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PBIS Journey to Genius
Are you in the process of developing your PBIS Framework? Are you wondering where to start? You are in the right place. Join Dianne Ferrell and Diane Ruff as they share the ups and downs of creating and implementing a top-notch PBIS framework that has empowered their school to achieve Ohio recognition as a PBIS Gold School for 4 years. They will also share current issues in behavior management and how PBIS can help with those ongoing struggles. We would love to hear from you! Email us
@ pbisjourneytogenius@gmail.com
PBIS Journey to Genius
PBIS the NUTS and BOLTS OF IT!
What if there was a way to create a school environment that promotes good behavior, not by punishing the bad, but by positively reinforcing the good? Picture a school in which staff have a substantial say in shaping a framework to maintain discipline and order, a place where rules are clear, expectations are high, and equity is the order of the day. This is the promise of Positive Behavior, Intervention, and Support (PBIS), and that's what we're discussing in this insightful episode.
As we progress, we take the PBIS concept into the classroom, shedding light on the importance of creating rules, designing a behavior matrix, and differentiating between major and minor behaviors. We touch on the essence of a reward system that values experiences over mere trinkets, one that respects teacher autonomy. And as we wrap up this episode, we share our journey of implementing PBIS, underscoring why staff input is invaluable in this process. Plus, we're excited to leave you with a teaser for our next episode, featuring a teacher whose input was instrumental in our PBIS journey right from its inception. Tune in and join the conversation on PBIS, as we endeavor to create better learning environments for our kids.
Welcome to PBIS. Journey to Genius. Are you in the process of implementing PBIS? Are you wondering where to start? You are in the right place. We are here to support you. Stay tuned.
Speaker 2:Alright, welcome back everybody. This is the podcast we put together. My name is Diane Farrell and I'm here with Diane Ruff.
Speaker 2:And we have worked together for many years and we have put together our positive behavior, intervention and support system and we're going back in time a little bit, coming forward and telling you our ups and downs and what has happened and putting that together. So our last episode we had last week, we interviewed a principal that was with us at that time and helped us go through that change. And now we're going on to take the next step Diane, what are we doing?
Speaker 1:Well, like you said, the last episode. The big takeaway from that episode was, you know, to focus on the adults when getting ready to implement PBIS. Oftentimes, when school administrators make a large scale change, they don't consider the staff. We must honor the fact that all staff come to an organization with their own special talent or genius. Whether you are bringing schools together or just making a monumental change, we need to work with the genius within the staff. So today we kind of want to explain what we mean by using a framework. What is a PBIS framework? So we want to talk a little bit about what goes into a framework and how you can start putting this together and tapping into the genius of your staff. So what is a framework? Diane?
Speaker 2:Well, so many people whenever they start. When we started PBIS because we were looking for that answer to behavior Just to recap a little bit we were bringing two buildings together into one and we had different behavior systems and we had lots of different staff that were used to different things we were looking for that. Pbis was coming out into the education world and we heard about it and we were like, okay, so we wanted a manual.
Speaker 1:We did. We were expecting a manual that said do this, this and this, step one. And we found out very quickly that a framework is not a manual. You literally have to create your framework and all frameworks are a little bit different. Our framework at MES is much different from a framework maybe in your school or a school that you might know about.
Speaker 2:So whenever schools a lot of schools understand feel this way though, when they get it, because they're looking for that easy manual. But Diane and I found out that that is a little bit of genius that they don't give it to you, because it does make you develop what works for you, and that can be painful because you just want an easy teacher's manual. That's what you want. You want, this is all I need to do. I don't want to spend any time on it and we'll just make this work, but that's not what really works.
Speaker 1:No, and we're very busy people so we're used to getting things like that. So we found out that you have to develop a framework. So the very first thing that we realized well, I guess there are five elements to a framework. So when developing a framework, you need to think about equity, how you're going to adapt practices to meet all the student needs, and that's all students. You need to think about the systems in your building the routines, procedures, staff training. The third you want to have data.
