It's hard to believe we are into February and are almost ready to take on the last third of the school year! I have had a chance to get out to our K-12 schools many times over the last few months, and I am reminded daily of the amazing things happening throughout our district! We have dedicated teachers, staff, and administrators working relentlessly to provide the best opportunity for ALL of our 14,000+ students to achieve success. This success often goes far beyond academics and far beyond the walls of each of our schools. I see teachers and staff building positive relationships with students and going above and beyond the call of duty every day. I see administrators leading schools with passion and making big decisions in order to do what is best for kids. I see a community which is incredibly proud and supportive of our schools. As we head into February, sometimes known as one of the hardest months of the teaching year, it is a great time to reflect on the great things happening in our district. Hopefully you are ready to continue to be the champions that our students deserve each and every day whether we're on day 1, 100, or 175 of the school year! The schools highlighted below, like all schools in the district, are living out our goal of providing the best educational experiences possible for our students! Elementary SpotLight - AlexanderPrincipal Chris Gibson opened Alexander Elementary in 2015. Although there have been some hurdles throughout the first few years, the Alexander PBIS team has worked incredibly hard to create systems and processes to meet the needs of their students across all tiers. Alexander students and staff have experienced great success this year, in part due to a heightened focus on Tier 1 implementation fidelity. When I visited the Tier 1 meeting in September the team was going through their Tier 1 implementation fidelity checklist. The team broke this down into weeks 1-3 and 4-6. The goal was to ensure all teachers had what they needed to set their students up for success throughout the year. Being very intentional early on can pay off significantly throughout the remainder of the year. The team created the checklist, followed up using the tool, and have seen great success so far this year as a result! (fidelity checklist below) At the December PBIS Coaches Meeting Brandy Welch, Alexander's Tier 1 Internal Coach, shared their PBIS Handbook. Many buildings have worked to put together these handbooks in recent years. The handbooks provide great guidance for teachers and staff in the building and help to reiterate why this work is so important. In addition, thoughtfully planning for the year, establishing and clarifying roles and responsibilities of team members, and having solid systems and processes in place provides the opportunity for Tier 1 team meetings to be highly efficient and effective. *The district PBIS leadership team is currently working to develop a PBIS handbook template. Stay tuned for more details!* When attending the most recent Tier 1 meeting, I noticed the incredible efficiency of the team. The meeting lasted only 30 minutes, yet the team had a specific agenda, defined roles and responsibilities, data analysis, and action planning. Their meeting was incredibly productive. Meeting efficiency is key when it comes to PBIS. We want to have strong systems and practices in place so when we meet we know exactly what we need to do and how to accomplish it. So, what has contributed to the success at Alexander this year? What has helped them move beyond the struggles they experienced in the first few years? Below are just some of the practices the leadership team referenced as they have reflected on the change. Notice the focus on establishing relationships, community building, and being proactive rather than reactive! Daily Practices Affecting Students * Greet students 3x every, single day. Students are greeted off the bus/car line by our staff and by another adult in the main hallway, before they are greeted at the classroom door by teacher for a hug, handshake, high five or fist bump. This sets the tone of "You matter" to all of our Falcons, every day. * Morning Meetings to start the day across the school. * Upbeat, positive morning announcements with music to start the day. These include reminders about Tier 1 PBIS and our Falcon Focus: Respect, Responsibility, Relationships and Pride. * Regular use of tickets to positively acknowledge following common expectations. Leadership reminders that teachers will be looking to hand out at least 25 tickets each day to positively acknowledge following our common expectations. * Very explicit procedures in place for all staff, including arrival, dismissal, bus, and recess (All staff are on active duty, nearly every day for each of these duties). Additions Affecting Staff * Core beliefs established and a strong focus on school-family-community partnerships. * Professional learning and training opportunities for staff: Behavior Basics, Implicit Bias, Restorative Justice Practices. * All school book student (Fostering Resilient Learners: Strategies for Creating a Trauma Sensitive Classroom by P. Hall and K. Souers) * Explicit teaching of continuum of responses to staff. * Tightening up Major/Minor definitions. * Ongoing staff learning and discussion on explicit instruction and engagement strategies, as well as race, equity, and bias conversations (beliefs manifest in