Go from a mindset of I should do the right thing, to a mindset of I want to do the right thing.
However, you have several classmates who are always off task and disruptive. Despite your instructor’s positive attitude, this behavior goes unaddressed and has become quite distracting.
Your 2nd class is different. Praise is consistent and abundant so students feel empowered to speak up and participate in all the activities involved with each lesson.
Your classmates who were off task earlier do slide into the same behavior as they had in the first class. But this doesn't go unaddressed now. Your teacher is walking around the room and consistently redirects when she notices the negative behavior. It isn’t overly harsh. But through the use of proximity, it is effective.
Which class is likely to have the highest levels of engagement? Which of those rooms is the most conducive to learning? Which teacher created an environment where all students could succeed?
How does the 2nd teacher balance the praise she knows will motivate her students with the redirection she needs to apply to keep a safe and orderly classroom?
She’s using PBIS and practicing a measured ratio of positive to negative feedback to create the ideal balance her classroom needs.
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a proactive approach to behavior in your building. PBIS is a tiered system of supports designed to differentiate between the levels of support your students need.
It follows a cycle of teaching expectations, progress monitoring, rewarding those who meet expectations, and reteaching those expectations.
The system is also designed to work in classrooms that balance positive interactions with redirections.
PBIS points allows the teacher to track those interactions for goal setting, lesson planning, and the act of awarding those points provides another layer of motivation in the classroom.
The 2nd teacher in the school we mentioned above was aware of the power of positive interactions and redirections in her classroom.
She knew that positive interactions with her students helped build relationships and create an atmosphere where her students felt comfortable speaking up and taking the kinds of academic risks necessary for deep learning to take place.
However, she was also aware that off-task behavior could derail all that momentum. Students feel comfortable speaking up and participating. But they are kids, so it is natural that at least some of them interpret this atmosphere as one where they are welcome to chat with peers, engage with technology, or fall into any number of off-task behaviors that are too numerous to list here.
Your teacher knows that if left unchecked, these off-task tendencies will inevitably lead to distractions for others and could potentially derail the lesson altogether. But redirecting harshly, or repeatedly can not only have a negative effect on the students being redirected but potentially change the mood of the entire room.
The key is to control the ratio of positive interactions to negative redirections.
You may get some opposition from staff when implementing an initiative like this.
But how do I keep track of interactions while I’m teaching?
This seems like extra work that will take my focus away from teaching.
Those are both valid concerns but are concerns that can easily be addressed by incorporating PBIS Points into your teachers' classroom management strategy.
By using a platform like LiveSchool they can easily acknowledge positive, on-task behaviors using a laptop, an interactive touchscreen, a smartboard, or even an app on a phone or tablet.
It also means they can log redirections. This can be tied to your students' point total but it also can be used just for data purposes. Whether you deduct points with redirections or not is a school culture choice.
The actual implementation of this practice is your teacher’s choice though. Classroom management styles and philosophies can differ from room to room. For my room, I would prefer a tablet that I could keep with me as I circled the room during independent instruction or group work.
During whole group instruction, I would have the platform open as a tab on my big screen so I could award the whole class at once for participation in discussions or generally to show my appreciation that everyone was ready when the bell rang or otherwise meeting the expectations we have set within our classroom norms.
This would also give me another level of redirection that isn’t raising my voice or otherwise using a harsh tone. I can use proximity, I can use my words, and I can use the data mined from points to create the specific interventions necessary to target the behavior.
By making your positive interactions and praise turn into points you are also creating a culture where students will want to earn that praise more often.
When deciding on a points process in your school you need to first establish a baseline starting point. How often do you use praise or positive reinforcement compared to redirection now? How do your students respond to each?
There are a couple of ways to establish this baseline. If you're able to observe your teachers you can simply sit in the back and chart positive vs negative and record the engagement of the student after each. Or if you want all teachers to “scout” themselves they can set up a camera in the back of the room and record a lesson to track those interactions.
Now decide how much change you can execute. Set reasonable goals for yourself and your staff.
According to PBIS research, the best practice for this is to aim for 4 positive interactions for every 1 redirection. Spreading positivity while still holding students accountable can lead to that sweet spot in your classrooms where learning becomes abundant.
How you and your teachers achieve this could vary. Some schools set minimums for awarding positive points and maximums for logging negatives.
4 to 1 may be more than you can do right now. So go for 2 to 1. Or you may decide that drastic change is necessary and within your grasp so set your goal at 8 to 1.
This is a school decision that only you and your team can make after an honest assessment of where you are in your school culture journey.
