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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 17 Inspiring Academic Growth: The Power of Personalized Recognition and Leadership Binders in PBIS
Discover how a heartfelt tale of triumph over fractions can change the way we approach education. This episode brings you the inspiring voice of Autumn Thomas, a fifth-grade educator with a decade-plus of experience, who joins Dianne Ferrell and me to share her story and strategies for harnessing the power of personalized acknowledgment to inspire a love for learning in students. We discuss Autumn's transformative 10-day reward system and dive into the magic of consistent positive reinforcement in shaping not only behavior but the future of our children.
Ever wondered how to capture a student's academic journey in a way that bolsters their confidence and drive? We've got you covered with our exploration of student leadership binders. These aren't your ordinary school folders; they're a celebration of personal growth, a repository of achievements, and a roadmap for future success. We unpack how these binders, filled with star charts, leadership certificates, and even special programs like NBA (Never Been Absent), become treasured keepsakes that spur students to set and surpass their goals.
Wrapping up, we take a moment to marvel at the intersection of growth mindset principles and the PBIS framework, highlighting the game-changing role of leadership binders in recognition systems. Autumn's insights are pure gold, and we are eager to help educators everywhere tap into these strategies. So join our passionate education community, connect with us for resources and support, and let's work together to create an environment where every student has the opportunity to shine.
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:Welcome to our weekly podcast, pbis Journey to Genius. I'm Diane Farrell and I'm here with Diane Ruff, and Diane and I have worked together for many years and we have put a PBIS system in our schools that has received many awards, and we have put a podcast together that we're doing every week to share our trials and successes so that maybe you might use those to help you in your positive behavior intervention journey. So this week we're moving on to a new episode and hopefully you can catch up on our old episodes by joining us on our podcast. So, diane, what's it about today?
Speaker 1:Well, today we want to discuss personalizing the acknowledgement system, powering students to develop intrinsic motivation, because that's really important. It's really hard to motivate students and actually we need to teach students how to motivate themselves. So to help us do that, we've invited Autumn Thomas, fifth grade teacher, to be on the podcast today. Welcome, welcome, autumn.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here, so tell us a little bit about yourself. Well, I have been teaching for 11 years in elementary. I teach math and social studies and I absolutely love it. I could not imagine teaching any other middle school or high school, so elementary is the perfect place for me. I'm a mom. I have two girls. They're teenagers, so that's fun.
Speaker 2:No one thinks that's fun.
Speaker 3:I am an Army brat so I've lived all over the world. I've been to 12 different schools in my K to 12 years of education, so I definitely think having that as a background helps me reach my students.
Speaker 2:Tell our listeners where you were born.
Speaker 3:Well, I was born in Alliance, but I lived eight years in Hawaii and eight years in Germany.
Speaker 2:That's what we find so incredible. Those of us who haven't even been to Hawaii or Germany think that living there for like eight years is amazing. So Autumn does bring a lot of experiences to the table and to her teaching. So every time we do a podcast, every time we have a guest, we ask them why they got into education, what pushed them in that direction, what do you think pushed you into education?
Speaker 3:I knew I wanted to be a teacher since I was a little girl and it might be silly, but I was five, with the stuffed animals lined up teaching them, and I've always known that that was my purpose. I've always known that this is what I was meant to do, this is where I was supposed to be. This is where I was needed most.
Speaker 2:And we have yet to guess. Both go both ways, because that was kind of my beginning. I wanted to be a teacher from the get go, diane Nassimut. She started out with another major in mind, and then paths lead us in different directions.
Speaker 1:But I would say we have had quite a few guests say that they knew from very early on that they wanted to be a teacher. So, that's great. So what's your aha moment?
Speaker 3:So my aha moment. It was my first year of teaching and it's fractions, and no fifth grader loves fractions and I was trying to get them to understand how to add fractions together and I always ask them to show me if they're a one, a two or a three. If they're a one, they're understanding what they're learning. If they're a two, maybe they have some questions. And a three, they are confused. And I had this one kiddo that was confused, so I explained it a different way.