classroom management/students' abilities); IDS have been instrumental in this. * Continual discussions in PLCs and ILT centered around school-wide data and best practice. In general, we know great instruction is a tool for behavior management. The work Alexander staff have done to try to reach all learners also contributes to their success. Kids who know they belong and are cared for, and who believe they can succeed academically, tend to want to stay engaged in the learning. Finally, sometimes it just comes down to practicing what you preach. And sometimes the "little things" are often actually "big things." We know that there are times when teachers need a little boost of positive. Who doesn't want to feel appreciated?! This fun little gift and note were provided at a recent meeting and put a smile on team members' faces! These gestures, whether for colleagues, staff, or students truly mean so much! Way to go, Alexander leadership team, your dedication to students and your hard work over the past few years has truly paid off! Secondary Spotlight - NorthWestA new leadership team is present at Northwest Junior High this year! Principal Liz Bruening, Assistant Principal Mitch Gross, and the PBIS team at NWJH have worked to increase implementation of PBIS throughout the school. The team met over the summer to create a new set of behavior expectations to guide students and staff. Many staff members participated in an extended learning about all things PBIS during the optional professional development day in August as well. The ability for teachers to reference their "Viking Virtues" and look for students showing "SWAG" creates consistency and ease throughout the building. A major emphasis currently with PBIS nationwide is the idea of incorporating an adult expectation into the behavior matrix. You see this below in the form of "Guide Me" - which shows how teachers will assist students in following these behavior expectations. Finally, consistent with the state and national focus on incorporating Social Emotional Learning language into our PBIS framework, you can see the team thought of this as well. Examples include: "be kind and helpful to visitors" and "honor others' opinions and answers." Awesome!! Another celebration is new signage in the building! One of the core features of Tier 1 implementation is that student behavior expectations are clearly identified and posted. This is now evident as you walk in the front doors of Northwest! Although signage looks different at the secondary level, it is still critical to get this common language throughout the halls for all students and staff to see. Finally, another new addition at Northwest this year is the use of the PBIS Rewards App. All junior high buildings have now started to use the app in some capacity. Northwest staff provide student acknowledgement through the app which is being used as a replacement to the paper tickets in years past. In general, students and staff seem to appreciate the efficiency of this system. Now that all secondary buildings are 1:1 students may check their balance of points to use at the store with ease! Way to go, Northwest Junior High staff! We love seeing your increased emphasis on PBIS implementation and appreciate you all showing your SWAG!
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Tiered Fidelity Inventory (TFI)
Self-Assessment Survey (SAS)
Additional ResourcesAdditional Resources
PBIS.org TFI (includes TFI and TFI Walkthrough) GWAEA Data Worksheet GWAEA Winter Coaches Training PBISapps.org And, as always, please reach out with any questions: [email protected] After attending many PBIS meetings district-wide I've noticed so many great things happening in our schools! PBIS teams are working diligently to provide Universal Tier 1 instruction to all students. This time of year I notice many buildings working on behavior expectation boosts and focusing in on some of their identified problem areas after analyzing data! This is a great opportunity to revisit your building or school wide behavior expectations and continue teaching students those expectations as we're entering the heart of the school year. During my time in PBIS meetings I've also observed that sometimes building teams get held up or experience some confusion when it comes to Tier 2 interventions. Here are some helpful hints related to Tier 2 implementation: *A student who is identified as needing supplemental instruction (Tier 2) still has access to all Tier 1 (universal instruction components). Tier 2 is layered on top of Tier 1. The same layering idea is applied to Tier 3 supports. *Remember that Tier 2 interventions are NOT individualized. Tier 2 interventions are intended to be standardized and efficient. For this reason the CICO form should not be individualized for each student. The CICO should, however, be directly tied to your building behavior expectations. *Your building should have established IN and OUT criteria for each intervention. If you notice that your IN criteria is not identifying students that have potential needs then your team may need to take a look and modify your building IN criteria. Often the "internalizing" behaviors go unnoticed so something to be mindful of. Typically 5-15% of students in your building could be identified as needing Tier 2 supports. *There is a specific process in place for identifying students for Tier 2 interventions (Request for Assistance, Teacher/PLC