They are knee-deep in logistical issues. Always stuck in the brainstorming phase. They meet regularly but don’t have time to discuss discipline data with enough meaning to enact lasting change.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
You need your team to have the time to be your solution center. So where is the time going and how do we get it back?
If that scenario is true of your team, it likely means they are flexing all of their creative muscles on rewards. Well isn’t that the point of PBIS tiers?
Yes, and no.
Yes, we want to reward students for meeting expectations. Yes, we want those rewards to be meaningful, so yes you need to put some thought and manpower into them.
But no, they should not be consuming all of your team's time. If you are always recreating the wheel, it’s tough to improve the engine.
You need to do what all great organizations do; systemize it.
You need a reward system.
A system is a set of principles or structures according to which something is done. We travel in this country via our transportation system. The connected roads and highways that piece our lands together. Without it, we would be constantly searching for new paths to the same old places.
Being an explorer or trailblazer certainly has some appeal to it. But in our transportation analogy, if everyone was a trailblazer we would never actually settle down and build anything.
No beautiful towns. No great cities. No lovely vacation spots. Just the constant “new place”.
This same trap is easy to fall into when planning rewards for your school. You run a successful reward in September, then your team brainstorms a new one for October. You create a great semester-long reward, then next semester you plan a new one.
This constant innovation requires a lot of work. You need some basic principles to build upon so you can make small tweaks and not always be building the plane as you fly it.
By investing some time early on with your team you can decide upon some guidelines under which all future rewards can fall into. Not only is this a time-saver, but in a school, with any degree of attrition, it can be a program saver.
You don’t want to lose your PBIS program because a teacher moved away to a new district. You want to continue what was built. You can now adequately budget and fundraise for your program because you know the costs.
Also once you establish a system, your team will have more time to review discipline data and thus more time to brainstorm solutions to your school's trouble spots. That is in my opinion the greatest advantage of implementing PBIS in your school.
You have built in a data-driven approach to discipline review and behavior management. But none of that is possible if all of your meetings are spent discussing who is scheduling the ice cream truck.
Keep reading for some basic foundational concepts you should include in your system.
You need to leverage technology to organize your system. Try LiveSchool for a great behavior management app that can keep track of all the things you need for rewarding your kids.
Adopt a platform that enables your vision for school-wide values, staff and student relationships, and family engagement.
We are data rich but often data-analysis poor in education. Define what matters to your school and track those things. Don’t get lost rebooting what matters every month or year.
Look at your school year calendar. Block off approved times for individual, class, team, and school-wide rewards.
This needs to happen early, preferably on a summer workday so you don’t overbook times throughout the year.
Every school has a list of non-negotiables. Define yours. If you never mess with your lunch block, don’t waste time trying to plan things for that time that will just go unapproved.
Designate someone on your team to keep the “good idea list”. This is gold because some of the best stuff is off-topic or out of place.
But if you don’t have a way to capture it you can derail entire meetings and put off things that need to be done.
Somebody has a good idea but it's off the agenda? Put it on the list for discussion next time.
Define your roles. In every reward, somebody needs to collect data, create messaging, design logistics for staff, and secure resources. Define who does those things.
This one may already be done by your district. If not you can compile it over time, but it will eventually save you time as you don’t want to be a teacher, PBIS coach, and also cold-call local businesses.
Designate a place in your building to store leftover supplies from previous rewards so you don’t waste time searching or ordering more than you need.
Plan a few bread-n-butter rewards your team can execute every year. Plan them well and keep your plans. These are your staples.
This is huge. Every member of your team has a role. Have each member teach a colleague how they do what they do.
If you have one team member in charge of data collection, make certain he teaches someone else how to do that.
If a valuable team member leaves or retires, your system needs to carry on.
School rewards are great for incentives and improving morale. They are also great for student motivation.
But like anything else, if you don’t systemize it you will be constantly creating it. Create your system and then you can choose rewards for elementary, middle, or high.
