PBIS
Be Safe Be Respectful Be Responsible
What is PBIS?
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports or PBIS is a system focused on creating a school culture of building positive relationships between students and staff. The PBIS framework positively impacts students in the areas of behavior, social-emotional development, and academic performance by designing and implementing positive interventions in these areas. These interventions are focused on promoting pro-social behaviors while discouraging problem behaviors. As a result, teachers and students are able to maximize instructional opportunities and increase academic achievement.
Teaching
PBIS schools have clearly outlined expectations and explicitly teach those expectations to their students. At Neil Armstrong, we have chosen to focus on three expectations or the “3B’s”: Be Responsible, Be Respectful, and Be Safe. All adults that are a part of the Armstrong community share the common goal of making sure all our students understand our behavioral expectations. The students are taught what these expectations look like in a variety of settings, which include the classroom, bathroom, hallway, playground, assemblies, and on the bus. These expectations for student behavior can be found on the Armstrong School Behavior Matrix which is available in both English and Spanish.
In order to make sure all Armstrong students understand what is expected of them, a Boot Camp is held the first day of school. During Boot Camp, all Armstrong staff members are involved in providing students with short lessons in which they learn about appropriate behaviors in each of the various settings. For example, the bathroom expectations are taught to the students in the bathrooms so that students understand explicitly what is expected of them while in the bathroom. Following the Boot Camp, Armstrong staff will teach and re-teach different behavioral expectations throughout the school year through the use of “Cool Tools”. Cools Tools are a very important part of the PBIS system. These behavioral lessons address a specific desired behavior, such as “raising your hand to speak” and make it clear to students what is expected of them as well as why it is an expectation.
Additionally, you can find an Awesome Armstrong Astronaut Family Matrix both in English and Spanish, which provides expectations for families at home that align with the school expectations of being responsible, respectful, and safe. Eisenhower Jr. High also utilizes PBIS so students will hear similar language and expectations of being responsible, being respectful, and being safe once they enter Junior High.
Positive Reinforcements
Another important component to the PBIS system at Armstrong is the consistent use of positive reinforcements to celebrate student success. In the past, we used Armstrong Attitude tickets to reward students for exhibiting any of the three expectations in locations throughout the school. In an effort to provide more frequent reinforcement as well as provide ALL students with an opportunity to receive rewards for their positive behaviors, we are using Awesome Astronaut stamp cards this year. Students displaying positive behaviors throughout the school day have the opportunity to receive stamps on their stamp card from any adult in the Armstrong community.
Once a student’s card is filled they have the option of using it to purchase items at the PBIS store or save the card to be used with other collected cards in the future.
In addition to the individual student stamp cards, there are classroom stamp cards and a school stamp card. Teachers use the classroom stamp card and award class stamps when all students in their class are displaying positive behaviors. Once the classroom stamp card is complete, the students in that room can decide on a classroom celebration. The school stamp card is used to track our monthly school wide behavioral goal, which looks at decreasing the number of problem behaviors that are displayed within the school. Each month the PBIS team examines the school referral data to determine an appropriate goal for students to work toward decreasing problem behaviors. If this monthly goal is met, the entire school is awarded a celebration for their success in decreasing inappropriate behaviors while increasing positive behaviors. The goal is to celebrate the students’ successes with following behavioral expectations, which results in a safer learning environment.
Discipline
As you know, students do not always choose to follow school expectations and as a result these behaviors are documented on one of two possible forms: Minor Referral Sheet or (Major) Office Discipline Referral Form. These forms are not the consequence; they are just a way for staff to document what occurred and provides the PBIS team data to examine when determining the need for a behavioral intervention for the school/class/student.