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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 21 Building a Blueprint for Student Success with Granville's PBIS Model
Have you ever wondered what draws someone into the world of education? In our latest episode of PBIS: Journey to Genius, we had the pleasure of hosting Tracy Stewart and Travis Morris from Granville Elementary, who revealed to us their heartfelt tales of entering the educational sphere. Tracy's lineage is steeped in teaching tradition, while Travis' path was less direct, yet both are united by a passion for nurturing the next generation. They shared with us the simple, everyday moments that affirm their commitment to their roles, and the profound impact of fostering genuine connections within their school community.
We ventured together into the creative world of Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and discovered how Granville Elementary's personalized sticker system is making waves. Tracy and Travis detailed the power of acknowledgment through strength-based conversations and goal-setting, demonstrating how these initiatives form building blocks for an inclusive, optimistic school culture. Their blue ace visions are not mere whimsy; they are strategic, serving the students' diverse needs and leading to a comprehensive framework that supports every child's journey.
As Dianne Ferrell and Diane Ruff signed off this episode, we looked back at the influential voices that have shaped PBIS over the past decade and teased future discussions on advanced interventions. We extended our gratitude to our vibrant community of educators and listeners who have taken this journey with us. Thank you for tuning in, and we invite you to become a part of our mission to empower teachers and support students as they grow into their best selves. Don't forget to connect with us on our social channels and join the conversation in empowering the education community.
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 All right.
Speaker 2:Welcome everyone to our new episode of PBIS Journey to Genius. I'm Diane Farrell and I'm here with Diane Ruff, and we've put this podcast together on a weekly basis to talk about PBIS and we've reached out to different schools that are doing great things, and today we have some guests from Granville in Columbus, Ohio.
Speaker 1:So, Diane, let's get them introduced and get started Sure, so why don't both of you just go ahead? We'll start with Tracy and just introduce yourself and talk about why you got into education.
Speaker 3:Yes, so my name is Tracy Stewart. I am currently the assistant principal at Granville Elementary, but I've been in education for 27 years, so that includes classrooms first, second, third, fourth and fifth grade, along with many years of literacy coaching as well, and across a few districts. So that's really exciting. But my education and what I went ahead and got into with why I went into it is because my family growing up the school was the center of our community, so we were there well beyond school hours, from volunteering to coaching. It was an extension of our home and that just felt like the place to go.
Speaker 1:That's great. I love that.
Speaker 3:Needed to continue it.
Speaker 1:We also have Travis, so hi Travis.
Speaker 4:Hi, good afternoon. My name is Travis Morris. I am the principal at the Granville Elementary School. Thank you for having us having us on your podcast. We really appreciate it. We're excited to share about PBIS. So I got into education. It's one of those sad stories where you thought, well, maybe I'm just always going to be a teacher and never really look back. Interestingly enough, whereas Tracy's school was the center of her family, it was the complete opposite of mine. School was not a priority, and so as I got older and had different experiences with teachers and so forth, I realized I wanted to kind of make the same similar impression and difference and learned that I like to serve other people, and so this was the best way for me to do that and actually make school a priority in my world.
Speaker 1:I love that. Yeah, it's interesting that we both are. You know all the people we've interviewed, all the different pathways as to why people go into education. I know.
Speaker 2:Some of them are second careers, some of them are halfway through their colleges, but everybody seems to have some reason. Some of them thought about it since second grade. You know, you know. So it's their baby dolls. You know Always. Hear why. So then. So that's why you got into education. Why do you stay? Hear why, so then. So that's why you got into education, why do you stay? So we always want to know what's that aha moment when the first you know when you're coming home, you're going? Oh my gosh, that's crazy. But this is why I'm going back tomorrow because of what's your aha moment?
Speaker 3:Well, for me it actually just happened a few minutes ago it's really the small moments. It's when you're walking down the hall and you greet a student and you say, hey, you know, how are you doing today, I'm good, how are you? And it's like, oh, there it is. There's that relationship and those moments. You know, I heard Travis talking to a student this morning and I just you just can't help that giggle. You know, to them explain things and through their eyes and their world, and so it actually for me it's the small moments because our job is so hard and there's so many challenges at times, but it's the small things with the kids and even with our staff. You know, the laughter and just the joking and relationships is why I that gets me through every day.
Speaker 2:And go ahead and say again what's the demographics of your? You are a building of. How many?
Speaker 3:Go ahead yeah we're close to 700. We are a K-3 building, the only one in the district. We are actually just east of Columbus and it's called Granville, Ohio. We're home of Denison University.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right Cool.