They are knee-deep in logistical issues. Always stuck in the brainstorming phase. They meet regularly but don’t have time to discuss discipline data with enough meaning to enact lasting change.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
You need your team to have the time to be your solution center. So where is the time going and how do we get it back?
If that scenario is true of your team, it likely means they are flexing all of their creative muscles on rewards. Well isn’t that the point of PBIS tiers?
Yes, and no.
Yes, we want to reward students for meeting expectations. Yes, we want those rewards to be meaningful, so yes you need to put some thought and manpower into them.
But no, they should not be consuming all of your team's time. If you are always recreating the wheel, it’s tough to improve the engine.
You need to do what all great organizations do; systemize it.
You need a reward system.
A system is a set of principles or structures according to which something is done. We travel in this country via our transportation system. The connected roads and highways that piece our lands together. Without it, we would be constantly searching for new paths to the same old places.
Being an explorer or trailblazer certainly has some appeal to it. But in our transportation analogy, if everyone was a trailblazer we would never actually settle down and build anything.
No beautiful towns. No great cities. No lovely vacation spots. Just the constant “new place”.
This same trap is easy to fall into when planning rewards for your school. You run a successful reward in September, then your team brainstorms a new one for October. You create a great semester-long reward, then next semester you plan a new one.
This constant innovation requires a lot of work. You need some basic principles to build upon so you can make small tweaks and not always be building the plane as you fly it.
By investing some time early on with your team you can decide upon some guidelines under which all future rewards can fall into. Not only is this a time-saver, but in a school, with any degree of attrition, it can be a program saver.
You don’t want to lose your PBIS program because a teacher moved away to a new district. You want to continue what was built. You can now adequately budget and fundraise for your program because you know the costs.
Also once you establish a system, your team will have more time to review discipline data and thus more time to brainstorm solutions to your school's trouble spots. That is in my opinion the greatest advantage of implementing PBIS in your school.
You have built in a data-driven approach to discipline review and behavior management. But none of that is possible if all of your meetings are spent discussing who is scheduling the ice cream truck.
Keep reading for some basic foundational concepts you should include in your system.
You need to leverage technology to organize your system. Try LiveSchool for a great behavior management app that can keep track of all the things you need for rewarding your kids.
Adopt a platform that enables your vision for school-wide values, staff and student relationships, and family engagement.
We are data rich but often data-analysis poor in education. Define what matters to your school and track those things. Don’t get lost rebooting what matters every month or year.
Look at your school year calendar. Block off approved times for individual, class, team, and school-wide rewards.
This needs to happen early, preferably on a summer workday so you don’t overbook times throughout the year.
Every school has a list of non-negotiables. Define yours. If you never mess with your lunch block, don’t waste time trying to plan things for that time that will just go unapproved.
Designate someone on your team to keep the “good idea list”. This is gold because some of the best stuff is off-topic or out of place.
But if you don’t have a way to capture it you can derail entire meetings and put off things that need to be done.
Somebody has a good idea but it's off the agenda? Put it on the list for discussion next time.
Define your roles. In every reward, somebody needs to collect data, create messaging, design logistics for staff, and secure resources. Define who does those things.
This one may already be done by your district. If not you can compile it over time, but it will eventually save you time as you don’t want to be a teacher, PBIS coach, and also cold-call local businesses.
Designate a place in your building to store leftover supplies from previous rewards so you don’t waste time searching or ordering more than you need.
Plan a few bread-n-butter rewards your team can execute every year. Plan them well and keep your plans. These are your staples.
This is huge. Every member of your team has a role. Have each member teach a colleague how they do what they do.
If you have one team member in charge of data collection, make certain he teaches someone else how to do that.
If a valuable team member leaves or retires, your system needs to carry on.
School rewards are great for incentives and improving morale. They are also great for student motivation.
But like anything else, if you don’t systemize it you will be constantly creating it. Create your system and then you can choose rewards for elementary, middle, or high.
They are knee-deep in logistical issues. Always stuck in the brainstorming phase. They meet regularly but don’t have time to discuss discipline data with enough meaning to enact lasting change.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
You need your team to have the time to be your solution center. So where is the time going and how do we get it back?
