Chris Jones is an inventor. He’s also an affable teacher who exudes positivity.
So when you put those two qualities together, you get the High Five Movement.
Jones, a biology teacher at Dos Pueblos High School, created an app he hopes will improve the social-emotional health of students, teachers, family members, janitors, secretaries, and others in the school community.
“Everybody is part of this,” Jones said. “Everbody needs positivity.”
The app allows anyone within the network to give each other a virtual high five. The focus, Jones said, is on giving high fives to students, and not receiving them.
There’s also a gratitude journal that allows students to list the things they are grateful for. A virtual classroom setup allows a teacher to review high fives and reward students for being generous.
“When you’re giving thanks to people, you actually get a seratonin and dopamine release in your brain,” Jones said.
Students can also check in at the beginning of the day and state their mood, which would allow teachers to know the emotional and mental state of a student before they even start class.
Jones said he’s been greeting his students at the door for years because it allows him to assess a student’s mood.
“You have some kids that walk by you every day and they don’t say anything,” Jones said. “Now, I can actually see how they are doing.”
Jones, who has been a teacher for 20 years, said over the years he’s observed many students exhibiting bad behavior and being mean to other kids.
“It took me a lot of years to figure out not to be punitive with that kid,” Jones said. He learned to take the kid outside and ask them about what’s going on in their life. Getting to know the student’s stituation and addressing the problem is a much more effective solution, he said, than telling the kid to “knock that off.”
If a student chooses a state of low enjoyment in the app’s mood meter, the teacher can ask the student if they want someone to check in with them.
“Now you have all these kids who might slip through the cracks normally, who are just quiet in the corner and no knows what is going on with them, they can just quietly ask for help,” Jones said. “They don’t have to go up to the teacher and say they are struggling.”
If the student responds that they want a check-in, the teacher will see a flashing red light on their computer and can check in with the student or refer them to school psychologist if necessary.
Jones was inspired to create the app after a couple of personal experiences.
He often goes to 7-Eleven with his daughters, where the clerk referred to him as “Big Daddy.” One day, she asked him his “real name,” saying that she wanted to learn the names of 300 customers that year, he recalled. Jones was struck that she cared enough to want to know the names of her regular customers.
Another time, Jones recalled being in a rushed, bad mood while visiting Deckers, but a sales representative was kind and patient with him. He wanted to figure out a way to tell the bosses what a kind clerk the person was.
“I started seeing this amazing customer service by people making like minimum wage,” Jones said.
At school, he said, students and teachers could give janitors and other staff members support through the app’s virtual high fives.
“When you come back into the classroom the next day, and you left it messy, you just didn’t have time to clean stuff up, and you come back and it’s clean, I am not going to see that janitor, but I can give him a high five,” Jones said. “The custodians who are walking around the school cleaning up all day, if you are a student, and you see that person cleaning up after all the kids at lunch, you can give them a high five.”
“The hope is that as they use this, they start to recognize that it feels good to be positive,” Jones said.
Jones has beta-tested the app for a third grade class in Guadalupe.
He’s been working on the app for about two years, including meeting every Wednesday night with a development team to work on the software.
Eventually, with the next stage of the app, Jones envisions a positivity section where people can share or create positive videos.
“You can actually build a positivity channel that doesn’t have a fight that takes place, or things like that you see that are negative,” Jones said. “It would be a great addition.”
Jones, who graduated from Dos Pueblos High School and then UC Santa Barbara, would love to see the app used in the Santa Barbara Unified School District.
He’s currently trying to build his social media campaign to get the word out to parents and teachers. He offers a free version of the app and a paid version with premium features.
“We’re just getting to the point where an individual teacher, or a parent or a school district could purchase the app,” Jones said.
“Simply being positive makes you a better learner,” Jones said. “When you are happy and in a positive mood, there’s a ton of research that shows that it allows you to do a better job.”
The app is really just an extension of Jones personality. He teaches biology and enjoys “the wonders of the world.”
“To me what makes teaching fun is all the students themselves, just people,” he said.
This isn’t Jones’ first creation.
He developed a heat diffuser for gas fire pits to push the heat out, instead of just up. He’s working on a relaxation tool for dentist chairs. He created a poison oak cutter that goes on the bottom of a hiking pole.
But the High Five Movement is what he hopes will be his long-term legacy.
If the High Five Movement app takes off, Jones said, it could have a huge impact on people’s social-emotional health.
“How many students could you help in a year? How many parents? How many teachers?” Jones said.
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