Speaker 2:That's right. That's a big thing. We found out that data drives everything, especially in ministry. Yes, so data, data, data, and we're going to talk about that too. But data is very important to evaluate your practices and find out if they're being successful.
Speaker 1:Another one is your practices. How are you intervening with behavior? What are your strategies, and are they backed by research?
Speaker 2:Your goal is to improve behavior. That's what you want. Social, emotional, academic. You need to improve that behavior. That's what this is all about. So how do you do it? Whenever we started, because we were talking to some people, and even people that didn't have PBIS yet in their schools, and they were like, okay, why do I even want to do this? What is in this for me and how do I start? What do I think about? Because there's not that teacher's manual. So Diane and I went together and said okay, why do I want to do this One? It is to decrease behavior in your schools Miss behavior.
Speaker 2:To improve good behavior and to decrease poor behavior.
Speaker 1:That's exactly what you want to do. The whole focus is prevention and not punishment. So we got very excited when we heard that because we thought, all right, this is the road we want to go down. We want to start training kids, students, on what we expect and how we expect them to behave in a school.
Speaker 2:So we talked about that before and that Diane and I have been in education a long time We've been here for 35 some years and we decide and it is kids, don't come in with the behavior that they used to.
Speaker 2:They just don't. The expected behaviors that were there in that traditional classroom when we went to school are just not there. So we can't just throw the kids out the door. I mean, we can't keep suspending them and that was actually another thing that kind of drove this, I remember, in the beginning, because there was a big deterrent for suspension. So the state of Ohio is like you can't just keep kicking them out, you have something needs to be done. Suspension is not the answer and we know with elementary children you can't just send them home if parents can't be there. So what are you going to do? So the big thing that we talked about in starting this framework was what are the big rules?
Speaker 1:that you want to happen in the building, and we thought, too, that we could just develop it Michelle, diane, myself that we could sit down and start. Really okay, here's what we believe the three big rules should be, or the five big rules, and also we could have sat down and just started creating our matrix of expected behaviors in the building. But we really didn't want to go down that road again because, as we talked before with Michelle, it doesn't work well when you require teachers to do things without input. So we had learned a lesson there, yeah.
Speaker 2:If you didn't listen to our podcast before. Michelle Nervo was our principal at the time that we were going through this and she realized that it is very difficult to tell teachers what to do all the time and them not to have input in it. So we found that out, we understood that, we heard it, and so we wanted them to be involved. So we wanted them, and that's one of our big takeaways. We want you all to know is that the more staff input you have in all this, the better. Right, I mean absolutely the better.
Speaker 1:We actually offered an in-service day at the end of at the end of school into June and we put it out to everyone to come.
Speaker 1:And the very first thing we did is we asked our people what do you want, kids, what big rules do you want in our school? And we gave them some ideas we talked about you know. Here's what other schools are doing. They talk about because we want to be positive. So being safe, being responsible, being respectful and that ended up being our three big rules. Our teachers liked that. They thought they could get behind that.
Speaker 2:And they tell you to keep it to three. So you remember it.
Speaker 1:It's a three to five right, because if you get too, many.
Speaker 2:if you get too many, after three people go. Um, that's true, but if you can, you know three is. Some people go up to five, maybe the middle schools or high schools, but especially in elementary, three is a great number because they can remember three, and that's what you want. You want them to remember. And also, when you're picking out rules for areas of the building, keep it concise too. If you get too many, then that's too much too.
Speaker 1:So you got to what are the big things you want to happen in all parts of your building and you need your teachers to be a part of that because, as we talked before, teachers make a lot of decisions every single day, and so you know they need to be on board with your three big rules and coming into a consensus. So that's one of the very first things you want to do in developing your framework. And then the second thing you want to do in developing your framework is to talk about the matrix. We call it the matrix. We actually have one on our website.
Speaker 2:It's not a movie, so you can that's true.