recommendation, In/On/Out criteria defined). Make sure to follow the process that has been established in your building. Check In Check Out (CICO) *For a student who is on Check in Check Out (CICO) the intervention is NOT the sheet. The intervention is the feedback the student should be receiving numerous times a day. Teachers and staff should be reminded to take the opportunity to explicitly refer to the building behavior expectations in their brief conversations. Simply circling a number on the Daily Progress Report (DPR) is not providing an intervention as it does not tell the student what they are doing well or need to work on. CICO is the lowest level Tier 2 intervention and should be used first when a student is identified as needing additional support beyond Universal or Tier 1. *A typical CICO cycle is 6 weeks, however some buildings do a 4 or 8 week assessment. Consistency is key, so once a decision is made on how long the intervention will last in your building, make sure to stick with it. If a student is not responding then the Tier 2 team should meet to see what the next steps are. If a student is responding the team should also meet. Should the student be faded? Does a student need to have a CICO with modified features? All of these are team decisions. Social Academic Instructional Groups (SAIG) *Social Academic Instructional Groups (SAIG) provide great opportunities for explicit skill instruction for students who do not respond to a low level Tier 2 intervention (CICO). Perhaps students need additional teaching and practicing of a skill. When students do not respond to CICO you may try a CICO with modified features, but perhaps SAIG is the best option. *There are three types of SAIG: Academic/Classroom Survival Skills, Problem Solving/Emotional Management, and Pro-Social/Friendship skills. *SAIG lessons follow a very specific protocol. Teach, Model, Practice/Role-Play, Apply, Reinforce. *The DPR should be adjusted to reflect the goal of the SAIG (specific skills taught - academic behavior, emotional management, or pro-social). Students do not need this DPR in addition to a CICO sheet. A student's DPR acts as a CICO and is identifying students' application of SAIG skills learned. Again, the emphasis is on the conversation centered around the students' application of specific skills learned. *Where do you find the SAIG materials/lessons? Milwaukee Public Schools has really great resources for the Academic and Problem Solving SAIG. Each school counselor received a SAIG binder with these materials. They may also be found here: http://mps.milwaukee.k12.wi.us/en/Families/Family-Services/Intervention---PBIS/SAIG-Curriculum.htm *Skillstreaming is a great resource for the Pro-Social SAIG. If your school does not have the SkillStreaming curriculum please contact me and I will make sure to send it your way. *SAIG should last approximately 6-8 weeks. The Tier 2 team will then analyze, based on data from the DPR, if the student successfully responded to the SAIG or not. If a student does respond they could be faded back to a CICO. If a student does not respond then they may need additional Tier 2 interventions. Each student is assessed individually to determine next steps. *SAIG lessons are stand alone lessons. Students move into the group as they are identified as needing this Tier 2 intervention. Groups typically meet once per week for approximately 30 minutes. *SAIG do not have to be run by a school counselor. Although counselors play a critical role in developing and running the SAIG, you may eventually consider having these groups be facilitated be staff other than clinicians! These groups are to develop social skills and are not therapeutic or diagnostic in nature. Perhaps a clinician leads the first round and then models it for another staff member to lead. Other school personnel who are trained and follow the SAIG guidelines can run these groups. This could be other support staff (SFA, SAM, etc), teachers, or other staff members. Anyone leading a SAIG should run the lesson consistent to the guidelines so each student has access to the same intervention if they are in a SAIG. Tier 2 Team Details *Tier 2 team should meet at least monthly; many buildings have Tier 2 meetings weekly. Some buildings refer to their Tier 2/Tier 3 meeting as an SST meeting. The meeting should be centered around analyzing what students are responding to the interventions and what to do if they are not. The meetings should be more about the system and process than about lengthy conversations about individual students. The goal of the team discussion is to analyze if the intervention is working. If it is, what's the plan? If it is not, what's the plan? This should be easy to determine if the system and process is strong in the building. *Our goal is for at least 70% of students in Tier 2 interventions to be responding positively to the intervention. If that is not the case then the system and process should be analyzed for implementation fidelity. *Communication is key! Just as the PBIS Tier 1 team communicates with the building staff, parents, community and other stakeholders, this is also important for the Tier 2 team to consider! Parental consent should be received for a student receiving a Tier 2 intervention. Consider creating materials to be distributed at the beginning of the year, conferences, on your school website, etc. Additionally, make sure there is a consistent plan for professional development/communication for all building staff members. It is essential teachers and staff are aware of the components of Tier 2. Questions?For additional questions related to Tier 2 interventions please contact me at: [email protected]
