

During the week separating Christmas and New Year’s Eve, the Values Awards winners took no rest to enjoy their laurels. Then they roared straight into 2023, sweating up the mat with the same aplomb that earned them their peers’ respect during the year now in the rear-view mirror.

“The problem was, many of the kids didn’t know the words that describe the behaviors I needed from them for class time to be more productive.”

Michelle Tavares, on the idea that led to Values Awards’ creation

Trophies for Teaching—more than for Rewarding

After delivering belt promotions one by one, on December 21, 2022, Institute founder Michelle Tavares announced the names that appeared most on take-home ballots that students filled out with their families. Under the name on each trophy, printed bold in caps, was one of seven categories:

• DISCIPLINE
• RESPECT
• COMMITMENT
• COOPERATION
• HUMILITY
• COURAGE
• EFFORT

Michelle added a further three categories of trophy in gratitude to adult collaborators who are central to Instituto Michelle Tavares being what it is today:

• LOYALTY—Audrey
• BENEVOLENCE—Monalisa
• HONOR—José Luiz Vianna

Vocabulary of Behavior Modification

“I needed certain types of behavior from the kids to make class time productive,” Michelle replied, when asked about the ideation process that led to the Values Awards. “The problem was, many weren’t familiar with the meanings of the behaviors I wanted from them.

“It wasn’t fair for me to ask them to cooperate or treat each other with respect if they didn’t understand what ‘cooperate’ or ‘respect’ means. The Values Awards was a solution for teaching the words that describe what it means to be cooperative, or respectful, or to make an effort.”

Homework for the Whole Family

Anonymously, without identifying the one filling out the form, students, along with family members who helped them at home, went one by one down the list of values, identifying which of the peers they believed to best embody each of the seven categories.

The exercise in thought produced awareness of the concepts Michelle hoped to convey. And the result was more far-reaching than she had anticipated.

“One girl said her mother got stuck when they got to the word ‘cooperation,’” Michelle reported. “So she taught her mother what it means to cooperate.”

Surprise Results, Expected Winners

What impressed her, Michelle says, was that not one of them had been excluded: everybody’s name was mentioned at least once in one of the seven categories.

Michelle was further impressed that, by her estimation, the students were thoughtful and objective about whom they picked: “They showed no personal favoritism.”

The winners, for each category, were no different from who they would be had Michelle been the one picking them herself.

“They were fair.”

CHECK BACK with the IMTAV blog to meet the Values Awards winners and learn more about Instituto Michelle Tavares.