Speaker 1:You can take a look at our matrix and we can actually probably even put a matrix in here. I think that we can drop it in here in our notes. But taking a look at that matrix and what the matrix is is, we are defining behavior, expected behavior throughout the building, and your teachers are your resource on that. They know how they want children to behave throughout the building, even middle school and high school. What do you want your students, how do you want them to act and behave in the big areas of the building, in the hallways, in the cafeteria, in the restrooms?
Speaker 2:And it is so important that everybody's on board with that, because let's just even think like in elementary, we want everyone quiet in the hallways. That's important because elementary students don't always change classes at the same time, so that way there's some students in class that are trying to learn when others are walking down. So that's important. Middle school, that's not as important.
Speaker 1:That was the turning point yes, it was.
Speaker 1:Because we had a group of teachers come together anybody that wanted to be there and when we started talking about what do you want kids to do, how do you want them to behave, in the hallway, every single teacher at the table said we want them to be quiet. That was huge buy-in and that was kind of like our starting point. We're like, okay, we can make that happen. And with the matrix, then you have to actually say the behavior you're going to see, we're gonna see kids walking.
Speaker 2:Everything needs to be said in the positive. It's just like don't say don't run down the hall, Say I like the way you walk down the hall because the child's going to do what you say. So everything needs to be said in the positive as to what you want. But really those expected behaviors and everybody being on board with them is the only way that you'll always get them reinforced.
Speaker 1:And the more teachers you can include in helping you develop a matrix, the better. So we're gonna be talking a lot about the matrix in our next couple of episodes, but we wanted you to understand what a matrix is.
Speaker 2:So the first. So in our advice to getting started, start out with three big rules, at least that you want across your building, that every rule's gonna fall under those. Safe, responsible, respectful are ours, but maybe you come up with some other catchy ones, but those are quick, easy and kids know Is that safe, is that responsible, is that respectful? Second advice is start that matrix. I mean, I think sometimes when people wanna do PBIS they just get overwhelmed. They think to the end, like I've gotta do all this stuff and Diane and I are here to take you through step by step. It's not, you're not at the end yet. That took us years.
Speaker 1:Start simple and the matrix is your beginning and really in a year's time, if you can get your three to five rules and your matrix and then one more definitions of major and minor behaviors so important you are off to a very good start. And again, all of those things need to be developed with your staff. So, definitions of major and minor behaviors, that's huge. We did a big chart paper because some people think that maybe bringing well back in the day.
Speaker 2:I don't know now so much. We like to say that back in the day, but I don't know.
Speaker 1:This would have been a good 20 years ago or so. Kids would be in trouble for not bringing a pencil to class or not having a pencil being sent to the office. Well, is that really a major misbehavior? Is that a need to?
Speaker 2:go to the office.
Speaker 2:We think about that and, like Diannaia, having taught a long time ago, some teachers will keep kids in the room for many behaviors and then when they bring that behavior to the office, it might be a minor behavior, but they have had it, so they want maximum punishment. Well, as an administrator, that's not fair to you, because you don't know what's led up to that and you don't know, whereas another teacher may just go. You know, I don't have time for this, I'm just even minor behavior. So it's really important to do those major and minor behaviors and everybody to be aware of it.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, and so we're going to talk a lot more about how you know what our major and minors look like, and how teachers develop it, how we put ours together. So that will be in future episodes.
Speaker 2:And really honestly, once that happened, teachers were released.
Speaker 1:And administrators. I was relieved because now I had a guideline to follow too. We had the matrix in place. Everywhere you go in the building, everyone knows, from specials teachers to aides to administrators, how students are supposed to behave, and we even make our substitutes aware because we want them following our matrix as well. So the matrix is just huge.
Speaker 2:Matrix is huge. Major and minors are huge and, like Diane said, getting those three big rules and those three things are the biggest thing you can get going. Now the other one that is important and if you work on it that first year is the reward system. You need something in place for your whole building, I mean, because that's going to help all those other things happen. And don't get too overwhelmed with that either. I mean, we will talk to you a lot of in-depth individual behavior charts and rewards and things like that that we've got. But if you just overall start at what does that reward system like? If it comes from the office, if it comes from the classroom, what is it going to look like? But again, even though and it's also important we don't want to take autonomy away from teachers. They want to do little money systems in their classrooms.
