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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
Episode 13 Unlocking Student Potential with Effective PBIS Practices
Journey with us as we navigate the transformative landscape of PBIS, where we have an illuminating chat with a seasoned high school assistant principal. Discover the profound effects of a well-crafted school-wide matrix, the lighthouse for expected student behavior, and the marvels of positive reinforcement when consistently applied from the classroom to the corridors. We pull back the curtain to reveal the intricate dance between office-managed and classroom-managed behaviors, sharing inside knowledge on creating a unified front in behavior management that resonates throughout the school's culture.
Embark on a deeper exploration of behavior management artistry and the pivotal role of data tracking with us. Uncover the secrets behind the 10-day Rewards system and how class meetings transcend disciplinary actions to become sessions of learning, conflict resolution, and community building. We also highlight the precision of using tools like SWIS and Dojo to follow behavioral patterns like a hawk, ensuring that our interventions are as targeted as they are effective. Our episode's gems are polished insights from visits to exemplary schools like Washington High School, shining examples that showcase a 'can-do' ethos, innovative recognition systems, and the priceless value of every student feeling acknowledged and appreciated.
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:So welcome back. This is PBIS Journey to Genius, and I'm Diane Farrell and I'm Diane Ruff. So we've been doing a podcast about PBIS for oh my gosh, for a couple months now. This is actually episode 14, and Diane and I decided to just take a time to just go over things that have happened so far. Maybe you haven't listened to every podcast and maybe you don't listen to them in order, or maybe you've had just a chance to touch on some here and there, but we thought we would just go through the highlights of what we've done so far. So the very first one we were talking all about a school-wide matrix and how important that is. So what did you think about that when we talked about that, Diane?
Speaker 1:Yes, I think that is the place to start. Really, when you are putting together your PBIS procedures and just your whole framework, you need to really look at how you want children, students, high school students, to behave in the certain areas of the building, come up with what it looks like, what it feels like, and create that matrix. So I imagine if you're listening to this, you are probably pretty familiar with a matrix, but you want to make sure that you get a matrix in place that everybody in the building can live with teachers, custodians, secretaries, everybody and then you teach that to your children.
Speaker 2:And we're going to talk a little bit later. But we actually had a high school assistant principal on and she said that one of their big revelations was putting that matrix in the positive, like what should students do? They should not do?
Speaker 1:So that's really important and that was kind of an aha for her at the high school level Right, focusing on what you can do, not what you can't do, and just that little bit seemed to be a big turnaround in their high school.
Speaker 2:So I thought that was good, we're going to talk about that again, but if you follow us, we also have a Facebook page called PBIS Journey to Genius.
Speaker 2:We do and we also have an Instagram account and we're putting tips of the week on those. So every Tuesday and Thursday we're going to put kind of tips from our podcasts so that maybe that'll lead you towards, you know, coming back and listening or you know a highlight out of the podcast. So one of the tips that was on there was having that school-wide matrix and making sure that it's consistent throughout the whole building. One of our teachers said that one of her biggest things I don't know whether Mrs Myroff or what one of her biggest things was the whole building became consistent. That that was one thing Remember when she talked about that.
Speaker 1:Yes, because as they grow older and they go through the different grade levels, you don't have to keep reteaching everything. The students know what is expected. Of course we do reteach and remind, but it's like it's not anything new. They come into the classroom knowing what is expected.
Speaker 2:And that was one of her big things, because if you listen to that podcast it's a great one Mrs Myroff, from the primary to the secondary grades she was a second grade teacher and then moved to a fourth grade teacher. But having those younger grades being taught those consistent matrix behaviors then they were instilled in them as they got over but having that consistency through the whole building, she really liked that. So that would be our number one highlight that I would say we talked about. The next thing we covered that we thought was really important and has been highlighted throughout is that teacher they talk about the office managed behaviors versus classroom managed behaviors and Diane, being the office and of that exactly, can talk a little bit about how that happened and how that works.
