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!
0 Comments
Entering Data
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] |
AuthorAllison Freitag, Archives
February 2019
Categories |