Behavior Management

Adapt your Behavior Expectations for At-home Learning

Learn how to adapt behavior expectations for at-home learning with LiveSchool. Tips for PBIS committees, rubrics, teacher feedback, and family communication.

The Liveschool Team2 min read

You might be surprised to find how easily these translate for your at-home learning plan. In fact, this period is an opportunity to reinforce your values and expectations. Show students that while the situation may change, the choice to exhibit character follows them everywhere!

Step 1: E-meet with your behavior committee.

This committee should be made up of 3-5 individuals who represent different perspectives on your team. If you have an existing PBIS committee, simply call a meeting of your existing committee to talk about adapting your expectations!

Step 2: Create an adapted rubric of expectations.

Review your current expectation. For each expectation, decide: A) This does not apply to at-home learning, or B) This expectation still applies! For all “B” expectations, draft a brief description explaining what this expectation looks like at-home.

Step 3: Share, gather feedback, and finalize.

Just like any expectations, teacher buy-in is vital! Assign different committee members to collect feedback from a small number of teachers. Use this feedback to refine your expectations before sharing with the entire team over a live call or a pre-recorded video.

You can create a simple document, using the template below, to explain how different expectations will look at-home.

An illustration shows how expectations for in-school can be adapted for at home — *Many behavior expectations can be used at home, they just look a little different.*

Every school is at a different stage of their at-home learning journey. Like any school-wide system, start small before trying to go big! Target a small number of expectations, well implemented, with loads of positivity and praise from school leaders and teachers to students and families.

Once you have your expectations, decide how you’d like to share them with students and families. Feeling brave? A video from a trusted leader is a powerful way to share the message. Here are a few examples of how other educators are using video to communicate with their school community:

Feeling stuck?

‍If you’ve reviewed your rubric, and it just doesn’t make sense for at-home – that’s okay! You can create an at-home rubric designed specially for at-home learning. You’ll be able to create a streamlined set of expectations for at-home, while keeping your in-school expectations safe and sound in preparation for a return to normal school.

Share Your Approach! 💬

We want to hear how your school is adapting behavior expectations for at-home learning! Tag @whyliveschool #athome on Twitter with your answer to the question: "How are you adapting your behavior expectations for at-home learning?" We'll add your post to our growing database of Behavior Rubric examples.