Revising current PBIS discipline program
As our campus ended last school year, volunteers
were asked to become part of the discipline committee and would attend Positive
Behavior Intervention System (PBIS) training over the summer. During that meeting, we were asked to define
three areas that we needed to work on discipline in our school. We talked about cafeteria, hallway and
restrooms. We had already created a
school wide discipline program to replace the different discipline procedures
that were occurring in every classroom or grade level. We came up with the three areas of concern
based upon observed behaviors and areas that discipline referrals were coming
from.
The vision that I have for this action research
project is after following our PBIS plan for a year; it is time to revise any
areas that are not working and to work on secondary areas of concern. As a team, we have met and discussed what is
working and what is not working. We are
in the process of coming up with new ideas to use more positive behavior
support. Ours started out strong and
positive, but has fallen back into negative.
We have also surveyed all of 5th grade students about their
likes and dislikes with our behavior program and our HOW I ACT discipline plan
for the school. We are looking at what
they would like to see changed and with just a small portion of data, they have
identified a couple of key areas that the team has also identified. Armed with this data, we will move forward
and begin working on areas to adjust or revise for next year. We are also adding a new component of
discipline to our current plan next year.
This will require teachers to implement what each discipline procedure
looks like during lessons and group learning in the classroom. This will be integrated during the first two
weeks of teaching and reinforced as needed.
We are using the PBIS material from http://www.pbis.org/school/swpbis_for_beginners/default.aspx and
Randy Sprick CHAMPS program. Our
Assistant Principal attended the CHAMPS training for administrators and came
back and provided our team with materials for us to look at. We will have in depth training over the
summer to begin our program implementation.
Last summer we were to go to PBIS training over the summer. It was a 2 or 3 day training and we were
introduced to what PBIS and what we were going to do on our campus.
Communication of this project was communicated to
staff during professional development at the beginning of this school
year. We went over what the procedures
were, what the HOW I ACT looked like in each grade level and what the
expectations were for teaching the new procedures to the students. There was also a component of PBIS that
places students into TIER II for behavior.
We communicated the vision for the program to our parents during meet
the teacher night and through our weekly newsletters and it was placed in our
planners.
The team was organized by our assistant principal
and meetings were called every month after our monthly staff meeting. When this did not occur as required, myself
and another teacher requested that it be teacher run and have the AP as an
advisor. We were granted this permission
and we have reorganized and have gotten all of our plans together and have
decided what we are going to do for next year lined up. Our assistant principal is there to allocate
money or at least have the information to take to the principal to get the allocation
of money for any prizes for students and teachers and any supplies we need to
implement our new classroom incentives.
The team meets and the Assistant Principal makes
sure we stay on task in our meetings.
Myself and another teacher prepare an agenda and attempt to keep on
topic and make sure that when emotions run high, we table the discussion until
all involved parties can cool down. We
all can present ideas and areas of concern, but we will also need to come to an
agreement on what we are going to do when we come to a difference of opinions
on what would work and what would not work.
Communication was a problem, but we have seemed to rectify that by
putting one person in charge of mass communication.
This revision will address the special needs
population by allowing them to visually see their behavior on a daily basis and
track where they are on the conduct scale.
We are working on implementing a weekly point scenario that will allow
students to earn positive rewards on a weekly basis instead of just a nine week
basis as we have right now. This is
great for all students, but will definitely help our special needs students and
our ELL students. Our campus is 69%
economically disadvantaged and about 65% Hispanic. We also have about a 26% transient rate. This discipline program will have to be
constantly readdressed with our new students and to keep our students on track
with their behavior. Our students do not
have consistency at home, for the most part, and for our students to be successful
they will need consistency in the school setting or behavior will not change.
References:
PBIS.Org © 2012.
(2012, April 28). Swpbis for
beginners. Retrieved from http://www.pbis.org/school/swpbis_for_beginners/default.aspx
Sprick, R. (2012,
April 28). Safe and civil
schools. Retrieved from http://www.safeandcivilschools.com/tn_teachers.php