Don't forget to showcase all of the amazing work you're doing on social media using our district PBIS hashtags: #ICpositivity and #ICCSDPBIS Keep up the awesome work! Our students are so lucky to have you as their champions! Ever feel like you are just one person in this big world and wonder about the possibility of impact that you, individually, can have in the grand scheme of things? Well, I hope after reading this post you might be inspired and realize that you, individually, have an opportunity to make a significant impact with each and every interaction. The "power of one" in all aspects of life is incredible. One interaction with one person can change your life or his/her life without either of you even knowing it. I have probably watched Rita Pierson's Ted Talk, Every Kid Needs a Champion, hundreds of times. Her talk always motivates me to do better and inspires me to go the extra mile. I can name numerous educators who I had at the elementary, secondary, or collegiate level that have had a major impact on my life; without them, I certainly wouldn't be where I am or who I am today. Pierson advocates that EVERY child needs a champion and that we (me, you, us; educators) can be the champion for a child or many children every single day! A huge challenge, but also a great opportunity! I have been reading Culturize by Jimmy Casas (I highly recommend getting yourself a copy if you don't already have one). There are many quotes throughout the book that have resonated with me, but I particularly love this one:
I have been thinking deliberately about this: "We are blessed every day with the opportunity to help change the course of someone's life," wow, that is a powerful charge! Being mindful of every interaction that we are a part of and how every, single, little thing we say or do can be a positive or negative influence on the world we live in is incredible. These interactions could impact us personally, impact our family, friends, colleagues, students, our personal and/or professional life. It is true, that ONE person can be so very powerful in this world! Seem like too big of a challenge? You could be that ONE person in your classroom, your school environment, your home, or your community. One interaction can make or break a student's day! Are you building students up and inspiring them to strive for greatness? One interaction with a colleague can impact them positively or negatively. Are you reaching out to lend an ear or assist with something they're struggling with? Often when we ask adults about their school experience they remember the ONE negative interaction they had with a teacher or peer. Often they remember the ONE time someone went out of their way to make them feel empowered or special. It's all very similar to throwing a rock into a body of water... We must be conscious of the power of one and think about the "ripples" we create; do we want our ripples to be positive or negative. Think about the impact you want to leave. I know for me, I appreciate the opportunity I have with every interaction and certainly try to capitalize on each one to create the biggest, most positive ripple possible! I hope you will choose to do the same! What can you do in one moment today to make a positive impact on someone around you? How can you make positive ripples wherever you are in life? So many could benefit from just one choice that you make! Capitalize on the "power of one" that we've all been gifted!
I have had the privilege of attending many back to school kick off assemblies throughout the district over the past couple of weeks! Not only did I get to see many of our district's beautiful schools and interact with some of the state's best educators, I also had an opportunity to see the hard work of PBIS teams come to fruition as they delivered important messages to both the staff and students in their learning communities. The ideas and plans each school team worked to create and implement are specific to their student population and their learning environment. That's what is awesome about incorporating PBIS into your school, you tailor it specifically to your people and your needs.
Although significant time and energy are required to create a highly functioning PBIS framework and implement practices and systems with fidelity, the payoff and reward throughout the year is incredible! Here is just a sampling of the amazing success I've witnessed in some of our schools over the last couple weeks. Stay tuned for more throughout the year! Elementary Spotlight - Borlaug
Entering into Borlaug Elementary for the first time I was blown away by the vibrant and fun hallways, classrooms and common areas! The building is beautifully decorated, full of color, photographs, behavior expectations, and reminders of how to be positive and your best self. I couldn't help but think how lucky students are to be Borlaug Bulldogs!
Look at this beautiful display (full display above/close up below) of all Borlaug staff members! Students see this as they enter the building and when they're waiting in line for lunch. What an opportunity to learn about the adults in the building and foster strong relationships!