Speaker 3:I draw a picture this time and she's still looking at me like I don't know. So then I pull out a third way and the third way I teach her. She says I get it, I understand, it makes sense. And I was like I really went through all of the different ways to try and get her to understand because it was important for the next steps and I didn't think anything of it at that time. I was just like, okay, checkmark, I did that at a parent teacher conference is a couple of months later. The mom thanked me for taking that time and getting her to understand and not just saying, okay, we'll do it at another time.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But she really appreciated that and so you need to know.
Speaker 2:That little girl went home and told her mom about that. So that was so impactful to her that day that she remembered all the way home that night and reiterated that for her mom, so much that her mom remembered at conferences to let you know. So that's truly impactful. Impact Because how many fifth graders at night they go. How was school today? Okay, you know, like nobody says anything, Right?
Speaker 1:What'd you do today?
Speaker 2:Nothing, so look how we know that, because we had kids, but she didn't. So that is, that's an amazing experience.
Speaker 3:I try a big aha, and that was 11 years ago and that has stuck still stuck with me. Yes, awesome, awesome.
Speaker 2:Um, okay, so we have talked about the acknowledgement system here in our school. That's a big PBIS buzzword and Autumn does that in her 10 day rewards and we're going to talk. So we have had first grade talk about it, we've had fourth grade talk about it and each grade addresses it a little bit different. So we want to know how the fifth grade does it in your class. What are the rewards? How does it happen? How often do you meet with the kids? You know what do you do.
Speaker 3:Okay. So students love 10 day rewards. That is their favorite reward system that we have come across thus far in the classroom. And every day, if they're safe, responsible, respectful, if they are making good choices, then they earn a sticker and they put the sticker on their star chart, which goes in their leadership binder, which we'll talk about later. Okay, okay. And so they get those daily, you know, because they earned it that day. I think it's most beneficial to get that reward that day the star. And then after 10 days, however long oh, after 10 stars, excuse me they earn a reward. And so we have a list of rewards and over the years kids have added to those what they like best or we've taken away that nobody wanted to do. And so some really popular ones in fifth grade are sit by a friend, because they get to sit by a friend in my classroom and in the co-teachers classroom.
Speaker 2:And that's so important. They love that, they love sitting at our desk.
Speaker 3:That's another fun one they love because it's like the throne of power. They think they sit at the desk.
Speaker 2:They love that.
Speaker 3:In the cafeteria they love eating with a friend from a different classroom. That's a big hit. Fifth graders love to help a teacher a previous teacher so I have them write a letter and I have a letter template, because a lot of them cannot write a letter, so I have a template and then they just they have to write it, set it up correctly, and then they plug in the information and send it to another teacher.
Speaker 3:And they love going back. And then those teachers are intentional with okay, I have a fifth grader coming and I'm going to have them work with these friends, or we're going to play bingo and they can help me do this, so they really enjoy that a lot. That's a very popular reward. Another one for fifth grade that I think is super sweet is they love bringing a stuffed animal. I love that.
Speaker 1:They still like that, they still love it and they're very proud to show it off.
Speaker 3:So those are. Another one that the boys really like is playing a game with a friend, and we have every D maths, we have McGraw Hill math games and they pick to play a math game with a friend. Wow which I think is wonderful. Yeah so they, the boys, love to pick that and it doesn't cost any money. They can sit with their friend.
Speaker 2:I just wanted to say not one thing, because we've talked about that sometimes that was in one of our other podcasts that they go. Well, we just can't afford PBIS. It's too expensive. There's not one reward that is on the highlight, fifth grade real that costs any money.
Speaker 1:Correct? Yeah, and did you have the students? Or every year, do you have the students help pick the rewards? Yes, so you don't say these are the rewards we're gonna have, right, they help to come up with absolutely because sit at my desk is not my most favorite thing, but they like that.
Speaker 3:So, yes, they get to come up with a list. Yeah, themselves.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then?
Speaker 3:I offer ideas of hey, what about this? You know, do you like?
Speaker 2:right, because you know ones that have worked in the past right, so you can like interject.
Speaker 3:They're like oh, yeah, that would be great, Right, or sometimes it could be not wear shoes in the classroom and they bring slippers to wear in the classroom, so they like to do that. So, yeah, awesome.
Speaker 1:Awesome, that's great. Yeah, so another part of the acknowledgement system is the leadership binders that we really I think you started, maybe last year a Little bit, or did you dive in Um this year with it?