How do your students respond to redirection? How do they respond to positive feedback? Regardless, you want to create balance in your classrooms and the standards your school decides to set are going to be key drivers in your school culture.
Negative comments or redirections tend to carry more weight than positive reinforcement does in our minds.
We need to balance out the negative, and it’s going to take a surplus of positivity to do so.
We want to create the best possible learning environment. This means maintaining order while also motivating students who may not always share our priorities.
Algebra, Social Studies, Science, and English may not be as high on the list as socializing, trying to make your peers laugh, or even beating your high score on the computer game your teacher doesn’t know is open on your hidden tabs. Those can be pretty tempting distractions.
Now imagine you get PBIS points in your school for doing what's right. Those points go into your student account and you can use them to buy rewards or to gain access to events where it's appropriate to do all the things you were tempted to do in class!
It’s about making that internal decision-making easier for the student. Go from a mindset of I should do the right thing, to a mindset of I want to do the right thing.
That’s the power of positive reinforcement.
Now you have to decide what level of positivity is necessary to create the culture you are envisioning for your school.
To learn what other educators are saying take a look at our PBIS reviews.
Want to learn all you can possibly learn about PBIS? Check out our Complete PBIS Field Guide. Or how about getting your student council involved with promoting PBIS?
How do you unlock the full potential of PBIS? Check out our resources on harnessing the power of PBIS for your school district. Providing behavior support in today's schools requires that we address behavior problems holistically. Check out how The Dulles School of Excellence is doing just that by blending PBIS and SEL.
However, you have several classmates who are always off task and disruptive. Despite your instructor’s positive attitude, this behavior goes unaddressed and has become quite distracting.
Your 2nd class is different. Praise is consistent and abundant so students feel empowered to speak up and participate in all the activities involved with each lesson.
Your classmates who were off task earlier do slide into the same behavior as they had in the first class. But this doesn't go unaddressed now. Your teacher is walking around the room and consistently redirects when she notices the negative behavior. It isn’t overly harsh. But through the use of proximity, it is effective.
Which class is likely to have the highest levels of engagement? Which of those rooms is the most conducive to learning? Which teacher created an environment where all students could succeed?
How does the 2nd teacher balance the praise she knows will motivate her students with the redirection she needs to apply to keep a safe and orderly classroom?
She’s using PBIS and practicing a measured ratio of positive to negative feedback to create the ideal balance her classroom needs.
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a proactive approach to behavior in your building. PBIS is a tiered system of supports designed to differentiate between the levels of support your students need.
It follows a cycle of teaching expectations, progress monitoring, rewarding those who meet expectations, and reteaching those expectations.
The system is also designed to work in classrooms that balance positive interactions with redirections.
PBIS points allows the teacher to track those interactions for goal setting, lesson planning, and the act of awarding those points provides another layer of motivation in the classroom.
The 2nd teacher in the school we mentioned above was aware of the power of positive interactions and redirections in her classroom.
She knew that positive interactions with her students helped build relationships and create an atmosphere where her students felt comfortable speaking up and taking the kinds of academic risks necessary for deep learning to take place.
However, she was also aware that off-task behavior could derail all that momentum. Students feel comfortable speaking up and participating. But they are kids, so it is natural that at least some of them interpret this atmosphere as one where they are welcome to chat with peers, engage with technology, or fall into any number of off-task behaviors that are too numerous to list here.
Your teacher knows that if left unchecked, these off-task tendencies will inevitably lead to distractions for others and could potentially derail the lesson altogether. But redirecting harshly, or repeatedly can not only have a negative effect on the students being redirected but potentially change the mood of the entire room.
The key is to control the ratio of positive interactions to negative redirections.
You may get some opposition from staff when implementing an initiative like this.
But how do I keep track of interactions while I’m teaching?
This seems like extra work that will take my focus away from teaching.
Those are both valid concerns but are concerns that can easily be addressed by incorporating PBIS Points into your teachers' classroom management strategy.
By using a platform like LiveSchool they can easily acknowledge positive, on-task behaviors using a laptop, an interactive touchscreen, a smartboard, or even an app on a phone or tablet.
It also means they can log redirections. This can be tied to your students' point total but it also can be used just for data purposes. Whether you deduct points with redirections or not is a school culture choice.
The actual implementation of this practice is your teacher’s choice though. Classroom management styles and philosophies can differ from room to room. For my room, I would prefer a tablet that I could keep with me as I circled the room during independent instruction or group work.
During whole group instruction, I would have the platform open as a tab on my big screen so I could award the whole class at once for participation in discussions or generally to show my appreciation that everyone was ready when the bell rang or otherwise meeting the expectations we have set within our classroom norms.
