What makes your team work so well?  Please discuss in detail (e.g., what is your administrator’s role on the team, how is staff represented, etc.)?   Our team includes one member from each grade level as well as our guidance counselor, speech/language teacher, and a non-instructional assistant.  Because our team reaches across all grade levels and includes the other areas on campus we are able to learn about what is working and not working in the different areas around campus.  Through this, we are able to analyze problem areas to collectively come up with solutions to work on the problem areas.

How does your team use data to make decisions on campus? Our team uses the data to look at where the majority of the major infractions are occurring and what we can do as a team to work to reduce the number of infractions in that particular area or areas.  One area we noticed that needed help was in the cafeteria.  We developed punch cards for each class so that at the end of the lunch period if the class was following the expectations they could earn a punch in their card.  When a class reached a set number of punches they could earn an extra playground time or another reward from their teacher. 

How do you share information with the rest of your faculty (e.g., emails, newsletters, meetings, etc.)?  How often do you share this information?  With the representation of staff that we do have, after our monthly PBS meetings, each member reports back to their team, whether it be a grade level team, pupil services, or to the non-instructional staff, everyone is kept informed of what is going on at school concerning PBS.  Also, on several of our early release days PBS provided trainings to the staff.  One of the favorite trainings that the team did this year was to have the staff play a Jeopardy game to review PBS information.  It was a very high spirited and competitive game.  (Jeopardy PowerPoint artifact 2)

What do you see as the overall strengths of your team?  Please provide details.  The overall strength of our team is that our team is made up of members of all grade levels and areas around our school so that we have a broad base to pull ideas from and to help support our entire staff and student body. 

In what areas of PBS does your team excel (e.g., rewarding students/staff, teaching expectations, data-based decision-making, etc.)?  Please provide details below.  The PBS team excels with rewarding students for following the expectations.  Our students have opportunities throughout the day to earn PAWS by following our Expectations.  These PAWS are little slips of paper that state the Expectations on them. The student then has the opportunity to write their name on the back of the PAWS with their teacher’s name and then place it in the appropriate grade level container.  Each Friday morning on the morning show a PBS team member draws two to three PAWS from each grade level container for prizes.  The students can’t wait for Friday mornings to see if their name will be called!  Our PTO helps to provide the funds to keep us with a good supply of prizes throughout the year.  If a student does not wish to put their PAWS in the weekly drawing, classroom teachers have reward systems using the PAWS, so the students can choose to use their PAWS within their classroom. 

Discuss the changes you have seen on campus since PBS implementation (e.g., data, climate, morale, etc.). The changes that I have seen on campus since PBS has been implemented are that we have:

• common area procedures
• a school-wide reward system
• school-wide Expectations
• more data to work with to make better decisions
• a discipline flow chart with major and minor definitions
• and input from staff and students.

With these changes staff and students have more of a buy-in with the whole process and support PBS.

What are some obstacles that your team has had to overcome?  Please explain the process for overcoming these hurdles below. One of our obstacles has been in getting information to our parents about what PBS is and what it looks like at our school.  This year we developed a brochure that went home with each one of our students that describes what PBS is and what it looks like at our school.  It also includes our Expectations and includes PBS contacts at our school if any parents want more information. Another obstacle was the fact that we did not have school-wide procedures for common areas around campus.  So we developed and implemented school-wide procedures for the common areas around campus such as the hallways, bathrooms, cafeteria and playground.  Implementing these procedures has made it clear to the students what the procedures are for these certain areas so that everyone has a safe learning environment on campus.  We also posted our school-wide Expectations on road signs that are placed in the courtyard areas around school as a visual reminder of what is expected of us and our students each day.