Speaker 1:That's all okay, teachers can have that autonomy in their room. Yeah, you bring up a good point, because the one thing that the matrix or, I'm sorry, just the whole framework, it's more building wide. It doesn't really get specific into classrooms and in our building teachers were afraid we were going to come into the classroom and tell them how to discipline per se.
Speaker 2:So if they wanted to do that money banking system, we were going to tell them we just had the and that is not true.
Speaker 1:Had this for the school, the matrix for the school, but then we wanted teachers to also carry through with be safe, be responsible, respectful and what does that look like in my classroom? And then developing that with the students. And yes, you have to have that reward system or acknowledgement system in place, and we're going to talk a lot about what that looks like For us In a school wide Look differently for you.
Speaker 1:Individually, and then it doesn't have to be monetary. I think a lot of schools think that we have to have a lot of monetary kinds of prizes or things, but an acknowledgement system.
Speaker 2:Dain and I are very adamant about, not trinkets and things like that. If you, as a teacher, want to do that, more power to you. I knew teachers who want to get rid of their McDonald's toys. That's up to you, but we here at Minerva Elementary always like to have experiences, and so we can talk things about that. But it's just having your picture on Facebook or doing things that are special privileges for you to do and experiences and that's such a different type of reward system Doesn't cost any money and a lot of times it's much more to them than a little trinket or something like that.
Speaker 2:So we really like to look at that type of a reward system.
Speaker 1:So if you're listening and your school does not have PBIS in place, you can still put all of these things in place in your own classroom. You know you can come up and I would do this with your students and make sure your students have buy-in Again. You don't want to mandate this to your students, but rather you could brainstorm one day in a class meeting what big rules should we have in our classroom and then what does behavior look like in our classroom? And create a small matrix. I think we had a kindergarten teacher last year create a small matrix for her kindergarten classroom.
Speaker 2:So, and I think that's awesome, I had a teacher talk to me about that. This really wasn't part of their school. She really wanted to start it. New teachers coming out of college trying to get that behavioral system in their room, which might not be across the board yet, but you know what? Success is contagious. So like if you start this little system in your classroom and then your neighboring teacher looks over and goes hmm, you know, I really like what you're doing and I take data on it. You know how many do not. You know, don't have it in the beginning. How many times did you have office referrals? How many times did you? And then start that and then see what it's like towards your Christmas or the end of the year. But if you start doing that and then your neighbor wants to jump on board with that, then another neighbor, then you're gonna have administrators looking at you like, hmm, this might be a thing we wanna do, building wide.
Speaker 2:So don't be afraid to start it in your classroom, in your own room, in your own room, cause it can easily be done and your students, kindergarten to 12th grade, will like to be a part of the management of their classroom.
Speaker 1:When students are a part of it, they have buy-in, just like we said with teachers.
Speaker 2:You know when people are a part of it, and that's the voice behind student councils. You know all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:Voice with a choice, voice with a choice and honoring the genius within each person. I love it. I love it.
Speaker 2:I do, I absolutely do. Well, diane, are we about at the end of this podcast? I think we are.
Speaker 1:I just wanted to kind of you know, define what we're talking about, in case you're not really sure, because as we move forward, we're going to have lots of guests with us and we're going to continue to talk about the process, how we develop certain things, and just getting that input from the staff. I love hearing from the staff and their viewpoint.
Speaker 2:So that was a big thing we wanted to talk about today, but I'm glad we took a minute. Like you said, we called this kind of a nuts and bolts. Next week I hope you join us because we're going to have a teacher come who was there right in the beginning. She was an RTI coach and she helped with that beginning framework and what it was like putting those two buildings together. Next week's episode is called a voice with a choice. We're excited even about that title, so I hope you come back and you talk with us next time.
Speaker 1:My name is Diane Barrow and I'm Diane Ruff, and we are super glad that you joined us today.
Speaker 2:All right Journey with two PBIS Journey to Genius.
