PBIS Coaches’ Blog

Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports for Chicago Schools

Can You Hear Me Now?

August 7th, 2007 by · No Comments · Conferences

According to the Chicago Institute for Voice Care at UIC, “11% of teachers report…a current voice disorder and 58% experience…a voice disorder during their career.” What do you know? Teachers talk…a lot. This month (August 17) the Institute is holding its 2007 Midwest Voice Conference. The conference this year is titled: A Focus on the Classroom.
You can get 8 CPDUs learning about these topics:

  • How the Voice Works
  • Occupational Voice Hazards
  • Diagnosis of Voice Disorders
  • Voice Therapy for Teachers
  • Tools to Protect Your Voice
  • & Participating in a Hands-on Workshop

It’s only $25 for the whole day. Learn more & register at Chicago Inst. for Voice Care

State-Wide Leadership Conference…

August 6th, 2007 by · No Comments · Conferences, Resources

The Illinois PBIS Leadership Conference was great thanks to all who planned, presented, and attended. I was glad to see so many CPS friends in the crowd. My nagging and your dedication sometimes work together! One of the recurring themes (aside from the obvious one of sustainablilty) was cultural competence, inclusion (beyond the legalities), and diversity. While I’m no expert in any of this, nothing stops me from having an opinion…no change there! And I have some suggested resources…no change there, either. It’s easy to find people displeased with the methodology of this site, but it’s a great conversation (internal or external) starter: Project Implicit. There’s also a useful list of language options (some would not say ‘optional’) at Disability is Natural. Finally, here’s a site for those interested in gender issues — Celebration of Strength. (FULL DISCLOSURE: that last one’s editor? My daughter Madeline.) Finally, thanks to all who were so kind, attentive, and willing to participate in my coaches’ session. You asked for more cartoons…here you go:

August Staff Kick-Off

July 30th, 2007 by · No Comments · Planning

Purpose:

  • Refocus staff on PBIS purpose and goals
  • Highlight your successes with data & review “Big Ideas” of school-wide PBIS

*Increasing teaching and learning time and decreasing problem behaviors by building a strong positive host environment through…

…the use of EFFECTIVE PRACTICES: Define/Teach/Remind/Celebrate/Correct

…the use of DATA for information, for decision-making, for celebrating

…the use of well-defined SYSTEMS OF SUPPORT for the students who need more

Action Planning:

  • Whole-staff review and discussion of DATA — behavioral data as well as EBS, Safety Survey, etc. results
  • Provide packet of school-wide materials for staff – Expectations, Teaching Matrix and schedule, Cool Tools, “Gotchas”, Office Discipline Referral Form & definitions of problem behaviors, matrix of office- vs. classroom-managed behaviors, discipline flow chart, PBIS schedule for the year
  • Provide Secondary/Tertiery intervention materials including procedures for targeted groups, Request for Assistance protocol and forms

Finally…if you are looking for free team building games and exercises you won’t find more than at BusinessBalls

Planning? Let the data be your guide.

May 22nd, 2007 by · No Comments · Planning

Focus on:

the School-wide System if…
…more than 40% of students received one or more Office Discipline Referral (ODR)
…there are more than 2.5 ODRs per student

the Classroom System if…
…more than 60% of referrals come from the classroom
…more that 50% of referrals come from less than 10% of classrooms

the Non-Classroom System if…
…more than 35% of referrals come from non-classroom settings
…there are more than 15% of students receiving referrals from non-classroom settings

Targeted Group Interventions if…
…more than 10-15 students receive more than 5 ODRs

Individual Interventions if…
…less than 10 students receive more than 10 ODRs
…less than 10 students continue the same rate of referrals after receiving targeted group support

Upcoming Conferences

May 16th, 2007 by · No Comments · Conferences, Resources

2007 Illinois PBIS Network Summer Leadership Conference
August 1 & 2 in Naperville
All the presentations given at this terrific conference can be accessed by clicking here.

2007 National Forum for Initial & Advanced Implementers of SW PBS
October 11 & 12 in Rosemont
For info go to the OSEP/PBIS web site by clicking here.
Registration has begun!

Save the Date…
The Expanding World of PBS: Science, Values, and Vision — Next year’s Association for Positive Behavior Support conference will take place March 27 – 29, 2008 – IN CHICAGO!

Bingo!

May 15th, 2007 by · No Comments · Reward Ideas

Here are some ideas for school-wide BINGO plans you could initiate now or in the fall.

The Principal’s 200 Club — Utah Behavior Initiatives offers a DVD fully explaining the 200 Club and the DVD can be ordered (for 20 bucks) by clicking here. The 200 Club idea has a couple features I think make it really work. One, it’s very public — students who earn any ‘caught-being-good’ can put their name in one of the 200 numbered squares on a large, posted board. It’s on display so everyone can watch it as it fills up. Two, it doesn’t have any relation to the calendar — when the board has a full row/column/diagonal there is a drawing. Schools sometimes get caught not being as timely and consistent as they should be to keep behavioral rewards relevant. With the 200 Club it’s up to the students to fill the squares and it doesn’t matter if there’s no school on Friday or if December is a 12 day month. All the details are on the disk. (I suppose you could always contact me and ask nice — I might let you borrow my disk!)

Expectations Bingo — Several schools I work with display a BINGO board in every classroom. If October is your month to teach and reinforce RESPECT, the board would have the R E S P E C T written down the Y-axis and the numbers 1 through 7 on the X-axis. Throughout the day students can put their initials in a square on the BINGO board for specific displays of respectful behavior. At the end of the week the Principal calls a square on the PA and the student whose initials are in that square in each room comes down for a reward. (C – 5, come on down!) This involves the whole school, brings the expectations into the classroom, distributes the rewards throughout the building, gets students to encourage their teacher to participate, and rewards a large number of students every week.

One more… Click here (then pick ‘Pine Crest’, then ‘PBIS’) for another Bingo idea. This one is from PineCrest Elementary in Georgetown, Illinois.

Have any to add — POST ‘EM!

Long ago, in a PBIS galaxy far away…

May 12th, 2007 by · No Comments · Resources

Are you a Star Wars fan? No? Like good edu sites anyway? Try George Lucas’ Ed. Foundation site there’s some good stuff there. (And you can subscribe to Edutopia Magazine for FREE!)
Not a Star Wars fan but can’t get enough of YouTube? Heres another site I’ve recently discovered. YouTube is blocked by CPS…YouTube for teachers (TeacherTube) has videos you can use!
Speaking of videos there’s a good one (depending on your musical tastes) on bullying at ThinkLab.

Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans?

May 11th, 2007 by · No Comments · Volunteer

OK…this is a PBIS blog, so maybe I’m a bit off track, but you should really check out how you can help kids and schools in the Crescent City. Start here: Katrina Corps (where you can volunteer to work in schools in the Recovery School District) or Emergency Communities (a group started by a Whitney Young Grad!)