Our new principal is wanting to start a school wide behavior plan (which is right up my alley haha) and I am the representative for my team. Does anyone have anything that works well in their school? Hallways, Cafeteria, Assembly, Recess? How about consequences? I know we already have some things in mind, but anything else that seems to really work would be great to share! Thanks! BTW Our school is K-3.
We use PBIS....more for building on the positives than focusing on the negatives. We set up specific rules for each place and the reward the kids who follow the rules with raffle ticket to win a prize...We have different prizes that they can pick from. We use consequences too, but most of them are reteaching of the rules for the specific place or rule that they aren't following.
This works well for the cafeteria in my elem. school: lunch aides put a green plastic cup somewhere at the class' table at the beginning of lunch. If the class becomes too loud, she switches it to a yellow cup, which is a silent warning. If they continue to be loud, it is switched to red which is silent lunch for the class for the rest of the period. I have never seen a class get moved to red; the yellow warning cup does the trick. Usually, they don't even get that far.
My principal also uses a repeated clapping pattern for gaining attention at assemblies, and dismisses grade groups one at a time by having a "quiet contest" to see which grade level leaves the quietest. She announces the winner on afternoon announcements and sporadically provides treats to winners. It works for getting them out of there quietly.
We also use PBSIS (Positive Behavior Support in Schools). There are set rules for each area of the school. (Auditorium, gymnasium, bathroom, hallways, cafeteria, classrooms). At the start of the school year, all of the teachers worked together to select rules that we felt were appropriate and important for each area. In September, we had a kick-off week- during which we explicitly taught the rules and expectations for each area. (For instance, on Monday, we taught the bathroom rules, on Tuesday- the cafeteria rules, etc). In each lesson, we modeled making good choices and the importance of doing so. At the end of the week, we had a school wide kick-off. We had many important members of the community join us- the local news channel even came to video tape it. During this "kick-off", the school wide incentive tickets were introduced. Basically- every adult in the school (teachers, principal, lunch aides, custodians, etc) has incentive tickets. Whenever a child is "caught making a good choice", an adult may give them a ticket. The child then writes their name on the ticket and deposits it in a container in their classroom. At the end of the week, the containers are collected and dumped into new containers by grade level. 1 tickets is drawn from each grade level's container. Later in the day, the names of the students on the selected tickets are announced on the PA system, and they get to visit the "Prize Room"- where they can select a small prize, or a ticket for a privilege such as first in line for lunch for a week, or reading a book to a younger grade. All of the grade level containers are then dumped into a larger container. There are markings on the container, and every time the school reaches a mark, the entire school gets a reward (as a booster event). We earned our first school reward last week-- it's going to be "Dance Party Friday'. The kids are really excited about it- and the incentive tickets really make a difference. I think it especially helps with teachers who aren't inclined to using positive reinforcement much- it helps them get on board. (They don't really have a choice, lol). But seriously, it creates a much more positive environment!!!
