Boosters and Breakers
Read a few Booster and Breakers for the virtue of the month. You can also challenge the students to create their own and send them to the office to be read the next day.
Boosters = things that help demonstrate the trait being studied.
Breakers = things that hurt the trait being studied.
Citizenship:
Boosters-
1. Obeying the rules of your home, school, and community.
2. Respecting those that help serve and protect our community.
3. Being a good neighbor and helping those that need it.
4. Being respectful of others, even if they are different than you.
5. Willing to help complete goals with people that you are not friends with.
Breakers-
1. Breaking rules.
2. Being selfish and doing what is good for you only.
3. Disrespecting authority figures and civil servants.
*you might need to define civil servants.
4. Excluding people because they don't look or think like you.
5. Damaging property that doesn't belong to you.
Compassion:
Boosters-
1. Seek ways to comfort people who may be hurting.
2. Help out others who are in need.
3. Sticking with someone in hard times even when you feel like giving up because it is too
much work.
4. Listening to friends who are having problems.
5. Sharing what you have with other people.
Breakers-
1. Making fun of people.
2. Refusing to say “I’m sorry”.
3. Telling lies about friends, family or other people in your life.
4. Losing control of your temper.
5. Flattering other people when you don’t really mean what you are saying.
Confidence:
Boosters-
1. Believing in yourself.
2. Getting up and continuing to do your best even when you fail.
3. Not listening to negative talk from people who tell you that you can’t do something.
4. Expecting to do well and you will.
5. See your mistakes as stepping stones to success.
Breakers-
1. Thinking negative thoughts about yourself and other people.
2. Believing that you are controlled by everyone else (friends, parents, teachers).
3. Dressing sloppily.
4. Calling yourself names like “stupid” or “ugly”.
5. Think you have to be perfect in everything.
Discipline:
Boosters-
1. Working diligently to achieve your goals.
2. Realizing that good things can come as a result of hard work.
3. Remember that other people can only stop yourself permanently.
4. Pursuing excellence in everything that you do.
5. Making good choices, even when no one is looking.
Breakers-
1. Not being willing to create or follow schedules.
2. Being late for classes or other appointments.
3. Putting forth only the minimal amount of effort required to do your schoolwork, chores,
4. Giving up tasks before they are completed.
5. Worrying about things you cannot control.
Friendliness:
Boosters-
1. Sharing
2. Letting others talk and hearing what they have to say.
3. Being a good sport.
4. Making efforts to feel like they belong.
5. Keeping private information private.
Breakers-
1. Blabbing or telling other’s secrets.
2. Trying to force people to be your friend.
3. Talking only about yourself.
4. Interrupting people when they are talking.
5. Thinking that popular people are better than everyone else.
Honesty:
Boosters-
1. Being brave and telling the truth even when the truth isn’t popular.
2. Admitting when you have made a mistake.
3. Understanding that lying can hurt you and others.
4. Remember that if you lie once, people will begin to not trust you.
5. Doing what you say you are going to do.
Breakers-
1. Lying to get out of trouble
2. Acting phony by exaggerating the truth to make yourself look better in the eyes of other
people.
3. Lying to yourself about yourself. Saying things like “I will never be able to do this” or “I
am stupid".
4. Borrowing things without intending to give them back.
5. Not doing the right thing because others around you are doing the wrong thing.
Perseverance:
Boosters-
1. Believing that when the going gets tough, the tough get going.
2. Knowing when you finish a task, the outcome will be worth the work.
3. Don’t give up on people when they make mistakes.
4. Getting up after falling down and trying again.
5. Know that the only thing that causes you to truly fail is that you would stop trying to do your
best.
Breakers-
1. Thinking that certain activities are not worth completing because they are difficult or take a
long time.
2. Losing focus of your goals.
3. Think that you already know everything you need to know to make it in the world.
4. Putting negative thoughts and ideas into your head.
5. Believing that everything good in life will just come to you without you working hard to get.
Respect:
Boosters-
1. Using the language of respect (like yes ma’am, no sir, thank you).
2. Having good manners.
3. Showing kindness to those different than you.
4. Looking people in the eye when you are speaking with them.
5. Choosing to stay off drugs and alcohol.
Breakers-
1. Being rude to others.
2. Being impatient with others.
3. Bullying others.
4. Excluding others from activities.
5. Letting someone else do all the work then trying to take all the credit.
Responsibility:
Boosters-
1. Showing up on time.
2. Using your time wisely.
3. Not blaming others when you make a mistake.
4. Take care of your belongings.
5. Following directions your teachers and parents give to you.
Breakers-
1. Neglecting your pets.
2. Complaining about fulfilling your obligations.
3. Not listening to instruction.
4. Being tardy to class or late for other important ideas.
5. Hoping someone else will do your work for you.
Service:
Boosters-
1. Doing your best to help other people even when things seem difficult.
2. Believing you can make a difference in people’s lives.
3. Remember that serving and helping others is a reward in itself.
4. Refusing to argue with others and trying to work things out in a sensible and calm way (this
takes a lot of practice!)
5. Going the extra mile when you are helping someone.
Breakers-
1. Being lazy.
2. Never volunteering to help out.
3. Never thinking about other’s needs, just your own.
4. Making fun of someone when they are struggling or are in trouble.
5. When people need help, only telling them what they can do do make it better, not actually
getting involved and helping out.
Tolerance:
Boosters-
1. Making friends with people who are different than you.
2. Giving people around you space to be different rather than rejecting them for their
differences.
3. Learning to identify your own weaknesses so you can be patient with others.
4. Strive to look past the way people look on the outside and look at what exists within their
hearts, minds and attitudes.
5. Remember that we all do things that can grate on other people’s nerves.
Breakers-
1. Thinking that you are better than those who are different than you.
2. Lashing out at others in anger.
3. Hanging out with a group of people who try to hurt others.
4. Calling someone names.
5. Forming the habit of being critical to others.
Trustworthiness:
Boosters-
1. Keeping promises and doing what you say you will do.
2. Keeping secrets, and knowing when a secret needs to be told.
3. Doing things that you are allowed to do, and not behaving inappropriately.
4. Being someone people can depend on.
5. Doing the right thing, because it is the right thing to do.
Breakers-
1. Telling the secrets of others after you said you wouldn't tell.
2. Acting uncontrollably or unpredictably.
3. Breaking promises.
4. Not caring if you do the right thing or not.
5. Constantly being off task.
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