Speaker 4:Travis. Well, you know, tracy kind of stole my thunder. I think relationships is the word. It's one of the reasons why she and I work really well together is because that's a big priority for both of us. And relationships with the staff members and with the parents, with our families, especially obviously with the students, those are so important and you especially having some of these kiddos for four years, you develop some strong connections and relationships with some of these kiddos, for example, the one that you know Tracy mentioned over here and talked to today, like he and I have this wonderful relationship where he just tells me like it is and that's you know, and I'll just take it no matter what he says. But it's you know.
Speaker 4:Even in Granville is a pretty high achieving school district. It's a pretty wealthy school district and yet we still have students who just need that love and the compassion of an adult who just cares about them and is willing to say hi, how are you in the hallway on a daily basis, and so that's what keeps me coming back and I think, having kids of my own and knowing what their experiences are as they go through school and hearing about their friendships and knowing my own experiences, you know I want to make sure that I'm being the light for so many of the kids that I had that growing up and I want to be that for a lot of these kiddos as well.
Speaker 2:And just to connect you with that, we had a guest on last week that was from a career center, principal from a career center, and he had been at a high school before that and that was his number one thing was relationships. So you are coming from a K-3, you know building those little relationships, but he was emphasizing, you know, at the high school and at the career center level, that relationships were the biggest thing that kept him coming back and kept kids coming back.
Speaker 4:So it's just interesting to hear everybody with the similar thread Right yeah, I think that you know administrators can have lots of different philosophies and so forth, but you know, I think at an elementary building, where you're so integrated with the community because so many parents and community members will visit the school and interact with the school you have to just recognize you want to build that positive relationship and in terms of the kids, you know this is where it starts, this is the foundation. You know, our mission statement in Granville is learning for life and we like to say that learning for life starts right here at the elementary school, and part of that is learning how to have positive relationship with adults and how to help students learn to love learning. And I, when we have our kindergarten orientation in the summer, I tell them that that's my number one goal is that if your child leaves third grade having learned to love learning, then we've done our job.
Speaker 1:I love that. That's great yeah.
Speaker 2:Great, all right, diane. Let's move on to what they're.
Speaker 1:What the go ahead. Well, okay, so PBIS Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports. We know that you are doing that in your school. So what are you most proud of? What have you worked on that you would just really like to share? That's working really well in your building. Just go ahead and share with us about that.
Speaker 3:Yes, so go ahead, go ahead, travis.
Speaker 4:So it comes back to relationships. I've been principal here for 10 years and I think that that's been one of the biggest accolades that we have is our teachers are very intentional about connecting with our kids in a very natural and deep way. Not just parents filling out a survey and saying my kid likes football, not just parents filling out a survey and saying my kid likes football. We make space and time for our teachers and all of our staff members to get to connect with kids and with each other. We know that's important. Even the adults connect with each other. So I'm I'm really proud of that in our building and I have a feeling Tracy will talk about kind of our strength, focus and that sort of thing. But that's part of the relationship as well.
Speaker 4:So all the things we do with PBIS is about making a relationship. You know, if you're, you know we were the Granville Blue Aces. So we talk we have stickers with little blue aces on it and if you're giving a child a sticker, that's great, but don't just give them the sticker. Tell them why they're getting the sticker, you know. Build that bridge for them so they understand. Like it's not just you handing them a sticker. It's you handing them a sticker because you recognize something in them and that's so powerful, that 10 seconds is so powerful for that kid on that day.
Speaker 2:It is so powerful. You know, we talk about that with our teachers' enforceable statements, like you know. Don't just tell them good job, you know, but tell them why. So when you're holding that sticker out to them and or whatever you're giving to them and then giving them that direction for what they're doing, then they can repeat that behavior because they want that recognition from you. So that that's awesome. We do talk about that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was just going to build off of what Travis said, because we do do these stickers for those spontaneous moments. They go on water bottles and some kids collect them on their folders. But it had to do with our shift from yes, the P stands for positive. But one of the things we really wanted to focus on is that positive does not mean like it's not a state of mind, it's not that rose colored glasses, it's not ignoring discipline or consequences. It's that P is really the power we have when we are positive. And so that shift of explaining why you gave it or we have something that you have called awesomes, where you actually write a note and tell them what they have done, is kind of like a shout out and it's grounded in our portrait of a graduate competencies. But it's that power of that why that you were just talking about that engages the student, gives them optimism, some purpose and hopefully unifies our staff with our students. So I am pretty proud of that as well.