Speaker 1:Well, the next thing, after creating a squad matrix, you then need to define all of the expected behaviors, and everybody principals, teachers we all need to know and define the misbehaviors. What do all the misbehaviors look like and when do you office manage that or when do you staff manage that? And so we've actually just been tweaking ours, sitting down and making it a little better, so that when we're talking about disruptive behavior, what does that look like, what is disruptive behavior and when does it go to the office? So doing a lot of just looking at the behaviors you're dealing with and then putting them into those categories and talking about in that T-chart, because it's also like a flowchart as well.
Speaker 2:What comes next?
Speaker 2:And making sure that all the teachers know. I mean, I think I am retired now so I am not here, but I am still staying up on through Diane she's helping me staying up on the PBIS things and they are changing and they are evolving and that's good and nothing should be stagnant. But when we put this all together, the big thing, just like the matrix, was that everyone was involved in what was a classroom managed behavior and what was an office managed behavior, because I remember teachers saying, well, we'll never be able to send them to the office for anything, whereas we wanted it to be consistent and not that some teachers would send them for small things and other teachers would send them for large things, and that that was consistent. But now Diane is talking about they are tweaking that, which is important Teachers to keep tweaking that system. But it's really important that you have that and that everybody knows you really need to have your behaviors defined.
Speaker 2:If you look at the episode from Becky Miller she's our assistant principal she had come from another middle school and remember she was very comfortable with that system. At the middle school she had said oh yeah, they had that in place, but at the elementary we didn't have that in place. That wasn't something that was common for an elementary. So whether you're a building who already has one in place that everybody knows about, or you're a building like ours that doesn't, it's still a very important. That didn't you know? That's a very important piece of PBIS.
Speaker 1:And so you know we created that probably about eight years ago, but again we are just reworking it now. And then we just had the teachers, we have our coaches, representatives from every grade level. So we had them look at it, and then we had our big tier one team take a look at it, and so everybody seemed to be fine with it, because again, we didn't throw it all away, right right, just did some tweaking and clarifying so that everybody has a better understanding.
Speaker 2:So I was glad about that. So you can see, the common thread in both these things is that it's building wide, building wide and staff have a say. Yeah, staff have a say. That's one of our big takeaways from the beginning of this. Okay, we're moving on, and the next thing we wanted to highlight was our acknowledgement system.
Speaker 1:Now, even that, I'm going to tell you, is a difference in PBIS, because it used to be called reward system Used to be called reward system, and we actually did a lot of you know a lot of rewards, but you know again, this is another part of the system that's evolving, the framework is evolving to more of acknowledging students for the hard work that they're doing, for you know, walking safely down the hallway, acknowledging the actual behavior. And when you start acknowledging behaviors, whether it's academic or their behavior, the kids rise to the occasion and we don't need to reward with trinkets.
Speaker 2:No, we've talked about that a lot. Some people put up the Wall I can't afford PBIS, it's too expensive. But we have found that experiences are the best rewards. Kids they really don't care that much about those trinkets, but if they can eat with a friend or tell the joke of the day, I mean that's a big deal classroom Privileges.
Speaker 1:You know a special seed eat with a teacher. One of the big popular ones is eat with a teacher. Kids would love to eat with their teacher.
Speaker 2:Yeah and that's up to the teacher to help with those classroom rewards. But I also wanted, because you know, we had our the Christine hunt. If you can look at that podcast, she really talked about the 10-day Rewards system. But however you calculate it, you know, maybe you do it every day, that you, you know, calculate whether they got their Poprin or their acknowledgement for that day, and we do it that they do ten of them Before they are allowed their reward. Maybe you do five, maybe you do 14, it's not anything set in stone. We do ten, but at the end of ten days, not maybe consecutive, right ten days then they are Do their privilege and whatever that would be so. And then there's conferences, sometimes weekly, sometimes by monthly, sometimes daily, that you go over that with them. So, again, that behavior goal, working on that behavior goal, that is a big thing, just like you work on, like you said, academic goals right and so you know that goes with the acknowledgement system.