This would also give me another level of redirection that isn’t raising my voice or otherwise using a harsh tone. I can use proximity, I can use my words, and I can use the data mined from points to create the specific interventions necessary to target the behavior.
By making your positive interactions and praise turn into points you are also creating a culture where students will want to earn that praise more often.
When deciding on a points process in your school you need to first establish a baseline starting point. How often do you use praise or positive reinforcement compared to redirection now? How do your students respond to each?
There are a couple of ways to establish this baseline. If you're able to observe your teachers you can simply sit in the back and chart positive vs negative and record the engagement of the student after each. Or if you want all teachers to “scout” themselves they can set up a camera in the back of the room and record a lesson to track those interactions.
Now decide how much change you can execute. Set reasonable goals for yourself and your staff.
According to PBIS research, the best practice for this is to aim for 4 positive interactions for every 1 redirection. Spreading positivity while still holding students accountable can lead to that sweet spot in your classrooms where learning becomes abundant.
How you and your teachers achieve this could vary. Some schools set minimums for awarding positive points and maximums for logging negatives.
4 to 1 may be more than you can do right now. So go for 2 to 1. Or you may decide that drastic change is necessary and within your grasp so set your goal at 8 to 1.
This is a school decision that only you and your team can make after an honest assessment of where you are in your school culture journey.
How do your students respond to redirection? How do they respond to positive feedback? Regardless, you want to create balance in your classrooms and the standards your school decides to set are going to be key drivers in your school culture.
Negative comments or redirections tend to carry more weight than positive reinforcement does in our minds.
We need to balance out the negative, and it’s going to take a surplus of positivity to do so.
We want to create the best possible learning environment. This means maintaining order while also motivating students who may not always share our priorities.
Algebra, Social Studies, Science, and English may not be as high on the list as socializing, trying to make your peers laugh, or even beating your high score on the computer game your teacher doesn’t know is open on your hidden tabs. Those can be pretty tempting distractions.
Now imagine you get PBIS points in your school for doing what's right. Those points go into your student account and you can use them to buy rewards or to gain access to events where it's appropriate to do all the things you were tempted to do in class!
It’s about making that internal decision-making easier for the student. Go from a mindset of I should do the right thing, to a mindset of I want to do the right thing.
That’s the power of positive reinforcement.
Now you have to decide what level of positivity is necessary to create the culture you are envisioning for your school.
To learn what other educators are saying take a look at our PBIS reviews.
Want to learn all you can possibly learn about PBIS? Check out our Complete PBIS Field Guide. Or how about getting your student council involved with promoting PBIS?
How do you unlock the full potential of PBIS? Check out our resources on harnessing the power of PBIS for your school district. Providing behavior support in today's schools requires that we address behavior problems holistically. Check out how The Dulles School of Excellence is doing just that by blending PBIS and SEL.
However, you have several classmates who are always off task and disruptive. Despite your instructor’s positive attitude, this behavior goes unaddressed and has become quite distracting.
Your 2nd class is different. Praise is consistent and abundant so students feel empowered to speak up and participate in all the activities involved with each lesson.
Your classmates who were off task earlier do slide into the same behavior as they had in the first class. But this doesn't go unaddressed now. Your teacher is walking around the room and consistently redirects when she notices the negative behavior. It isn’t overly harsh. But through the use of proximity, it is effective.
Which class is likely to have the highest levels of engagement? Which of those rooms is the most conducive to learning? Which teacher created an environment where all students could succeed?
How does the 2nd teacher balance the praise she knows will motivate her students with the redirection she needs to apply to keep a safe and orderly classroom?
She’s using PBIS and practicing a measured ratio of positive to negative feedback to create the ideal balance her classroom needs.
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a proactive approach to behavior in your building. PBIS is a tiered system of supports designed to differentiate between the levels of support your students need.
It follows a cycle of teaching expectations, progress monitoring, rewarding those who meet expectations, and reteaching those expectations.
The system is also designed to work in classrooms that balance positive interactions with redirections.
PBIS points allows the teacher to track those interactions for goal setting, lesson planning, and the act of awarding those points provides another layer of motivation in the classroom.
The 2nd teacher in the school we mentioned above was aware of the power of positive interactions and redirections in her classroom.
She knew that positive interactions with her students helped build relationships and create an atmosphere where her students felt comfortable speaking up and taking the kinds of academic risks necessary for deep learning to take place.