Speaker 3:my previous co-teacher, who retired. We were doing them as a folder. Okay and then we expanded last year to a binder. Okay, we added more things and they're after doing the leader and me.
Speaker 1:Training right, and so the leadership binder Is really all about trying to build that intrinsic motivation. So do you want to talk about how, how you do your leadership binders and how the, what the kids, how they all start?
Speaker 3:right. So I love the leadership binders because it helps students be accountable for their learning academic, personal and behavior. So how that works is at the beginning of the year they have the binder and it's divided up into five sections. So you have about yourself, they have wigs, they're wildly important goals, they're learning their leadership and their celebrations. So in those five main sections, like about themselves, there's gonna be like at the beginning of the year, every teacher does an all about me page where they write their favorite color you know they have brothers and sisters what favorite things they like to do and though so that simply can be saved and put in your leadership binder Some other things, like their star behavior charts where they earn their 10 star reward.
Speaker 3:That star chart goes in there. They have we do freckle and lift off and the students record their levels. Those go in there and they love keeping track of that. If fifth grade we do leadership jobs, so if they're a recycler, they filled out like an application for these different jobs and whatever they get chosen for. Then we have certificates that says you've been hired and then whatever their job.
Speaker 1:How cute.
Speaker 3:So that goes and I'm binder with map. They have map growth charts. They have one for math, language arts, science and it's a graph so they write where they are, how they would like to get there. So the steps they're gonna take, we meet one-on-one and talk about this. That's those are in their leadership binders. If they've got honor roll principal list certificates, those can go in there under celebrations the new one, the NBA, the basketballs those are in their leadership binders. Anything that's of interest to the kids, that the kids want to showcase, they can put in their leadership I love that, so the NBA is something new, say again, again, again.
Speaker 2:If you're out there listening for the first time, I've retired this year, so it is very important for Mrs Ruff to keep me up to date as soon as you said that I've go.
Speaker 1:Okay, I know about everything else, but I don't know about that let us know and let our, let our listeners know whose schools are really struggling with getting kids back in school attendance, and that's a big deal since COVID. So one of the things that the assistant principal here in our building came up with Was never been absent.
Speaker 2:I like it for the nine weeks.
Speaker 1:So we broke it down by nine weeks. So NBA for the first nine weeks, nba for the second nine weeks. So we actually have basketballs, little basketballs that are paper, like cardboard basketballs that we write on it and say you know, you're in the NBA for the second nine weeks, never been absent and take their picture, give them a lot of woohoo's, and now they can put that in their leadership binder.
Speaker 3:Yes, because a lot of times students get papers. You know they're like what do I do with this? I said, well, let's put it in your leadership binder under celebrations. And they love that, I love that too.
Speaker 2:So, and at the end of the year, this is a huge thing to take home. Yes, and be a part like this is what I did. This was everything, because you forget as the years going through. It was like a big scrapbook for mom.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, and that's what you, what students, like about it is. That's what one of I asked the students what they liked best, and one little girl it was so sweet she said well, when I get sad, I like to look at my leadership binder to see everything that I accomplished. So I know that I can still learn and I thought that was so impactful from a 10-year-old to recognize that's an aha moment right there, Autumn that's a little genius, oh my gosh, it's genius.
Speaker 2:That is genius because one the fact that she can verbalize that Right. You know that. You asked her on the spot what do you like the most about your leadership binder? And she could say you know, when I'm sad, I can look at what I do well, instead of the things right now that are in my mind about what I don't do well. We all need a leadership binder, don't we?
Speaker 3:I think we do. Yes, and other students have said they like that it shows their personal achievements, what they've accomplished so far, like one gentleman I asked I said what do you like about your leadership binder? And he said I like that I can see my levels. He said I like to track my levels in freckle and I like to see that they're going up or for a lift off. I like to see that they're going up and now do they set goals for you in those.
Speaker 2:Do they say, okay, in freckle, I wanna get to here and then do that. Or in map, I wanna get to here. Do they set those ahead of time or For freckle.
Speaker 3:Their goal is to. They wanna be in the purple. Now they don't know what the purple means. They just know purple is fifth grade, but they just know that their goal is to try to get to the purple. And I don't tell them what the colors mean, because everybody is working at their own level, so their goal is just to get to purple.