Speaker 1:So going to number four, just talking about those are. Number four point behavior conferences and relationship building. This is where teachers take a little bit of time. Some students they don't need to spend much time with other students they spend a little bit more time, but just just taking time to talk to the student about how that student wants to grow and and meet their behavior goal. Some of our teachers are doing academic goals and Keeping track of that and then when they do meet their goals every ten days or so, sometimes it'll be just ten days. Another student will take 30 days yeah, it might be 30 days to get that 10 days.
Speaker 2:But you know what you always you never lose it and you're always and that was another tip of the week that I had on Facebook was those behavior goals. I've been doing a lot of researching out there to other podcasts and things on PBIS and Just articles and things like that and that behavior goal seems to be a resounding thing. It comes over and over over again. I thought we do. We do that.
Speaker 2:But having every child have their behavior goal and then revisiting that and then spending that special time with them. When we do those behavior conferences which, like Diane just said, it can be a minute for one student, five minutes for another. It depends on the need of the student at that every day for the little ones it can be, you know, by weekly Whatever works for you. We don't set that in stone, but that reads relationship building and those behavior conferences.
Speaker 1:So that is really big in what I've seen out there another part of our acknowledgement system is the class meetings that's built in there because that is a great place to teach all of the expected behaviors, to also work out problems that come up you know to talk about. One of the things that we struggle with is when is it appropriate to tell and when is it a tattle. And you know at the elementary we have that and those are class meetings that the teachers have to help children understand that. You know Things like that telling versus tattling, building relationships. So class meetings are really important. We also are leader in me school so we do a lot of our leader in me instruction during that time.
Speaker 2:During those class meetings. And again, we don't make teachers do them every day, every week. We want it twice a month.
Speaker 1:Twice a month.
Speaker 2:We feel touching based twice a month. Some teachers love it so much they have it every Monday morning.
Speaker 1:Yes, they call it their Monday morning meeting.
Speaker 2:Right. I know there's several that do that, so it's completely up to you. It's just the administration is putting that stamp on. Let's do it twice a month, for sure, and then it can be a meeting that you've already talked about what you're gonna do, or it could be a pop-up meeting that it's just something happening in the grade level or in your classroom that needs addressed and needs everybody to talk about. So class meetings is another big relationship building piece that we wanna highlight again. Now, the next one we're gonna do I'm gonna let Diane talk about, because it's data tracking, but she is our data queen here and she likes this a lot, and I want her to talk about Swiss a little bit and how she uses it Well it's really important to make sure that you are tracking your data for behavior.
Speaker 1:We use Swiss S-W-I-S student something information system. I can't remember Mrs.
Speaker 2:Miller, remember that I gotta have that right.
Speaker 1:Mrs Miller knows it, but you know a lot of you use Dojo, which I think is another way to track behavior. But again, when you're tracking behavior you need to make it a PBIS tracking of behavior. You need to know the time of day, the day, the type of behavior, the antecedent.
Speaker 2:Where was that in the building? Time of yeah, you said time of day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what we're talking about, so that as you begin to look at, you might have a lot of referrals coming out of the cafeteria.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a hot spot in the building, so you could take a look and say, okay, what is actually happening?
Speaker 1:You know what are the kinds of behaviors that we're seeing. Another way you can do it is you can look at a child because you think, wow, they're coming to the office a lot, what's happening? And then we might see that it's a certain time of day happening at 1030 every morning or in and around that. So you know, this helps us then begin to try to solve what's going on with the student, because that leads into the Reteaching yeah, because now you see a specific behavior that's popping up all the time and then you're like okay, this student needs so you know, just a simple reflection isn't, isn't enough.
Speaker 2:We in it may need to move him into tier two. You know he needs that instruction. So that data tracking is really super important and we use it in our PBIS meetings with our, with our coaches and our team to look at hot spots in the building To students, all kinds of things. So if you don't have a program you like, swiss is a great one.
Speaker 1:It's easy to do and I'm sure there's many out there the reports and it's just very easy to get the information. Right, but you've got to look at your data to help you know how to help the students and you can compare it year to year.