If that scenario is true of your team, it likely means they are flexing all of their creative muscles on rewards. Well isn’t that the point of PBIS tiers?
Yes, and no.
Yes, we want to reward students for meeting expectations. Yes, we want those rewards to be meaningful, so yes you need to put some thought and manpower into them.
But no, they should not be consuming all of your team's time. If you are always recreating the wheel, it’s tough to improve the engine.
You need to do what all great organizations do; systemize it.
You need a reward system.
A system is a set of principles or structures according to which something is done. We travel in this country via our transportation system. The connected roads and highways that piece our lands together. Without it, we would be constantly searching for new paths to the same old places.
Being an explorer or trailblazer certainly has some appeal to it. But in our transportation analogy, if everyone was a trailblazer we would never actually settle down and build anything.
No beautiful towns. No great cities. No lovely vacation spots. Just the constant “new place”.
This same trap is easy to fall into when planning rewards for your school. You run a successful reward in September, then your team brainstorms a new one for October. You create a great semester-long reward, then next semester you plan a new one.
This constant innovation requires a lot of work. You need some basic principles to build upon so you can make small tweaks and not always be building the plane as you fly it.
By investing some time early on with your team you can decide upon some guidelines under which all future rewards can fall into. Not only is this a time-saver, but in a school, with any degree of attrition, it can be a program saver.
You don’t want to lose your PBIS program because a teacher moved away to a new district. You want to continue what was built. You can now adequately budget and fundraise for your program because you know the costs.
Also once you establish a system, your team will have more time to review discipline data and thus more time to brainstorm solutions to your school's trouble spots. That is in my opinion the greatest advantage of implementing PBIS in your school.
You have built in a data-driven approach to discipline review and behavior management. But none of that is possible if all of your meetings are spent discussing who is scheduling the ice cream truck.
Keep reading for some basic foundational concepts you should include in your system.
You need to leverage technology to organize your system. Try LiveSchool for a great behavior management app that can keep track of all the things you need for rewarding your kids.
Adopt a platform that enables your vision for school-wide values, staff and student relationships, and family engagement.
We are data rich but often data-analysis poor in education. Define what matters to your school and track those things. Don’t get lost rebooting what matters every month or year.
Look at your school year calendar. Block off approved times for individual, class, team, and school-wide rewards.
This needs to happen early, preferably on a summer workday so you don’t overbook times throughout the year.
Every school has a list of non-negotiables. Define yours. If you never mess with your lunch block, don’t waste time trying to plan things for that time that will just go unapproved.
Designate someone on your team to keep the “good idea list”. This is gold because some of the best stuff is off-topic or out of place.
But if you don’t have a way to capture it you can derail entire meetings and put off things that need to be done.
Somebody has a good idea but it's off the agenda? Put it on the list for discussion next time.
Define your roles. In every reward, somebody needs to collect data, create messaging, design logistics for staff, and secure resources. Define who does those things.
This one may already be done by your district. If not you can compile it over time, but it will eventually save you time as you don’t want to be a teacher, PBIS coach, and also cold-call local businesses.
Designate a place in your building to store leftover supplies from previous rewards so you don’t waste time searching or ordering more than you need.
Plan a few bread-n-butter rewards your team can execute every year. Plan them well and keep your plans. These are your staples.
This is huge. Every member of your team has a role. Have each member teach a colleague how they do what they do.
If you have one team member in charge of data collection, make certain he teaches someone else how to do that.
If a valuable team member leaves or retires, your system needs to carry on.
School rewards are great for incentives and improving morale. They are also great for student motivation.
But like anything else, if you don’t systemize it you will be constantly creating it. Create your system and then you can choose rewards for elementary, middle, or high.
They are knee-deep in logistical issues. Always stuck in the brainstorming phase. They meet regularly but don’t have time to discuss discipline data with enough meaning to enact lasting change.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
You need your team to have the time to be your solution center. So where is the time going and how do we get it back?