However, she was also aware that off-task behavior could derail all that momentum. Students feel comfortable speaking up and participating. But they are kids, so it is natural that at least some of them interpret this atmosphere as one where they are welcome to chat with peers, engage with technology, or fall into any number of off-task behaviors that are too numerous to list here.
Your teacher knows that if left unchecked, these off-task tendencies will inevitably lead to distractions for others and could potentially derail the lesson altogether. But redirecting harshly, or repeatedly can not only have a negative effect on the students being redirected but potentially change the mood of the entire room.
The key is to control the ratio of positive interactions to negative redirections.
You may get some opposition from staff when implementing an initiative like this.
But how do I keep track of interactions while I’m teaching?
This seems like extra work that will take my focus away from teaching.
Those are both valid concerns but are concerns that can easily be addressed by incorporating PBIS Points into your teachers' classroom management strategy.
By using a platform like LiveSchool they can easily acknowledge positive, on-task behaviors using a laptop, an interactive touchscreen, a smartboard, or even an app on a phone or tablet.
It also means they can log redirections. This can be tied to your students' point total but it also can be used just for data purposes. Whether you deduct points with redirections or not is a school culture choice.
The actual implementation of this practice is your teacher’s choice though. Classroom management styles and philosophies can differ from room to room. For my room, I would prefer a tablet that I could keep with me as I circled the room during independent instruction or group work.
During whole group instruction, I would have the platform open as a tab on my big screen so I could award the whole class at once for participation in discussions or generally to show my appreciation that everyone was ready when the bell rang or otherwise meeting the expectations we have set within our classroom norms.
This would also give me another level of redirection that isn’t raising my voice or otherwise using a harsh tone. I can use proximity, I can use my words, and I can use the data mined from points to create the specific interventions necessary to target the behavior.
By making your positive interactions and praise turn into points you are also creating a culture where students will want to earn that praise more often.
When deciding on a points process in your school you need to first establish a baseline starting point. How often do you use praise or positive reinforcement compared to redirection now? How do your students respond to each?
There are a couple of ways to establish this baseline. If you're able to observe your teachers you can simply sit in the back and chart positive vs negative and record the engagement of the student after each. Or if you want all teachers to “scout” themselves they can set up a camera in the back of the room and record a lesson to track those interactions.
Now decide how much change you can execute. Set reasonable goals for yourself and your staff.
According to PBIS research, the best practice for this is to aim for 4 positive interactions for every 1 redirection. Spreading positivity while still holding students accountable can lead to that sweet spot in your classrooms where learning becomes abundant.
How you and your teachers achieve this could vary. Some schools set minimums for awarding positive points and maximums for logging negatives.
4 to 1 may be more than you can do right now. So go for 2 to 1. Or you may decide that drastic change is necessary and within your grasp so set your goal at 8 to 1.
This is a school decision that only you and your team can make after an honest assessment of where you are in your school culture journey.
How do your students respond to redirection? How do they respond to positive feedback? Regardless, you want to create balance in your classrooms and the standards your school decides to set are going to be key drivers in your school culture.
Negative comments or redirections tend to carry more weight than positive reinforcement does in our minds.
We need to balance out the negative, and it’s going to take a surplus of positivity to do so.
We want to create the best possible learning environment. This means maintaining order while also motivating students who may not always share our priorities.
Algebra, Social Studies, Science, and English may not be as high on the list as socializing, trying to make your peers laugh, or even beating your high score on the computer game your teacher doesn’t know is open on your hidden tabs. Those can be pretty tempting distractions.
Now imagine you get PBIS points in your school for doing what's right. Those points go into your student account and you can use them to buy rewards or to gain access to events where it's appropriate to do all the things you were tempted to do in class!
It’s about making that internal decision-making easier for the student. Go from a mindset of I should do the right thing, to a mindset of I want to do the right thing.
That’s the power of positive reinforcement.
Now you have to decide what level of positivity is necessary to create the culture you are envisioning for your school.
To learn what other educators are saying take a look at our PBIS reviews.
Want to learn all you can possibly learn about PBIS? Check out our Complete PBIS Field Guide. Or how about getting your student council involved with promoting PBIS?
How do you unlock the full potential of PBIS? Check out our resources on harnessing the power of PBIS for your school district. Providing behavior support in today's schools requires that we address behavior problems holistically. Check out how The Dulles School of Excellence is doing just that by blending PBIS and SEL.
However, you have several classmates who are always off task and disruptive. Despite your instructor’s positive attitude, this behavior goes unaddressed and has become quite distracting.
Your 2nd class is different. Praise is consistent and abundant so students feel empowered to speak up and participate in all the activities involved with each lesson.