Speaker 2:You know, like, what happened in February last year, you know what happened in January, when we know when was our time of the week, not only, but when was our time of the year, and what might we need to do to put in place. I remember a couple years ago we thought we were gonna kind of lose it in May, remember, because our girls went up so high and so our team sat down and said we need a school-wide Acknowledgement system and kind of like a grade-level competition.
Speaker 2:Remember we were doing that for sunshine and it helped our May, but if we hadn't looked at that from last year and said, why is our May Getting out of hand? We wouldn't have said, oh, we need to be proactive and put something in place.
Speaker 1:And I will say may does get out of hand, because students are pretty much done, but so our teachers, we're all done. And and then that's when we start we grow weary and we say we have practiced these routines and procedures all year long. They should know better. How many times have you heard that they should know better? And they do know better. But they see that the adults are tired and I think a lot of times they take advantage of us.
Speaker 1:So we had to come up with a great incentive for the whole building. And we did and it did really help. So, number seven.
Speaker 2:So data tracking is important and that's a highlight of our podcast. Our next one is we started to interview some great schools that have been doing awesome things. We got outside of Minerva and we're going to continue to do that. So please stay tuned, because we have other schools lined up and they're going to be great people. Because Dinah and I have learned that we have gone along this PBIJ journey, going to conferences and going to all kinds of places trying to find what they're doing. What they're doing and how we can make it work in our school. It's not like we just sat here and thought this all up ourselves.
Speaker 1:Oh goodness, no, we steal ideas from everybody.
Speaker 2:So if we can bring these people in to share their great ideas, then what's better? So we went out to Washington High School, which is Maslin City Schools, and they've been a bronze award winner and Renee Parr is doing fabulous things out there and she's the assistant principal and she was very excited to come on and do a podcast with us. So if you haven't gotten that one yet, it just came out on Tuesday and it was really great for a high school experience. So Renee started out with just rephrasing some things, didn't she, diane?
Speaker 1:Yes, and I really like that. She said that she, you know, just turning around, the mindset of this is what we can do, not what we can't do, and that seemed to. It seems like such a simple thing, but it does.
Speaker 2:It was so simple when she said it, but revolutionary to them. Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so that was great, you know. She also talked about the skills that students need to enter the workforce.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like that when she called them soft skills. Yeah, that's so important.
Speaker 1:It is, it is.
Speaker 2:So when you're telling them what they need to do, what will be a good thing to do to be a positive high school experience, they're going to get that told to them in the workforce so what they need to do to be successful in the workforce. So I really thought she brought that up and I really thought that was a great point for you high school people.
Speaker 1:Yes, I like their acknowledgement system too. First of all, every staff member chooses somebody each month to be the student of the month and they take their picture and put it outside the classroom door and they're looking. The teachers are looking for students who are practicing. They're safe, responsible, be kind. Yeah, they're big rules, whatever your rules are.
Speaker 2:They're big rules, and but it was so cute that she said kids were excited, not high school kids, they look for their pictures, we're looking for their pictures and we're excited. When they were up there and I thought that was really cute because sometimes and we even said this in the podcast high school kids will go I don't care, I don't care, yeah, but they do care, they do, they do care, they want to be, they want to be recognized, and so seeing that picture was great. And then they did say at the end of the marking period, if names hadn't been done, they pulled 40. I like that.
Speaker 2:I did too they kept track of the data.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So if teachers inadvertently missed kids, you know, and the kids didn't have any contract, you know they didn't have any conduct referrals, then they brought them out.
Speaker 1:They did.
Speaker 2:So I thought that was really cool. And then they're, but they're Bell Store.
Speaker 1:Yes, you know they also are trying to keep kids in school.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so every 21 days they used to be the attendant, that's right, they're watching that attendance and if you didn't miss school in the 21 days, then your name goes in a drawing and you can receive a bell card. That does cost them a little bit of money and they found a way to to, you know, support that with a fundraiser. But high school kids love that because first of all, if they're driving they want that $10 gas card. But even if they're not driving, high school kids love to go into Bell Store and buy their and they gave it you bail long here, that's right.
