This article will help you to get your behavior system running by showing you how to manage and create behavior types. This guide will walk you through reviewing standard behaviors and setting up custom ones that fit your school’s unique culture. By the end, you'll be able to effectively track student actions and automate notifications for parents and staff.

Permission Level Required: Owner| Manager| Behavior Manager

Review Default Minga Behaviors: Learn how to evaluate and toggle existing behaviors to match your school's needs.
How to Create Custom Behaviors: Walk through the steps to build your own specific rewards or guidance categories.
Additional Features and Settings: See how to automate emails to parents and staff when a behavior is recorded.
FAQs
Resources

Review Default Minga Behaviors

Minga comes with standard behavior types that you can use immediately. Reviewing these allows you to decide which behaviors are relevant to your campus and which should be hidden from staff.

Step-by-step Guide to Reviewing Default Behaviors

Navigate to the main menu and click on Behaviors.
Select the Behaviors tab at the top of the screen.
Locate the Status column for any standard behavior.
Click the Inactive button to hide a behavior you do not wish to track.

How to Create Custom Behaviors

Administrators can customize trackable actions by creating their own Behavior Types. This ensures that the points and categories reflect your specific school goals.

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Custom Behaviors

Navigate to the Behaviors tool and click the Behaviors tab.
Click the Create button and select between the Praise and Guidance Behavior options.
○ Praise behaviors are used to reinforce positive student actions, while Guidance behaviors are used to note constructive or disciplinary actions.
Enter a name for your new behavior in the Name field.
Optional: Select an icon and color for the behavior.
○ Any custom colors will appear in the list of behaviors, but will not be reflected on the Behavior Dashboard
If using points, allocate the number of points awarded for the behavior in the Points box.
○ Tip: We recommend setting Praise points to 1 and Guidance points to 0 to keep tracking positive and simple.
To Auto Assign Hall Pass when the behavior is assigned, select a Hall Pass Type from the drop-down menu.
To restrict who can assign the behavior, toggle on the setting Limit who can assign this behavior manually.
○ You can restrict who can assign this specific behavior by Role, User List, Group, Grade, or People.
Set up notifications by toggling on Parent Notifications or Admin Notifications.
○ For parent emails, you can customize the message sent and insert variables to provide more information about the behavior their child received. The available variables are: assigner, firstName, lastName, mingaName, note, points, and typeName.
○ You can enter specific email addresses for different behaviors so the right administrator is always notified.
Select Save and your behavior will automatically be set to Active.

Additional Features and Settings

Owners can further customize how these behaviors are communicated to the school community.

Custom Message Editing

You can edit the emails and SMS messages sent to parents. This includes changing the Subject line and the Body of the message to match your school's voice.

Use custom variables like Student Name, Behavior Type, or School Name to personalize every message automatically.

Teacher Notes

You can enable the Teacher Note option to allow staff to include a specific, custom description of the event when they award a behavior. This provides extra context for parents and administrators.

Important: Make sure to save your changes after editing message templates to ensure parents receive the correct information.

FAQs

How do I edit a behavior after I have created it?
You can customize an existing behavior by clicking the Edit icon next to the behavior name in the Behaviors tab. This allows you to change points, names, or notification settings later.

Can I take away points for negative behaviors?
While you can set point values, we recommend not taking away points for Guidance behaviors to maintain an encouraging environment for students.

How do I notify a specific administrator about a behavior?

You can send Admin notifications by toggling the Admin Notification switch in the behavior settings and inputting the specific administrator's email address in the provided field.

Can I edit one of the default behaviors?

Yes! You can edit the premade behaviors by clicking the Edit icon next to the behavior name in the Behaviors Tab.