Your classmates who were off task earlier do slide into the same behavior as they had in the first class. But this doesn't go unaddressed now. Your teacher is walking around the room and consistently redirects when she notices the negative behavior. It isn’t overly harsh. But through the use of proximity, it is effective.
Which class is likely to have the highest levels of engagement? Which of those rooms is the most conducive to learning? Which teacher created an environment where all students could succeed?
How does the 2nd teacher balance the praise she knows will motivate her students with the redirection she needs to apply to keep a safe and orderly classroom?
She’s using PBIS and practicing a measured ratio of positive to negative feedback to create the ideal balance her classroom needs.
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a proactive approach to behavior in your building. PBIS is a tiered system of supports designed to differentiate between the levels of support your students need.
It follows a cycle of teaching expectations, progress monitoring, rewarding those who meet expectations, and reteaching those expectations.
The system is also designed to work in classrooms that balance positive interactions with redirections.
PBIS points allows the teacher to track those interactions for goal setting, lesson planning, and the act of awarding those points provides another layer of motivation in the classroom.
The 2nd teacher in the school we mentioned above was aware of the power of positive interactions and redirections in her classroom.
She knew that positive interactions with her students helped build relationships and create an atmosphere where her students felt comfortable speaking up and taking the kinds of academic risks necessary for deep learning to take place.
However, she was also aware that off-task behavior could derail all that momentum. Students feel comfortable speaking up and participating. But they are kids, so it is natural that at least some of them interpret this atmosphere as one where they are welcome to chat with peers, engage with technology, or fall into any number of off-task behaviors that are too numerous to list here.
Your teacher knows that if left unchecked, these off-task tendencies will inevitably lead to distractions for others and could potentially derail the lesson altogether. But redirecting harshly, or repeatedly can not only have a negative effect on the students being redirected but potentially change the mood of the entire room.
The key is to control the ratio of positive interactions to negative redirections.
You may get some opposition from staff when implementing an initiative like this.
But how do I keep track of interactions while I’m teaching?
This seems like extra work that will take my focus away from teaching.
Those are both valid concerns but are concerns that can easily be addressed by incorporating PBIS Points into your teachers' classroom management strategy.
By using a platform like LiveSchool they can easily acknowledge positive, on-task behaviors using a laptop, an interactive touchscreen, a smartboard, or even an app on a phone or tablet.
It also means they can log redirections. This can be tied to your students' point total but it also can be used just for data purposes. Whether you deduct points with redirections or not is a school culture choice.
The actual implementation of this practice is your teacher’s choice though. Classroom management styles and philosophies can differ from room to room. For my room, I would prefer a tablet that I could keep with me as I circled the room during independent instruction or group work.
During whole group instruction, I would have the platform open as a tab on my big screen so I could award the whole class at once for participation in discussions or generally to show my appreciation that everyone was ready when the bell rang or otherwise meeting the expectations we have set within our classroom norms.
This would also give me another level of redirection that isn’t raising my voice or otherwise using a harsh tone. I can use proximity, I can use my words, and I can use the data mined from points to create the specific interventions necessary to target the behavior.
By making your positive interactions and praise turn into points you are also creating a culture where students will want to earn that praise more often.
When deciding on a points process in your school you need to first establish a baseline starting point. How often do you use praise or positive reinforcement compared to redirection now? How do your students respond to each?
There are a couple of ways to establish this baseline. If you're able to observe your teachers you can simply sit in the back and chart positive vs negative and record the engagement of the student after each. Or if you want all teachers to “scout” themselves they can set up a camera in the back of the room and record a lesson to track those interactions.
Now decide how much change you can execute. Set reasonable goals for yourself and your staff.
According to PBIS research, the best practice for this is to aim for 4 positive interactions for every 1 redirection. Spreading positivity while still holding students accountable can lead to that sweet spot in your classrooms where learning becomes abundant.
How you and your teachers achieve this could vary. Some schools set minimums for awarding positive points and maximums for logging negatives.
4 to 1 may be more than you can do right now. So go for 2 to 1. Or you may decide that drastic change is necessary and within your grasp so set your goal at 8 to 1.
This is a school decision that only you and your team can make after an honest assessment of where you are in your school culture journey.
How do your students respond to redirection? How do they respond to positive feedback? Regardless, you want to create balance in your classrooms and the standards your school decides to set are going to be key drivers in your school culture.
Negative comments or redirections tend to carry more weight than positive reinforcement does in our minds.
We need to balance out the negative, and it’s going to take a surplus of positivity to do so.