Speaker 3:And when they get to purple they get a certificate. Freckle came out with certificates this year, so I just print out a bunch of blank ones and then I write on there they passed all these levels. And once they've passed all five freckle domains, then it goes into our shout outs, which I love that we're doing this year. I just email Mrs Miller and she shouts out that they've passed all their freckle levels.
Speaker 1:Yes, so Mrs Miller is doing the Lexia shout outs the freckle. Shout outs the 40 book challenge shout outs. So we're tracking that. In the month of December we did like 550 shout outs Holy moly Acknowledgement shout outs and also in January it was 500 and some and that's not all of the acknowledgments that happen in the building. These are just the ones we're tracking because we don't know in the classroom really what all you're doing too. So we feel like we're doing a lot of acknowledging of behavior, but also academics.
Speaker 3:Right and the positive academics I believe, drives, then you have the positive behavior too. That's our next, thing, okay so what's new, but one leading to another.
Speaker 2:Look at you already going forward, Because you say that the kids are excited about their binders. They love to share you themselves, their parents, you know all that kind of stuff. Do you see that changing their behavior?
Speaker 3:Well, I see that they love tracking their goals and so we have a 230 study whole time. They're intentional with that time. If they don't have something like missing work they need to work on, then can I work in freckle? Absolutely, they want to pass those levels and improve. They also do. We meet with another grade level and we meet with second grade and we share binders. So the kids are paired up with another buddy and they share. Look what I've done so far, because we do it a couple times a year.
Speaker 2:Look how cute that is, and they really like that sharing.
Speaker 3:You know, the second graders look up to the fifth graders and the fifth graders are excited.
Speaker 2:Sure, they're sharing their accomplishments with the fifth graders. That's awesome.
Speaker 3:The fifth graders get to be mentors to the second graders. So that's the best.
Speaker 1:I really liked the talk. You know the students can say this is where I am right now and this is where I want to be. We had made a video in January and several of the students talked about I'm not there yet. Like you know, I haven't mastered this yet, but I am working towards this and I have not heard students talk like that and I was just so impressed by that that they understand. They're not there yet, you know, but I'm working towards it and I plan on meeting that goal by the end of the school year.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, and that's when I love. When you come on the announcements every day and you say you know, why are you here? And the children respond with to learn. That applies in the classroom. I use that all the time because if somebody gets frustrated with not being where they want to be, you know. I say what does Mrs Ruff say every day why are you here to learn? So that's what you're here. You're not here because you already know everything. You're here to learn things, so that's okay.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yeah, I just I love it.
Speaker 2:I do too. And even that positive attitude about yourself, like when that little girl said if I'm sad, it makes me feel better about myself. If a student doesn't feel good about themselves, number one, they don't want to come to school. Because that is just. If I don't feel good about myself, I don't want to get out of bed, I don't want to come to school, I don't want to do anything because I don't feel good. But if I start to feel good about myself and I get SEMA highlights, which is like a highlight reel, then I'm a little bit more motivated to get up and come to school, be in the MBA, you know, do things like that. So all of that is that positive intrinsic, you know, motivation. I think it's amazing.
Speaker 2:Well, okay, so now let's look at teachers who are sitting here in all of you Autumn. They're like oh my gosh, we want to start that. When you think back to when you started the leadership binders, now you had always done behavior conferences, you had met with kids about behavior goals. You know you kind of had that already in place and we've talked about that in our thing. But how did you transition to the leadership? How did you start it that very first year?
Speaker 3:Well, my previous co-teacher and I, because this is advice to other teachers- who are starting? We had all of these pieces of information about the students separately. So we had star charts on the wall, we had behavior charts, you know, and this we had, you know, the all about me paper, all of these separate things that we already do. We thought, well, why can't we put them together in one place and then we save it?
Speaker 3:And then they have it in a folder and then, when it comes time for conferences conferences with the student or conferences with the parent we have all of that information in one place. So we started small. We put their day, their 10 star reward charts in there and their behavior goals in there, and we just started with that. And then every year we thought, well, let's add this to it, let's add this to it. And then when we went to the leader and me and they talked about leadership binders and we did a little more research to see how could we make it manageable for us, we divided up the binder and then we just found, hey, at the beginning of the school year we always do a paper for the kids to fill out about themselves, because it's the first day of school, so that can go in the binder. We always talk about setting goals, you know, and how they're gonna reach those goals. Let's put those papers in the binder. So it was already things that we did. We decided to put them in one place.
