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 consists of members that all have a mutual concern and commitment to improve student behavior. We have a great deal of respect for one another which allows us to feel comfortable about sharing ideas and feelings at our meetings on the various topics that are discussed. Our team consists of two high school teachers, one middle school teacher, a 7-12 grade physical education teacher, librarian, and a paraprofessional that serves E.S.E. We have two administrators that take an active role on the team. Our principal is our team leader and our vice principal is a team member who is responsible for inputting all of our data. We all share the common goal to improve behavior and to make our school a safer and more enjoyable educational place for the students.
How does your team use data to make decisions on campus? Our team meets on the last Thursday of each month. We begin each meeting discussing the data. We use the data to identify areas of concern. The data helps to focus on the areas students need to be reinforced on. We have also used the data to begin focusing on our tier II students. We used the data this year to choose students that would benefit from group counseling. Another focus we have made due to the data is tardies. The students were allowed to have three tardies for each teacher which allowed them to be tardy twenty one times, each nine weeks, before receiving a consequence. We felt this did not show our first expectation which is preparedness. We discussed how to improve this at a team meeting. We came to a consensus to change the current policy. Our data shows we have had an increase in tardy referrals with this new policy because we have changed the number of tardies they are allowed to receive before they are given a referral. As a team, we decided to add a reward for those students that have no tardies for the nine weeks. If they make it on this list they are given armbands that allow them to dress down for a week. The number of students that dressed down the third nine weeks and fourth nine weeks has increased.
How do you share information with the rest of your faculty (e.g., emails, newsletters, meetings, etc.)? How often do you share this information? We share information at our monthly faculty meetings. We also share information through staff announcements on our school’ s email system.
What do you see as the overall strengths of your team? Please provide details. One of our strengths is the diverse perspective we have. After reviewing data and deciding where our focus is, we are able to discuss openly the ideas each member has to help improve behavior in that area. One example is the problem we have had with tardies. Our team discussed several ways to improve and monitor the problem, and then we came to a consensus on the method we wanted to use. Having a team that has various personalities but is able to work together as a team to improve student behavior is a definite strength. |
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. Rewarding students is an area at which our team excels. We post a calendar of events for the students that show what they can earn. The students can earn Terrier Dollars to purchase school spirit items from the Terrier PRIDE Exchange. At the end of every nine weeks, we have a school wide reward. The students may not have any referrals for the nine weeks and must have thirty Terrier dollars to purchase a ticket. The rewards include pizza and movie, a dance and luau. The luau has become a big hit with the students. We have a cookout, set up volleyball nets, and a slip and slide. This year we are including a DJ. The Terrier Dollars also allow teachers to have classroom incentives as well. We also reward the students for no violence by having dress down days every four weeks. This is done as a grade level reward. The grades that have no fights for those four weeks earn the privilege of not being in dress code for a day. We also have individual Do the Right Thing rewards. These are given by any faculty or staff member to a student they see doing something above and beyond. The students receive coupons from various businesses in town.
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Discuss the changes you have seen on campus since PBS implementation (e.g., data, climate, morale, etc.). Since implementing PBS, there have been many positive changes in the school. The first and most important being, that we have had a decrease in problem behavior. (Artifact #14) This means that students are spending more time in the classroom learning. Other positive changes have been the connection between the teachers and students. By having the rewards at the end of the nine weeks, the teachers and students have been able to spend more time connecting with one another outside of the classroom. |
What are some obstacles that your team has had to overcome? Please explain the process for overcoming these hurdles below.
We have a few obstacles that we have had to face each year of implementation. The first one is faculty buy in. Each year we have had to get buy in from faculty. Showing them the data at meetings has been a useful tool. We have to improve the number of faculty that uses PBS with fidelity. To do this, we have added this to our action plan for next year. We are hoping to improve faculty participation by adding faculty rewards.
The second obstacle would be the turn over of team members. Each year we lose members. Most of them leave the team because they are leaving our school. To help with this, we have added new members for next year and the team will be attending a three day retraining. |