If that scenario is true of your team, it likely means they are flexing all of their creative muscles on rewards. Well isn’t that the point of PBIS tiers?
Yes, and no.
Yes, we want to reward students for meeting expectations. Yes, we want those rewards to be meaningful, so yes you need to put some thought and manpower into them.
But no, they should not be consuming all of your team's time. If you are always recreating the wheel, it’s tough to improve the engine.
You need to do what all great organizations do; systemize it.
You need a reward system.
A system is a set of principles or structures according to which something is done. We travel in this country via our transportation system. The connected roads and highways that piece our lands together. Without it, we would be constantly searching for new paths to the same old places.
Being an explorer or trailblazer certainly has some appeal to it. But in our transportation analogy, if everyone was a trailblazer we would never actually settle down and build anything.
No beautiful towns. No great cities. No lovely vacation spots. Just the constant “new place”.
This same trap is easy to fall into when planning rewards for your school. You run a successful reward in September, then your team brainstorms a new one for October. You create a great semester-long reward, then next semester you plan a new one.
This constant innovation requires a lot of work. You need some basic principles to build upon so you can make small tweaks and not always be building the plane as you fly it.
By investing some time early on with your team you can decide upon some guidelines under which all future rewards can fall into. Not only is this a time-saver, but in a school, with any degree of attrition, it can be a program saver.
You don’t want to lose your PBIS program because a teacher moved away to a new district. You want to continue what was built. You can now adequately budget and fundraise for your program because you know the costs.
Also once you establish a system, your team will have more time to review discipline data and thus more time to brainstorm solutions to your school's trouble spots. That is in my opinion the greatest advantage of implementing PBIS in your school.
You have built in a data-driven approach to discipline review and behavior management. But none of that is possible if all of your meetings are spent discussing who is scheduling the ice cream truck.
Keep reading for some basic foundational concepts you should include in your system.
You need to leverage technology to organize your system. Try LiveSchool for a great behavior management app that can keep track of all the things you need for rewarding your kids.
Adopt a platform that enables your vision for school-wide values, staff and student relationships, and family engagement.
We are data rich but often data-analysis poor in education. Define what matters to your school and track those things. Don’t get lost rebooting what matters every month or year.
Look at your school year calendar. Block off approved times for individual, class, team, and school-wide rewards.
This needs to happen early, preferably on a summer workday so you don’t overbook times throughout the year.
Every school has a list of non-negotiables. Define yours. If you never mess with your lunch block, don’t waste time trying to plan things for that time that will just go unapproved.
Designate someone on your team to keep the “good idea list”. This is gold because some of the best stuff is off-topic or out of place.
But if you don’t have a way to capture it you can derail entire meetings and put off things that need to be done.
Somebody has a good idea but it's off the agenda? Put it on the list for discussion next time.
Define your roles. In every reward, somebody needs to collect data, create messaging, design logistics for staff, and secure resources. Define who does those things.
This one may already be done by your district. If not you can compile it over time, but it will eventually save you time as you don’t want to be a teacher, PBIS coach, and also cold-call local businesses.
Designate a place in your building to store leftover supplies from previous rewards so you don’t waste time searching or ordering more than you need.
Plan a few bread-n-butter rewards your team can execute every year. Plan them well and keep your plans. These are your staples.
This is huge. Every member of your team has a role. Have each member teach a colleague how they do what they do.
If you have one team member in charge of data collection, make certain he teaches someone else how to do that.
If a valuable team member leaves or retires, your system needs to carry on.
School rewards are great for incentives and improving morale. They are also great for student motivation.
But like anything else, if you don’t systemize it you will be constantly creating it. Create your system and then you can choose rewards for elementary, middle, or high.
They are knee-deep in logistical issues. Always stuck in the brainstorming phase. They meet regularly but don’t have time to discuss discipline data with enough meaning to enact lasting change.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
You need your team to have the time to be your solution center. So where is the time going and how do we get it back?
If that scenario is true of your team, it likely means they are flexing all of their creative muscles on rewards. Well isn’t that the point of PBIS tiers?