Speaker 1:And then leader and me recommends the five sections again. Do you wanna say those five sections again, because I really like those.
Speaker 3:It's myself, my wigs, so my wild, the important goals, my learning, my leadership and my celebrations.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's really good and that's how you have it divided up now. But I like how you said you started small, because if I'm listening to this and I'm not a leader in me school, so I don't know anything about leadership binders and I don't know about those five things, although now you do, because she just said them. We all, as teachers, have things about our students, like you said.
Speaker 2:We've got this on the wall. We've got this, this and this, but to begin that with maybe three things, you know four things, five things, and then to add on to it, but your categories from leader and me, that's awesome, and anybody, even if you're not a leader, in me school can do that.
Speaker 1:No, you can still do that for sure.
Speaker 3:What Autumn said? Absolutely because about yourself. That's just information about you as a student, and then any of your goals, any goal setting you do, could go next and then you're learning.
Speaker 1:So if you do freckle or if you do Lift off the map because, or map those can go in there under their learning writing right to do a sample of writing in the fall one and at mid year and one at the end, and just so you can see how your writing is changed.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I'm gonna interject a minute about using them in conferences because you brought that up just a minute ago. So Just say a couple minutes about that, because I think that's real powerful. Look, as a teacher, I remember when I used to prepare for conferences I was getting out pieces of work, I was trying to average great you know that whole thing to get ready for that parent.
Speaker 2:Where you have, you can just bring this out right, it's already done, that's, and I didn't do it and you didn't have to prepare for it so if a car, it's apparent, just calls and says I want to have a conference on my child, you go fine, we can do it today Because I have a leadership binder already to go over it with you absolutely amazing and we started this fall.
Speaker 3:We were testing it out this fall to see how it would go and it went really well. So we asked for the students to come to conferences.
Speaker 1:I was just gonna say did you I?
Speaker 2:wanted to say did you have student?
Speaker 3:conferences I want to say so we had the students come in and we practiced beforehand with the students, like before parent teacher conference. You know we would have them come up. Okay, show me your binder. What's your most important things you're excited about? You know we made sure they understood what all those papers were because parents, if they look at the binder, they're not gonna know what map goals aren't sure. Maybe kids have to explain, right. So we practiced ahead of time.
Speaker 3:I love the front loading Before the conferences yes, and so we just said okay, and they sat down and they said you know my, you know to their grown up, this is my conference, this is my binder, and they explained every section and any question they had, like they would look at us and then we would look at the student and then the student would answer the question.
Speaker 1:Of so empowering, so much empowering, and again, you know that gives the child a chance to show off their genius, because we talk about everybody. We talk about everybody. Can everybody be a leader?
Speaker 2:I don't know about that, but everyone can be a genius in the thing that they're good at, you know absolutely and so that's an opportunity to shine absolutely, and I just and be a part of the conference and be an integral, not just sitting there, you know, worried about what they're gonna say about you, like you know, and what you can't do. And right, it's what I can do.
Speaker 1:This is where I want to go next. And that's what I liked when we made the video, because the kids we didn't and we did not front load the kids, right, you did. We just went around and ask kids to share and they just shared automatically, which tells us that a lot of teachers here in the building are teaching that way you know, that celebrate where you're at. And then here's where I want to go next growth mindset yes, the growth, my yes, the growth is that is so awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, autumn, for coming we that. I have learned so much today, absolutely, and this is just an awesome, an awesome piece in the PBIS puzzle. So if you have any questions out there about leadership binders or putting this together in your school, this kind of acknowledgement system, be sure and email us, because we would love to answer any emails. We are getting emails coming in now and then, so that's awesome and we can always hook you up with.
Speaker 2:She can now you back, if you have anything specific, please email us at PBIS journey to genius at gmailcom. We're also on Facebook and Instagram. If you just type in PBIS journey to genius, you'll find it. So thanks for listening to our show.
Speaker 1:I'm Diane Farrell and I'm Diane rough and you've been listening to PBIS journey to genius.