We want to create the best possible learning environment. This means maintaining order while also motivating students who may not always share our priorities.
Algebra, Social Studies, Science, and English may not be as high on the list as socializing, trying to make your peers laugh, or even beating your high score on the computer game your teacher doesn’t know is open on your hidden tabs. Those can be pretty tempting distractions.
Now imagine you get PBIS points in your school for doing what's right. Those points go into your student account and you can use them to buy rewards or to gain access to events where it's appropriate to do all the things you were tempted to do in class!
It’s about making that internal decision-making easier for the student. Go from a mindset of I should do the right thing, to a mindset of I want to do the right thing.
That’s the power of positive reinforcement.
Now you have to decide what level of positivity is necessary to create the culture you are envisioning for your school.
To learn what other educators are saying take a look at our PBIS reviews.
Want to learn all you can possibly learn about PBIS? Check out our Complete PBIS Field Guide. Or how about getting your student council involved with promoting PBIS?
How do you unlock the full potential of PBIS? Check out our resources on harnessing the power of PBIS for your school district. Providing behavior support in today's schools requires that we address behavior problems holistically. Check out how The Dulles School of Excellence is doing just that by blending PBIS and SEL.
Jordan resides in Lexington, Kentucky. He has experience in Public Education as an Administrator, Science Teacher, and as a Coach. He has extensive experience with School Discipline, PBIS, SEL, Restorative Practices, MTSS, and Trauma-Informed Care.
Imagine you are a student back in school. Your first-period teacher is overwhelmingly positive, consistently praising students for doing the right thing or succeeding in mastering the content.
However, you have several classmates who are always off task and disruptive. Despite your instructor’s positive attitude, this behavior goes unaddressed and has become quite distracting.
Your 2nd class is different. Praise is consistent and abundant so students feel empowered to speak up and participate in all the activities involved with each lesson.
Your classmates who were off task earlier do slide into the same behavior as they had in the first class. But this doesn't go unaddressed now. Your teacher is walking around the room and consistently redirects when she notices the negative behavior. It isn’t overly harsh. But through the use of proximity, it is effective.
Which class is likely to have the highest levels of engagement? Which of those rooms is the most conducive to learning? Which teacher created an environment where all students could succeed?
How does the 2nd teacher balance the praise she knows will motivate her students with the redirection she needs to apply to keep a safe and orderly classroom?
She’s using PBIS and practicing a measured ratio of positive to negative feedback to create the ideal balance her classroom needs.
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a proactive approach to behavior in your building. PBIS is a tiered system of supports designed to differentiate between the levels of support your students need.
It follows a cycle of teaching expectations, progress monitoring, rewarding those who meet expectations, and reteaching those expectations.
The system is also designed to work in classrooms that balance positive interactions with redirections.
PBIS points allows the teacher to track those interactions for goal setting, lesson planning, and the act of awarding those points provides another layer of motivation in the classroom.
The 2nd teacher in the school we mentioned above was aware of the power of positive interactions and redirections in her classroom.
She knew that positive interactions with her students helped build relationships and create an atmosphere where her students felt comfortable speaking up and taking the kinds of academic risks necessary for deep learning to take place.
However, she was also aware that off-task behavior could derail all that momentum. Students feel comfortable speaking up and participating. But they are kids, so it is natural that at least some of them interpret this atmosphere as one where they are welcome to chat with peers, engage with technology, or fall into any number of off-task behaviors that are too numerous to list here.
Your teacher knows that if left unchecked, these off-task tendencies will inevitably lead to distractions for others and could potentially derail the lesson altogether. But redirecting harshly, or repeatedly can not only have a negative effect on the students being redirected but potentially change the mood of the entire room.
The key is to control the ratio of positive interactions to negative redirections.
You may get some opposition from staff when implementing an initiative like this.
But how do I keep track of interactions while I’m teaching?
This seems like extra work that will take my focus away from teaching.
Those are both valid concerns but are concerns that can easily be addressed by incorporating PBIS Points into your teachers' classroom management strategy.
By using a platform like LiveSchool they can easily acknowledge positive, on-task behaviors using a laptop, an interactive touchscreen, a smartboard, or even an app on a phone or tablet.
It also means they can log redirections. This can be tied to your students' point total but it also can be used just for data purposes. Whether you deduct points with redirections or not is a school culture choice.
The actual implementation of this practice is your teacher’s choice though. Classroom management styles and philosophies can differ from room to room. For my room, I would prefer a tablet that I could keep with me as I circled the room during independent instruction or group work.