Yes, and no.
Yes, we want to reward students for meeting expectations. Yes, we want those rewards to be meaningful, so yes you need to put some thought and manpower into them.
But no, they should not be consuming all of your team's time. If you are always recreating the wheel, it’s tough to improve the engine.
You need to do what all great organizations do; systemize it.
You need a reward system.
A system is a set of principles or structures according to which something is done. We travel in this country via our transportation system. The connected roads and highways that piece our lands together. Without it, we would be constantly searching for new paths to the same old places.
Being an explorer or trailblazer certainly has some appeal to it. But in our transportation analogy, if everyone was a trailblazer we would never actually settle down and build anything.
No beautiful towns. No great cities. No lovely vacation spots. Just the constant “new place”.
This same trap is easy to fall into when planning rewards for your school. You run a successful reward in September, then your team brainstorms a new one for October. You create a great semester-long reward, then next semester you plan a new one.
This constant innovation requires a lot of work. You need some basic principles to build upon so you can make small tweaks and not always be building the plane as you fly it.
By investing some time early on with your team you can decide upon some guidelines under which all future rewards can fall into. Not only is this a time-saver, but in a school, with any degree of attrition, it can be a program saver.
You don’t want to lose your PBIS program because a teacher moved away to a new district. You want to continue what was built. You can now adequately budget and fundraise for your program because you know the costs.
Also once you establish a system, your team will have more time to review discipline data and thus more time to brainstorm solutions to your school's trouble spots. That is in my opinion the greatest advantage of implementing PBIS in your school.
You have built in a data-driven approach to discipline review and behavior management. But none of that is possible if all of your meetings are spent discussing who is scheduling the ice cream truck.
Keep reading for some basic foundational concepts you should include in your system.
You need to leverage technology to organize your system. Try LiveSchool for a great behavior management app that can keep track of all the things you need for rewarding your kids.
Adopt a platform that enables your vision for school-wide values, staff and student relationships, and family engagement.
We are data rich but often data-analysis poor in education. Define what matters to your school and track those things. Don’t get lost rebooting what matters every month or year.
Look at your school year calendar. Block off approved times for individual, class, team, and school-wide rewards.
This needs to happen early, preferably on a summer workday so you don’t overbook times throughout the year.
Every school has a list of non-negotiables. Define yours. If you never mess with your lunch block, don’t waste time trying to plan things for that time that will just go unapproved.
Designate someone on your team to keep the “good idea list”. This is gold because some of the best stuff is off-topic or out of place.
But if you don’t have a way to capture it you can derail entire meetings and put off things that need to be done.
Somebody has a good idea but it's off the agenda? Put it on the list for discussion next time.
Define your roles. In every reward, somebody needs to collect data, create messaging, design logistics for staff, and secure resources. Define who does those things.
This one may already be done by your district. If not you can compile it over time, but it will eventually save you time as you don’t want to be a teacher, PBIS coach, and also cold-call local businesses.
Designate a place in your building to store leftover supplies from previous rewards so you don’t waste time searching or ordering more than you need.
Plan a few bread-n-butter rewards your team can execute every year. Plan them well and keep your plans. These are your staples.
This is huge. Every member of your team has a role. Have each member teach a colleague how they do what they do.
If you have one team member in charge of data collection, make certain he teaches someone else how to do that.
If a valuable team member leaves or retires, your system needs to carry on.
School rewards are great for incentives and improving morale. They are also great for student motivation.
But like anything else, if you don’t systemize it you will be constantly creating it. Create your system and then you can choose rewards for elementary, middle, or high.
Jordan resides in Lexington, Kentucky. He has experience in Public Education as an Administrator, Science Teacher, and as a Coach. He has extensive experience with School Discipline, PBIS, SEL, Restorative Practices, MTSS, and Trauma-Informed Care.
Your PBIS Team has been established. Your expectations are set and you have a solid lesson plan to deliver your expectations to your kiddos. Even though your structures are set, your team is constantly overwhelmed with month-to-month work.
