PBIS Best Practices at Winter Street Elementary Encouraging Students and Staff

1. PBIS Best Practices at Winter Street ElementaryEncouraging Students and Staff Jen Hardy and Kris Pearl PBIS Winter Street Elementary

2. Brief Overview of Winter Street Elementary • 341 students – Pre K – 4th grade • 94% Free and Reduced Meal Students • Many families with limited resources and supplies • Differing academic and behavioral expectations between home and school • High student mobility PBIS Winter Street Elementary

3. PBIS at Winter Street • Each classroom has a “stoplight” with individual student clothespins so that students are aware of their behavior and consequences. • Students earn “Bee Cards” for ending their morning and/or afternoon on the “green” portion of the stoplight. Additional “Bee Cards” are earned for exemplar positive behaviors. • Each day, teachers write morning and afternoon behavior scores in students’ planners so as to keep parents informed. • Students will earn “Bee Cards” to redeem for classroom rewards, school-wide drawings and school-wide events. • All school-wide events have a required number of “Bee Cards” for students to earn in order to attend. PBIS Winter Street Elementary

4. 2009-2010 PBIS Mission Statement “We will set clear behavioral objectives for all students and encourage those that work to make good choices.” encourage PBIS Winter Street Elementary

5. Encouraging Students Upon looking at our behavior data, the PBIS team decided that we wanted to focus our energy on ways to encourage our students to make good choices. • Class compliments • Positive Referrals • Exciting events PBIS Winter Street Elementary

6. Class Compliments If a staff member sees a class that, as a whole, is making good choices, they can present that class with one “Bee Card”. The classroom teacher can then use those class compliment “Bee Cards” to create a chain to display in the classroom. Once the chain reaches a certain length, the class would earn a previously agreed upon reward such as extra recess, craft or coloring time, pizza party, etc. This strategy was successful for some students that struggled to make exemplar choices without the model of their classmates. With “Class Compliments”, those students were still being encouraged, praised and rewarded. PBIS Winter Street Elementary

7. Positive Referrals If a staff member sees a particular student make a positive choice, they can complete a “Positive Referral” for that student. One copy goes home with the student so that parents can celebrate their child’s good choices. The other copy is hung on a bulletin board outside of the cafeteria. Students, staff and visitors pass this bulletin board regularly and often take time to read the posted referrals. Students love the individual, positive attention gained from earning a “Positive Referral”. This practice is beneficial for “green-zone” students that are always making great choices, but don’t get recognized due to the fact that those good choices are expected of them. It’s also beneficial for “yellow-zone” and “red-zone” students that require encouragement when they make good choices. PBIS Winter Street Elementary

8. Signature PBIS Winter Street Elementary

9. Exciting Events Throughout the school year, the PBIS team schedules and manages three after-school events and two during-school events. Each event requires students to earn at least a certain number of “Bee Cards”. As the year progresses, the expected number of “Bee Cards” increases. We feel that this gives students a taste of what a reward feels like, and then encourages them to work harder and harder to earn that reward in the future. This year’s events included an afternoon movie, Back-to-School Bash, Winter Hop, Spring Fling Luau, and Kickball Game. PBIS Winter Street Elementary

10. After School EventsBack-to-School Bash, Winter Hop and Spring Fling Luau • Students that earn enough “Bee Cards” to attend, receive an invitation asking them to bring a parent and return to school on the evening of the event from 5:00-7:00. • We incorporate themed crafts, games, refreshments and music. PBIS Winter Street Elementary

11. PBIS Winter Street Elementary

12. Kickball Game • In May, we invite the top three “Bee Card” earners from each classroom to compete in a kickball game against officers from the Hagerstown Police Department. • Students receive T-Shirts that they decorate at school and wear for the game. • All students and staff are then invited to the playground to watch the game and cheer-on their friends and/or local heroes. Students love the chance to participate in the yearly kickball game. Those that earn the chance to play are publicly acknowledged for their positive behavior and choices. Those that don’t get the chance to play, still enjoy a day outside cheering on their classmates. PBIS Winter Street Elementary

13. PBIS Winter Street Elementary

14. Encouraging Staff After a few months of focusing on our students, we realized we’d forgotten to put energy towards encouraging our staff!! In the spring, we implemented the “Applause for Staff” idea. We wanted sincere notes of appreciation and encouragement to come from students, parents and other staff members. A letter outlining the initiative was sent home to parents. The response was tremendous!! PBIS Winter Street Elementary

15. All of the notes that came back to the school were placed in a decorated box that was located in the lobby. We selected some notes and hung them on the wall outside of the office. Other notes were hand-delivered to the recipient. The smiles on the faces of our staff members were proof that the encouragement from others was appreciated You deserve a round of applause! Thank you for everything you do to inspire and motivate learning within our students and our school. PBIS Winter Street Elementary

16. Concluding Thoughts Through the year, our PBIS team has truly seen how encouragement and positive comments can make a difference in an individual’s behavior or outlook. We’d love to share electronic templates of what was shared today or hear what’s working for you! Feel free to contact us! - hardyjen@wcboe.k12.md.us pearlkri@wcboe.k12.md.us PBIS Winter Street Elementary