During whole group instruction, I would have the platform open as a tab on my big screen so I could award the whole class at once for participation in discussions or generally to show my appreciation that everyone was ready when the bell rang or otherwise meeting the expectations we have set within our classroom norms.
This would also give me another level of redirection that isn’t raising my voice or otherwise using a harsh tone. I can use proximity, I can use my words, and I can use the data mined from points to create the specific interventions necessary to target the behavior.
By making your positive interactions and praise turn into points you are also creating a culture where students will want to earn that praise more often.
When deciding on a points process in your school you need to first establish a baseline starting point. How often do you use praise or positive reinforcement compared to redirection now? How do your students respond to each?
There are a couple of ways to establish this baseline. If you're able to observe your teachers you can simply sit in the back and chart positive vs negative and record the engagement of the student after each. Or if you want all teachers to “scout” themselves they can set up a camera in the back of the room and record a lesson to track those interactions.
Now decide how much change you can execute. Set reasonable goals for yourself and your staff.
According to PBIS research, the best practice for this is to aim for 4 positive interactions for every 1 redirection. Spreading positivity while still holding students accountable can lead to that sweet spot in your classrooms where learning becomes abundant.
How you and your teachers achieve this could vary. Some schools set minimums for awarding positive points and maximums for logging negatives.
4 to 1 may be more than you can do right now. So go for 2 to 1. Or you may decide that drastic change is necessary and within your grasp so set your goal at 8 to 1.
This is a school decision that only you and your team can make after an honest assessment of where you are in your school culture journey.
How do your students respond to redirection? How do they respond to positive feedback? Regardless, you want to create balance in your classrooms and the standards your school decides to set are going to be key drivers in your school culture.
Negative comments or redirections tend to carry more weight than positive reinforcement does in our minds.
We need to balance out the negative, and it’s going to take a surplus of positivity to do so.
We want to create the best possible learning environment. This means maintaining order while also motivating students who may not always share our priorities.
Algebra, Social Studies, Science, and English may not be as high on the list as socializing, trying to make your peers laugh, or even beating your high score on the computer game your teacher doesn’t know is open on your hidden tabs. Those can be pretty tempting distractions.
Now imagine you get PBIS points in your school for doing what's right. Those points go into your student account and you can use them to buy rewards or to gain access to events where it's appropriate to do all the things you were tempted to do in class!
It’s about making that internal decision-making easier for the student. Go from a mindset of I should do the right thing, to a mindset of I want to do the right thing.
That’s the power of positive reinforcement.
Now you have to decide what level of positivity is necessary to create the culture you are envisioning for your school.
To learn what other educators are saying take a look at our PBIS reviews.
Want to learn all you can possibly learn about PBIS? Check out our Complete PBIS Field Guide. Or how about getting your student council involved with promoting PBIS?
How do you unlock the full potential of PBIS? Check out our resources on harnessing the power of PBIS for your school district. Providing behavior support in today's schools requires that we address behavior problems holistically. Check out how The Dulles School of Excellence is doing just that by blending PBIS and SEL.
Imagine you are a student back in school. Your first-period teacher is overwhelmingly positive, consistently praising students for doing the right thing or succeeding in mastering the content.
However, you have several classmates who are always off task and disruptive. Despite your instructor’s positive attitude, this behavior goes unaddressed and has become quite distracting.
Your 2nd class is different. Praise is consistent and abundant so students feel empowered to speak up and participate in all the activities involved with each lesson.
Your classmates who were off task earlier do slide into the same behavior as they had in the first class. But this doesn't go unaddressed now. Your teacher is walking around the room and consistently redirects when she notices the negative behavior. It isn’t overly harsh. But through the use of proximity, it is effective.
Which class is likely to have the highest levels of engagement? Which of those rooms is the most conducive to learning? Which teacher created an environment where all students could succeed?
How does the 2nd teacher balance the praise she knows will motivate her students with the redirection she needs to apply to keep a safe and orderly classroom?
She’s using PBIS and practicing a measured ratio of positive to negative feedback to create the ideal balance her classroom needs.
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a proactive approach to behavior in your building. PBIS is a tiered system of supports designed to differentiate between the levels of support your students need.
It follows a cycle of teaching expectations, progress monitoring, rewarding those who meet expectations, and reteaching those expectations.
The system is also designed to work in classrooms that balance positive interactions with redirections.
PBIS points allows the teacher to track those interactions for goal setting, lesson planning, and the act of awarding those points provides another layer of motivation in the classroom.
The 2nd teacher in the school we mentioned above was aware of the power of positive interactions and redirections in her classroom.