They are knee-deep in logistical issues. Always stuck in the brainstorming phase. They meet regularly but don’t have time to discuss discipline data with enough meaning to enact lasting change.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
You need your team to have the time to be your solution center. So where is the time going and how do we get it back?
If that scenario is true of your team, it likely means they are flexing all of their creative muscles on rewards. Well isn’t that the point of PBIS tiers?
Yes, and no.
Yes, we want to reward students for meeting expectations. Yes, we want those rewards to be meaningful, so yes you need to put some thought and manpower into them.
But no, they should not be consuming all of your team's time. If you are always recreating the wheel, it’s tough to improve the engine.
You need to do what all great organizations do; systemize it.
You need a reward system.
A system is a set of principles or structures according to which something is done. We travel in this country via our transportation system. The connected roads and highways that piece our lands together. Without it, we would be constantly searching for new paths to the same old places.
Being an explorer or trailblazer certainly has some appeal to it. But in our transportation analogy, if everyone was a trailblazer we would never actually settle down and build anything.
No beautiful towns. No great cities. No lovely vacation spots. Just the constant “new place”.
This same trap is easy to fall into when planning rewards for your school. You run a successful reward in September, then your team brainstorms a new one for October. You create a great semester-long reward, then next semester you plan a new one.
This constant innovation requires a lot of work. You need some basic principles to build upon so you can make small tweaks and not always be building the plane as you fly it.
By investing some time early on with your team you can decide upon some guidelines under which all future rewards can fall into. Not only is this a time-saver, but in a school, with any degree of attrition, it can be a program saver.
You don’t want to lose your PBIS program because a teacher moved away to a new district. You want to continue what was built. You can now adequately budget and fundraise for your program because you know the costs.
Also once you establish a system, your team will have more time to review discipline data and thus more time to brainstorm solutions to your school's trouble spots. That is in my opinion the greatest advantage of implementing PBIS in your school.
You have built in a data-driven approach to discipline review and behavior management. But none of that is possible if all of your meetings are spent discussing who is scheduling the ice cream truck.
Keep reading for some basic foundational concepts you should include in your system.
You need to leverage technology to organize your system. Try LiveSchool for a great behavior management app that can keep track of all the things you need for rewarding your kids.
Adopt a platform that enables your vision for school-wide values, staff and student relationships, and family engagement.
We are data rich but often data-analysis poor in education. Define what matters to your school and track those things. Don’t get lost rebooting what matters every month or year.
Look at your school year calendar. Block off approved times for individual, class, team, and school-wide rewards.
This needs to happen early, preferably on a summer workday so you don’t overbook times throughout the year.
Every school has a list of non-negotiables. Define yours. If you never mess with your lunch block, don’t waste time trying to plan things for that time that will just go unapproved.
Designate someone on your team to keep the “good idea list”. This is gold because some of the best stuff is off-topic or out of place.
But if you don’t have a way to capture it you can derail entire meetings and put off things that need to be done.
Somebody has a good idea but it's off the agenda? Put it on the list for discussion next time.
Define your roles. In every reward, somebody needs to collect data, create messaging, design logistics for staff, and secure resources. Define who does those things.
This one may already be done by your district. If not you can compile it over time, but it will eventually save you time as you don’t want to be a teacher, PBIS coach, and also cold-call local businesses.
Designate a place in your building to store leftover supplies from previous rewards so you don’t waste time searching or ordering more than you need.
Plan a few bread-n-butter rewards your team can execute every year. Plan them well and keep your plans. These are your staples.
This is huge. Every member of your team has a role. Have each member teach a colleague how they do what they do.
If you have one team member in charge of data collection, make certain he teaches someone else how to do that.
If a valuable team member leaves or retires, your system needs to carry on.
School rewards are great for incentives and improving morale. They are also great for student motivation.
But like anything else, if you don’t systemize it you will be constantly creating it. Create your system and then you can choose rewards for elementary, middle, or high.
Your PBIS Team has been established. Your expectations are set and you have a solid lesson plan to deliver your expectations to your kiddos. Even though your structures are set, your team is constantly overwhelmed with month-to-month work.