Speaker 1:Yes, and so I think, if I'm hearing you, then this is a lot that has to do with the acknowledgement system. So doing lots of acknowledging on positive you know positive behaviors, and probably also academics as well, Right, yeah, shout out some things like that, goal setting maybe Exactly.
Speaker 3:Exactly Because we go through. You know, we have our common visions, we call them our blue ace visions and then we go into what exactly what you just said that praise? Where are we praising, where are we acknowledging? And then we go into what exactly what you just said that praise where are we praising, where are we acknowledging? And then also, where are we goal setting with our students? You know we have goal setting in the cafeteria along with our common vision. We have goal setting within the classroom. We have ways that we use our learning for life and portrait of graduate to sort it out. So with that foundation, we're actually able to do the. Our main focus this year, which was the strength-based conversations at the tier two level, that's been really exciting, but that wouldn't exist without, without all of that groundwork and foundation. Yeah, Great.
Speaker 2:So when you say visions and goal setting, how do you logistically do that? Is it? Is it one on one with a student? Is it how? How does that get accomplished?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I want to talk about tier one yeah.
Speaker 4:So we have, we have classroom visions and we have visions for different areas of our buildings, like the bathroom, even for the hallway. So, basically, you know, it's our grid, our matrix, but we just call it visions.
Speaker 3:And we call it visions.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we call them that because we help. We have the kids work with us to help identify what do we want to see more of, what do we want to hear more of? How else do we want to feel? And so in a classroom setting, a teacher might put a chart up. It says feel, hear, see and do. And then the kids come up with what we want more of in those areas in the classroom. And then what might we want less of? We actually focus on the more. If we don't get to, the less that's okay, but we focus on the more.
Speaker 4:We always start the year off with a classroom one and then some teachers a lot of our teachers actually will do specific ones for different parts of their day. So during reading, stamina time, this is what it looks like. During math workshop this is our vision for math workshop because it's a little more specific. And that's where the goal setting comes in, where it is with individual students.
Speaker 4:Sometimes it is hey, I know that you're having a very difficult time just staying in your seat and not distracting other friends. So what can we do more of and what can we see less of? And we just set a goal we're going to do more staying in our seat and following directions. We're going to do less distracting our friends. So what can I do to help you make that happen? And we set that goal. All right, if we can, for 10 minutes, make this happen, then there's an incentive or a break or whatever it might be. So it does happen in very individualized settings, but it also happens in classroom settings as well, as a class we want to see more of this Our vision says we want to see more participation and collaboration.
Speaker 4:So that's our goal. We want to see that more often. We want to see examples of that five times in the morning, five times in the afternoon, whatever. It might be some generic goal, so it can work a little bit different both ways, even in the cafeteria. Right now we have a chart in our cafeteria and each lunch group can get little rows colored in depending on how they're meeting the ace vision in the cafeteria, and when they hit six colored rows, then they get a fun lunch, whether that's a video that gets played or we play music, or they get to sit where they want that sort of stuff. So it's just little nuanced things like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. How did you roll that out to your teachers?
Speaker 4:So when I came to the elementary school about 10 years ago, they'd already been using some of the program called PAX and they were using it pretty, very, very loosely. And so after I went through the training and so forth, we kind of just pinpoint, like, what are the major pieces of PAX that we really want to cling to? And so the vision was definitely one of them. And so when we talked about the vision, it was a lot of just modeling it for them. So we even have visions for our staff meetings, visions for our grade level conversations, and so we did it with the adults first and kind of made it more natural with the adults and then encouraged it for a while and then it really just kind of became part of our culture.
Speaker 4:And so when I say to everyone, hey, don't forget about you need to make sure you're doing your ACE visions in your classroom, you can walk into just about any classroom. If you don't see the ACE vision, you may not see it, but if you ask a kid about it, they can tell you something from their ACE vision, because it might be on a Google slide the teacher puts up every morning during the morning meeting or something like that. So it's a slow, gradual process. Something our superintendent loves to say is we go slow to go fast, and that really works in this case. We just slowly kind of worked things in and it didn't have to become this heavy handed. Well, the administrator says you have to do an ACE vision. It just became hey, we recognize the value of these and how these work, and so now they're all over our building.
Speaker 3:Okay, and I think, travis, too, one thing like you mentioned, the less that is our responsiveness. At the end of the year, we focus on relationships and building our community, but you need to keep revisiting it and so that we hold on to that lesson to our pocket, like, hey, let's look at this vision, you know what do we need to do less of and what can we do more of. So we use that as more of our responsiveness to our vision, so that they don't become something on the wall, they don't become just a slide that they're actually living and breathing and revisited the wall, they don't become just a slide that they're actually living and breathing and revisited.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we encourage them to revisit them, especially after long breaks, and sometimes the teacher will just naturally say you know what? It's not working right now. We're going to start all over or we're going to adjust. We're going to add the less. So it's a very fluid process.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I really. I like the terminology too. You know I do too.