She knew that positive interactions with her students helped build relationships and create an atmosphere where her students felt comfortable speaking up and taking the kinds of academic risks necessary for deep learning to take place.
However, she was also aware that off-task behavior could derail all that momentum. Students feel comfortable speaking up and participating. But they are kids, so it is natural that at least some of them interpret this atmosphere as one where they are welcome to chat with peers, engage with technology, or fall into any number of off-task behaviors that are too numerous to list here.
Your teacher knows that if left unchecked, these off-task tendencies will inevitably lead to distractions for others and could potentially derail the lesson altogether. But redirecting harshly, or repeatedly can not only have a negative effect on the students being redirected but potentially change the mood of the entire room.
The key is to control the ratio of positive interactions to negative redirections.
You may get some opposition from staff when implementing an initiative like this.
But how do I keep track of interactions while I’m teaching?
This seems like extra work that will take my focus away from teaching.
Those are both valid concerns but are concerns that can easily be addressed by incorporating PBIS Points into your teachers' classroom management strategy.
By using a platform like LiveSchool they can easily acknowledge positive, on-task behaviors using a laptop, an interactive touchscreen, a smartboard, or even an app on a phone or tablet.
It also means they can log redirections. This can be tied to your students' point total but it also can be used just for data purposes. Whether you deduct points with redirections or not is a school culture choice.
The actual implementation of this practice is your teacher’s choice though. Classroom management styles and philosophies can differ from room to room. For my room, I would prefer a tablet that I could keep with me as I circled the room during independent instruction or group work.
During whole group instruction, I would have the platform open as a tab on my big screen so I could award the whole class at once for participation in discussions or generally to show my appreciation that everyone was ready when the bell rang or otherwise meeting the expectations we have set within our classroom norms.
This would also give me another level of redirection that isn’t raising my voice or otherwise using a harsh tone. I can use proximity, I can use my words, and I can use the data mined from points to create the specific interventions necessary to target the behavior.
By making your positive interactions and praise turn into points you are also creating a culture where students will want to earn that praise more often.
When deciding on a points process in your school you need to first establish a baseline starting point. How often do you use praise or positive reinforcement compared to redirection now? How do your students respond to each?
There are a couple of ways to establish this baseline. If you're able to observe your teachers you can simply sit in the back and chart positive vs negative and record the engagement of the student after each. Or if you want all teachers to “scout” themselves they can set up a camera in the back of the room and record a lesson to track those interactions.
Now decide how much change you can execute. Set reasonable goals for yourself and your staff.
According to PBIS research, the best practice for this is to aim for 4 positive interactions for every 1 redirection. Spreading positivity while still holding students accountable can lead to that sweet spot in your classrooms where learning becomes abundant.
How you and your teachers achieve this could vary. Some schools set minimums for awarding positive points and maximums for logging negatives.
4 to 1 may be more than you can do right now. So go for 2 to 1. Or you may decide that drastic change is necessary and within your grasp so set your goal at 8 to 1.
This is a school decision that only you and your team can make after an honest assessment of where you are in your school culture journey.
How do your students respond to redirection? How do they respond to positive feedback? Regardless, you want to create balance in your classrooms and the standards your school decides to set are going to be key drivers in your school culture.
Negative comments or redirections tend to carry more weight than positive reinforcement does in our minds.
We need to balance out the negative, and it’s going to take a surplus of positivity to do so.
We want to create the best possible learning environment. This means maintaining order while also motivating students who may not always share our priorities.
Algebra, Social Studies, Science, and English may not be as high on the list as socializing, trying to make your peers laugh, or even beating your high score on the computer game your teacher doesn’t know is open on your hidden tabs. Those can be pretty tempting distractions.
Now imagine you get PBIS points in your school for doing what's right. Those points go into your student account and you can use them to buy rewards or to gain access to events where it's appropriate to do all the things you were tempted to do in class!
It’s about making that internal decision-making easier for the student. Go from a mindset of I should do the right thing, to a mindset of I want to do the right thing.
That’s the power of positive reinforcement.
Now you have to decide what level of positivity is necessary to create the culture you are envisioning for your school.
To learn what other educators are saying take a look at our PBIS reviews.
Want to learn all you can possibly learn about PBIS? Check out our Complete PBIS Field Guide. Or how about getting your student council involved with promoting PBIS?
How do you unlock the full potential of PBIS? Check out our resources on harnessing the power of PBIS for your school district. Providing behavior support in today's schools requires that we address behavior problems holistically. Check out how The Dulles School of Excellence is doing just that by blending PBIS and SEL.
All the behavior resources you need to create the positive culture your school community deserves.