They are knee-deep in logistical issues. Always stuck in the brainstorming phase. They meet regularly but don’t have time to discuss discipline data with enough meaning to enact lasting change.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
You need your team to have the time to be your solution center. So where is the time going and how do we get it back?
If that scenario is true of your team, it likely means they are flexing all of their creative muscles on rewards. Well isn’t that the point of PBIS tiers?
Yes, and no.
Yes, we want to reward students for meeting expectations. Yes, we want those rewards to be meaningful, so yes you need to put some thought and manpower into them.
But no, they should not be consuming all of your team's time. If you are always recreating the wheel, it’s tough to improve the engine.
You need to do what all great organizations do; systemize it.
You need a reward system.
A system is a set of principles or structures according to which something is done. We travel in this country via our transportation system. The connected roads and highways that piece our lands together. Without it, we would be constantly searching for new paths to the same old places.
Being an explorer or trailblazer certainly has some appeal to it. But in our transportation analogy, if everyone was a trailblazer we would never actually settle down and build anything.
No beautiful towns. No great cities. No lovely vacation spots. Just the constant “new place”.
This same trap is easy to fall into when planning rewards for your school. You run a successful reward in September, then your team brainstorms a new one for October. You create a great semester-long reward, then next semester you plan a new one.
This constant innovation requires a lot of work. You need some basic principles to build upon so you can make small tweaks and not always be building the plane as you fly it.
By investing some time early on with your team you can decide upon some guidelines under which all future rewards can fall into. Not only is this a time-saver, but in a school, with any degree of attrition, it can be a program saver.
You don’t want to lose your PBIS program because a teacher moved away to a new district. You want to continue what was built. You can now adequately budget and fundraise for your program because you know the costs.
Also once you establish a system, your team will have more time to review discipline data and thus more time to brainstorm solutions to your school's trouble spots. That is in my opinion the greatest advantage of implementing PBIS in your school.
You have built in a data-driven approach to discipline review and behavior management. But none of that is possible if all of your meetings are spent discussing who is scheduling the ice cream truck.
Keep reading for some basic foundational concepts you should include in your system.
You need to leverage technology to organize your system. Try LiveSchool for a great behavior management app that can keep track of all the things you need for rewarding your kids.
Adopt a platform that enables your vision for school-wide values, staff and student relationships, and family engagement.
We are data rich but often data-analysis poor in education. Define what matters to your school and track those things. Don’t get lost rebooting what matters every month or year.
Look at your school year calendar. Block off approved times for individual, class, team, and school-wide rewards.
This needs to happen early, preferably on a summer workday so you don’t overbook times throughout the year.
Every school has a list of non-negotiables. Define yours. If you never mess with your lunch block, don’t waste time trying to plan things for that time that will just go unapproved.
Designate someone on your team to keep the “good idea list”. This is gold because some of the best stuff is off-topic or out of place.
But if you don’t have a way to capture it you can derail entire meetings and put off things that need to be done.
Somebody has a good idea but it's off the agenda? Put it on the list for discussion next time.
Define your roles. In every reward, somebody needs to collect data, create messaging, design logistics for staff, and secure resources. Define who does those things.
This one may already be done by your district. If not you can compile it over time, but it will eventually save you time as you don’t want to be a teacher, PBIS coach, and also cold-call local businesses.
Designate a place in your building to store leftover supplies from previous rewards so you don’t waste time searching or ordering more than you need.
Plan a few bread-n-butter rewards your team can execute every year. Plan them well and keep your plans. These are your staples.
This is huge. Every member of your team has a role. Have each member teach a colleague how they do what they do.
If you have one team member in charge of data collection, make certain he teaches someone else how to do that.
If a valuable team member leaves or retires, your system needs to carry on.
School rewards are great for incentives and improving morale. They are also great for student motivation.
But like anything else, if you don’t systemize it you will be constantly creating it. Create your system and then you can choose rewards for elementary, middle, or high.