Speaker 2:I love that vision and that's awesome. I I like the terminology too, or you know, I love that vision and that's awesome yeah.
Speaker 1:I like that. So what else? Um, what else would you like to share with us about your tier one or two?
Speaker 3:You even mentioned tier two, yes, so what Travis just described is us looking at the strengths with that more. And what are we doing? Well, so what can we do more of? And that's more at the tier one level. But at the tier two level, travis and I have been really intentional this year bringing in Margaret Searle's work. I'm not sure if you're familiar with her, but she has a strength-based guide for teachers and teams when you're solving academic and behavioral concerns or in trying to get to know your students better. And one part of her process that we've really come to this year is something called student. She calls them student interviews.
Speaker 3:We've we've changed it to strength based conversations, because in this conversation, when a teacher is struggling with supporting the child and I'm sure we've all heard like I've tried everything or I don't know, there's so many I don't know where to begin. She has strength charts that help you begin that conversation. But what we did learn is when we brought the teacher, one of us and the child together and we went through a protocol together, we are finding that there's three outcomes from that. The first one is we just know each other better and there's nothing else that needs to come out of that. Sometimes a plan comes out of it a schedule, the routine. And then there's other times that maybe we become a part of that check-in and check-out of whatever plan.
Speaker 3:So there's kind of three levels that kind of come out of this strength-based conversation that we have with the student and the protocol begins with a connection. So we play a this or that game, and the reason we do that is the ones we've selected bring out fears. They bring out how you feel in social situations. So we begin with, you know, would you want to be the size of an elephant or the size of a mouse? And so we're trying to see how they feel like, how they want to be seen. Do they even want to be seen? We ask, would you rather explore the ocean or would you rather explore space? So, thinking about, I probably know more, you know, an interest kind of comes into that one as well. And then the third one we often ask has to do with water parks and roller coasters.
Speaker 3:And that's more of that risk taking. You know where would you feel comfortable taking that risk and why? So then after that we work through you know, tell us a time when you are proud of yourself and what's special about you. And then from that we say you know, tell us something in the classroom that was hard and how did you get through that. You know what does the teacher do that helps you in the classroom. And then we end with the big one that kind of tells us which way to go. If we were to give you a blue ace leader sticker, why would we give you one? And this is where they think. And typically, out of this we then say, hey, what's one small step we can do to help you get that? And from that they nine times out of 10, pick exactly what we were hoping they would pick.
Speaker 3:But there's ownership and together we either come up with like little signals. You know, I just need you to know I'm really struggling with partners. I don't wanna be with a partner. So what's our symbol for that? When you need a break, what do we need to know about that? Partners, just in games. How can we start to infuse you into more relationships with your peers.
Speaker 3:Sometimes a kid tells us I need a schedule for recess. It's just too much out there, I want to swing. He wants to time himself and he knows he can't be in that place. A schedule for recess, it's just too much out there. I want to swing, I want to. You know he wants to type himself and he knows he can't be in that place at a certain time, you know. And he really wants a schedule.
Speaker 3:And the best part about it is what we've also learned is when we're developing they're not behavior plans, and that's one of the things we've really kind of focused on is the strengths that a plan. Are we reporting to the family or are we intervening and supporting the child? And when we support and intervene and support the child, then there is what they, you can say, earn, but it's not. They acknowledge another adult in the building that they would like to spend time with. So a student might say, hey, if I get these four tickets, if I goal set and I get four of them, I really would love extra time in the art room and to be a helper for kindergarten.
Speaker 3:Or you know, mr Ward, and I talk a lot about this during bus duty, but I'd like to spend just 10 more minutes with him talking about something. So we always do relation grounded responses to any support we put in place. So that's been very powerful this year and it's been fun watching the office become not this destination. You know, I have kids. I'm always nervous when we start this podcast. That might just walk in and be like hey, just wanted to tell you, because we're are putting strengths first in all of our conversations and building off of what we can already do.
Speaker 2:So those questions that you just went through, you got those from Margaret Searle's book.
Speaker 3:They're modified from Margaret Searle. Yes, but she has an actual student interview template that she puts out for that. Yes, but we're finding at the K-3 level the word interview you know the connotation of it. Can a student interview for us, strength-based conversation. I love that terminology.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I mean, that's the goal of it. We want to know the strengths, we want the student's perspective, and it is truly just a conversation. Not every conversation is going to lead with a decision.
