Subject: Re: [MK8] PBIS

I have had two experiences with PBIS. At the school where I taught in
SC, it was great. I don't know how long they had been doing it, but I
loved how everyone was on the same page with rules, consequences, etc. I
had no trouble with discipline, even 4th and 5th grade.

My current school does PBIS. I noticed the rules posted around when I
interviewed and got the tour, and I thought, hey, great! Yay PBIS!
Discipline-wise, especially with upper grades, though, it's pretty much
the same as my experience with a non-PBIS school. They have weekly
ticket drawings, but I'm not sure how they earn the tickets. We also use
ClassDojo, and we have a school account so that art, music, pe, etc. can
give positive and negative points as well. Every 9 weeks, we have a
"Dojo Celebration" where students with at least a certain percentage of
positive points get to do something fun during their resource time and
the ones who don't, don't. It's the same ones every time - for the most
part, the ones who Dojo Points motivate are going to behave anyway and
the ones who don't earn the reward don't care. I can give and take
points all day long with 4th and 5th grade and mostly it's not going to
have an effect.

I wonder if part of the reason it's not effective is that our school has
such a high teacher turnover from year to year and even mid-year - and
not just because we're a military town and spouses get orders. We've had
three teachers go on maternity leave and not come back. One left in
November, one in January or February, and one just before spring break.
That also means that two of those classes had one teacher, then a sub
for a long time, then another teacher, and the third will have a sub for
the rest of the year. No consistency whatsoever for those classes. At
any rate, people don't stay long enough to get a good big core group
using PBIS effectively over the course of several years that can then
help the newer folks get into it. Also, between the army and the very
poor families, it's a very very transient population, kids come and go
(and half of them come back) all the time, so a lot of them don't have
the consistency of the PBIS system over a period of several school
years. I'm mainly speculating here, but I would be willing to bet that
it makes a difference.

We just had our visit by the PBIS people, and evidently we passed with
flying colors...must not have visited 4th and 5th grade or kindergarten.
Probably impressed by low numbers of office referrals and suspensions
and things - I know I don't bother unless it's a major incident because
nothing ever happens when you do. Sigh. It's frustrating.

Sorry that turned into a bit of a vent, there. It can work, it can not
work, I guess is the point.

One more thing. I have noticed that sometimes non-classroom teachers are
shoehorned in and forced into a system that doesn't really fit with
special area situations - us, art, PE, SpEd, ESOL, and whatever other
special area teachers you have. Class Dojo works pretty well for
allowing us to contribute to that system, whether or not it's really
effective. However, I hear that in the past, they carried a clipboard
for PBIS to keep up with consequences. I don't know about you, but when
a kid has already had a warning, and had to sit in time out, and the
next thing is being bounced to another classroom to fill out a
reflection sheet, first of all he or she is in a foul mood when they get
to music, and second of all, I don't want to have to bounce them the
first time they do something in my classroom - that expectation, that
consequences follow them even when they haven't done anything in my
class yet, and stay with them all week, kind of bothers me. I want them
to have a clean slate when they come to my room, and if they're
consistently a problem, then that's what collaboration with other
resource teachers and with the classroom teacher to identify patterns
and come up with solutions is for. Something to keep in mind, at any rate.

Hope that helps!
~Ann in NC


Ann Wells
annmusic7@gmail.com
If life seems jolly rotten
There's something you've forgotten
And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing
(Eric Idle)

On 4/24/2013 12:16 PM, Stephanie Menefee wrote:
> I have looked at some of the past threads on this subject and am curious what those of you who asked a few years ago (Beth Jahn, etc.) think about the system. Our school district is rolling this out and my school has been asked to be in the first cohort. We had a 30 minute presentation this morning on PBIS, with much more to come, I'm sure. Our conversation is just getting started at our school. What do you like about it? What don't you like about it? What about your classroom teachers? What does the parent/home piece look like? One of our biggest issues in our building is that our 4th and 5th graders won't listen to the other teachers (i.e. teachers of younger grades). I totally realize that this won't solve all of the behavior issues - there are some kids I already know won't respond as intended to this system - but it should cut down on the school-wide issues in general.
>
> You are welcome to respond either to the list or to me privately. My e-mail address is below my name.
>
> Thanks all!
>
> Stephanie in Tacoma
> smenefe@yahoo.com