The Borlaug Beliefs are:
We are the Borlaug Bulldogs! We are Respectful, Responsible and Safe! On the first two days of the school year a huge focus was on expectations training. The Opening Day Assembly included the Borlaug welcome song, assembly expectations, Bulldog ticket explanation, as well as the Borlaug pledge and school song. On day two of school all students K-6 participated in Expectation Training for the five common areas: Lunchroom, Recess, Bus, Bathroom, and Hallway. Students rotated through the five stations by grade level where the specific common area behavior expectations were taught by the same person for each of the six grades. This is a key component of PBIS - using common language and having consistent expectation teaching/modeling. Having one person lead the training for each area ensures that all students are receiving the same message and that there aren't inconsistent directions/expectations delivered to various groups of students. During the common area training leaders modeled examples and non-examples. In addition, students were able to earn Bulldog tickets for being positive leaders and exhibiting positive behavior! Junior High Spotlight - South east
The South East PBIS team has, for years, spent a significant amount of time establishing the culture of the building at the beginning of the school year as well as doing boost lessons throughout the year. The South East behavior expectations are SOAR (Self Discipline, Ownership, Achievement, Respect). These expectations guide students to success in classrooms and common areas throughout the school.
In past years behavior expectations were taught over the first two to three weeks during Homeroom. This year the PBIS team recognized this took a significant amount of time for all students to learn the expectations and seemed too drawn out. The team recognized the importance of spending a significant amount of time teaching and modeling the behavior expectations, but also wanted to revamp the delivery method. For this reason, the team came up with the idea to create a "PBIS Boot Camp" for the first couple days of school. The format of the "camp" was simple (see schedule below).
The building's 7th and 8th graders were divided into teams based upon their homeroom. These teams rotated through common area expectation lessons, team building sessions, a social media refresher led by the Iowa City Police Department, and 1:1 expectations due to Chromebook roll-out. Not only were students able to learn all of the classroom and common area behavior lessons in the first two days of school, they also had access to a meaningful and eye-opening presentation on social media/digital citizenship. Students were able to spend more time and build relationships with their homeroom teacher and peers in the first few days, and were still able to have face to face contact with all of their classroom teachers in the first two days. Another huge benefit was "Little Hawk Time," South East's intervention block, started much earlier than in years past due to the newly arranged schedule.
Check out the enthusiasm of the new SEJH 7th graders during the kickoff assembly (above)! Last year the PBIS team had new signs printed and posted throughout the classrooms and common areas at SEJH, don't they look awesome?!
Check out this Change your Mindset display in one SEJH classroom (below)!
Way to go Ms. Cook, Ms. Dvorak, Ms. Brewer, SEJH PBIS Team and all Little Hawks!
High School Spotlight - Liberty
After opening last year, the Liberty administrators and PBIS team recognized there was a need for some revamping going into year two. The Liberty PBIS team, staff, and students worked relentlessly over the summer to establish behavior expectations (BOLTS - Belonging, Ownership, Leadership, Teamwork, Safety) for their students and create a positive acknowledgement system where all students are valued and know they belong as members of the Liberty community!
During the staff PBIS kickoff event a significant amount of time was spent explaining the "why" of PBIS. It is essential that all staff understand the why behind what you are doing so they buy in to the process; if staff don't believe in what you're doing it is likely not going to be successful. It was clear, as I attended the staff meeting, that Liberty staff were on board and excited to move forward under great leadership.
The PBIS team led the entire staff through the PBIS lessons to be taught during Liberty Time Day 1 and 2 of school. Interestingly, the team started with the culminating Day 2 activity and worked backwards - a great teaching strategy and learning opportunity for staff. Sometimes it is necessary to see the end result in order to fully understand and appreciate the process and procedure in getting there!
The new Liberty student expectation matrix (above). The team recognized the need to reinvent their expectations and came up with BOLTS - awesome! Liberty Time Day 1 and 2 Lessons (below). One of the most impactful portions of the expectation introduction was a student video on ownership by Moses Bolar. I don't know Moses, but couldn't help being moved by his message!
Liberty Staff shared student experiences through social media the first few days (see below)! How powerful to spread the positive happening in your community!
In their recent PBIS meeting, the team shared out how different, and much better, the year has started off at Liberty! Staff and student feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and the team has already been implementing many positive acknowledgements for students and staff.
Way to go Mr. Kibby, Mr. Colbert, Ms. O'Donnell, Liberty PBIS Team and all BOLTS! Thank you!
A huge THANK YOU to all administrators, staff, and students for working so hard to make all of our schools throughout the district positive learning environments for our students to learn, grow, and thrive!
Make sure to tag the amazing things happening in your buildings with #ICpositivity and #ICCSDPBIS as you're using social media. Let's promote the positive! |
AuthorAllison Freitag, Archives
February 2019
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