Speaker 2:You know it's going to be just a discussion those questions, types of that you do care about how he thinks about things or she stereotypes, it's just he but um, and then coming with him making the realization of what he could see more.
Speaker 3:I mean, that's very powerful just in that meeting, and you know what's really powerful is actually the teacher's reaction when they leave, because there is not the noise of the classroom, it's the three of us together and the child has the teacher's undivided attention. The teacher's truly listening and sometimes I can even gauge where the relationship is at. You can tell by how they're sharing and you know how can I support the relationship with that child. And some teachers will say I want to be the relationship at the end of the school setting because I feel like we're starting to build something we haven't seen. Yeah, and so you know that's really powerful.
Speaker 1:It is Gosh. I love it. That's great.
Speaker 2:So I guess we always, when we get to this point, we always ask the schools so there's a school out there listening. Okay, Because we have over a thousand downloads.
Speaker 3:We're so excited us you know, we really liked hearing about this.
Speaker 2:We really want more information about this. So we always want to say one if it's okay to you know, put them back to you. If they would call about us, they'd go like, yeah, we can have you email them, you know, for more information. But if you have that school out there going, boy, I'd really like to start these conferences. You know, like these, not interviews, conversations, yes. How would I start? How would I? What would be the tip to start? How did you begin?
Speaker 3:Well, I'd say the first thing before Travis goes in onto that would be I would get Margaret Searles for a book. It's a straight-based guide for teachers called Solving Academic and Behavioral Problems. In here is the whole process of mtss. But what we did is we pulled out the section of where our building was and that is where the strength charts she she talks about her strength charts. They're even available on her website I believe it's margaretsearlecom, to be honest and then we have, you know, the book has the strength charts, it has her sample interviews and this is a K-12 book. So we did modify it with our language so that we could get farther with our students. So I would, as we always do, ground ourselves in some research and some protocols in a process. But, travis, I don't know if you want to expand on that.
Speaker 2:Well, travis, how did you get the teachers on board with this? Because, see, this would be the first thing I'm thinking of. And this would be like a tip to everyone because we are almost out of time. We have about seven minutes left. One tip about getting the staff on board. You guys have so much information. It's really awesome to listen to.
Speaker 4:So I don't know there's a great tip. There is no one size fits all tip. I would say that the only reason we were able to do these strength-based conversations is because we have a strong foundation of PBIS and providing lots of different ways of recognizing kiddos for their positive choices and meeting expectations and just being amazing ACE leaders. So that's the start. I think, even before you start, that you have to kind of assess the culture of your building. If your building doesn't have a relationship, prioritized culture, it's not going to work. It just isn't.
Speaker 4:Because teachers have to come into those strength-based conversations knowing that this is part of building that relationship with this kiddo. It isn't one more thing I have to do, it's part of building that relationship. And so that's been a focus of mine for the last 10 years and I've just sprinkled. I mean, it's a, I prioritize that every year and you just make little baby steps. We do book studies every year that are voluntary book studies for our staff and many of them have been about social, emotional needs and meeting the relationships of kids and doing meeting those. And sometimes you know, the thing our superintendent likes to say is you change the belief, the behavior will change with it, and so part of that's been part of the work has just been spending 10 years helping people kind of understand the power of building relationships.
Speaker 2:so we have that strong foundation so we then could build on to it and have these strength-based conversations well, and also, just to side note, we we have talked with several schools and just the journey that Diane and I went through having that administrative support and stamp is so important. So you're selling yourself short. On these 10 years, you have been a big influence I can see it in making these teachers believe that one they are listened to, that this is important and that this is the path you know to help these kids. So that it's awesome to listen to you guys. It really is.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, I think we're about closing up. We have to do our podcast in under a half hour, because I always feel like that's about people's attention span. So you know, we try to keep them around a half hour, but we will be moving on to tier two and tier three. If you guys would be interested later in coming back to be guests with us, we'd love to do it again if that's a possibility. But thank you so much for being with us today and we learned so much and I know that our listeners will be using a lot of this information. So that's all we have today, everybody. So I'm Diane Farrell and I'm here with Diane Ruff, and thank you so much for listening to PBIS. Journey to Genius Email us. We also have a Facebook page and an Instagram account, so check us out. Pbis Journey to Genius. Email us. We also have a Facebook page and an Instagram account, so check us out PBIS Journey to Genius in both areas. Our email is Diane PBIS journeytogenius at gmailcom.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, thank you.