Speaker 2:That's really cute.
Speaker 1:So what a what a great incentive for high school. I love that.
Speaker 2:I loved that. So if you are a high school person out there or a middle school person and, like Renee said, she thought the same thing. This is an elementary thing. It's not for me that's what she thought. And look, they've gone to be a broad award and done great things in their school, so tune in for that podcast. Like I said, just came out this Tuesday.
Speaker 1:Now we have something that's upcoming this Tuesday it is, but by the time you listen to our podcast, you will have heard from Danielle Hawke. Yes, she is an elementary principal at. Malvern Ohio which is actually really close to Minerva, and they are working very hard on their tier one, so do you want to share a little bit about that?
Speaker 2:Well, danielle is a special friend of ours because she was a Minerva person. She was, and then she went to Malvern, which, if you don't know very much about it, it's only about 10 miles from us, so it's very, very, very close. But she had done the beginnings of PBS when she was here and then she went over to Malvern and she really took a hold of that elementary and she's done some really great things. But what I love is that she started that relationship pace with parents. Yes, so she set this whole little meeting and a real special time with the parents to make them feel wanted in the school and that their children gave them a t-shirt. We have done similar things like that here that she knew about kind of took over there. But she also put a little leader in me into it. What did she?
Speaker 1:do with the leader. She has the student leaders, and so there are students that will meet the new student and give them a tour of the building and then meet them on the first day and help them out, and so you know again, developing.
Speaker 2:Take them through the rules, procedures and things like that. I think that's really cool.
Speaker 1:And uh, and yeah, how good is that. I mean, that's great for the student leaders and then also the new student coming in. They've got a friend right away, or two friends right away. So I think that's really so.
Speaker 2:there's two different kind of, and we like that, you know, we liked that. Danielle kind of talked to us about what she was most proud of, that she had started, and then Renee at the high school you know what she was proud of and different. But all parts of PBIS, all parts of yeah, all parts. But Danielle did talk about something that's near and dear to Diane and that's consistency, consistency and sustainability.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because unfortunately, you know, we do have administrators come and go.
Speaker 2:We have teachers come and go Right.
Speaker 1:So when you are building your framework, you want to make it sustainable so that no matter if the principal leaves or key teachers that have helped out, it'll continue, and so that was a big goal for Danielle and she believes that. You know that is in place now and she talks about that and how she even missed, I think, a meeting. She had to be somewhere else, but you know things continued on. There was a meeting that day without her.
Speaker 2:So that's really important when you're putting your PBIS team together, to make sure you have, like we like to have, coaches at every grade level and I'm Alvren, it's a smaller elementary, I think they have one coach, but they have grade level representatives and then they have parent components too and so that they put together this team that's gonna help drive their PBIS, just like we have one meets monthly, and that's your sustainability, because it's not just this small team that could falter if there's one person driving it. You can't have one person driving it. You have to have everybody together so that if one person does leave, like the administrator or the coach, that there's lots of people on board with everything you've done so far to keep that going. And she was adamant about doing that and I thought that was really great.
Speaker 1:I did too and she's able to speak about that. So, yes, by the time you hear this podcast, you will have heard that one, and so that's. She's got some great advice. But if you're flipping, around podcasts.
Speaker 2:Danielle Hawke will have her name on there and her picture, and she will be the one with the elementary, and then Renee Parr is on there with her picture and she will be the one from the high school, and then we're getting more schools and more schools. So we're gonna go through a middle school world, another high school world. So just keep listening to us as much as you can. Well, I think we've kind of wrapped up the highlights so far. Do you think so, diane?
Speaker 1:I think so. We would love to hear from you. Please email us at PBIS journeytogenius at gmailcom, or make comments on our Facebook page or on Instagram. And I'm Diane Ferrell, I'm Diane Ruff, and thank you for listening. We'll see you next time. الز transportation.
