My school, John Burroughs Elementary, A DC Public School, is a PBIS school. Consequently, my class rules are tied to the PBIS principles: Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Resourceful, and Be Safe. In my school, students can earn “ram bucks” for positive behavior. Students use these ram bucks to participate in different PBIS activities. For example, students who have earned enough Ram Bucks can participate in one complete dress down day at the end of each month. Students in 5th grade, the grade I teach, must earn ram bucks for positive behavior in order to purchase a dress down day pass for 12 ram bucks. Students also attend a monthly auction to “purchase” cool items with their ram bucks. The more money they have, the more items they can purchase at the auctions. There are several other PBIS school wide events that students can attend, provided they have earned enough ram bucks from positive behavior. Some of these events include dodge ball tournament, mat ball tournament, scavenger hunt, roller skating, pizza party, PBIS dance off,ice cream social, 5th grade dance, water balloon challenge, End of Year Olympics and other events.
In my class I adhere to the PBIS principles and implement a behavior management student when students are breaking the rules and not following procedures. There are 5 main rules in my classroom, which I review daily with my students at the beginning of class. These rules are: follow directions the first time, keep hands and feet to yourself, one speaker at a time during lessons and discussions, raise your hand for permission to speak, raise your hand for permission to leave your seat. To create a positive environments, students snap their fingers whenever a classmate shares an idea or answer that they agree with. Students also wiggle their finger to send their classmates who are speaking positive energy. These rules and procedures are reinforced through a behavior management system. I write the children’s names on clothes pins and put them on the yardstick. The yardstick shows a modified stoplight with four colors: blue, green, yellow, and red. Blue means outstanding. Green means ready to learn. Yellow means warning. Red means consequence is given. Clothes pins with the student’s names are on the yardstick. Everyone begins each day with their clips on “green.” The yard stick is not hung up in front of the classroom. I do not display the stick the ways some teachers display the names at the front of the room on a chart because it is embarrassing for children whose names are on yellow and red. If a student breaks a school or classroom rule, the student receives a warning and their clip is moved to yellow. If the behavior continues or the student breaks another class rule, their clip is moved to red. No ram bucks can be earned for being on yellow or red. Furthermore, there are consequences for moving to red. Some of which include, no recess, home call or note home, or loss of computer time. My school has a process for office referral. The teacher has to try at least 3 intervention strategies before submitting an office referral. Some interventions and methods of directions include verbal and non-verbal cues, time out in class, time out of class with a buddy teacher, completing a reflection sheet, loss of privileges, phone call home and other strategies. If the behavior persists, an office referral can be submitted.
I also implement the behavior system to give positive reinforcements to students who are following our class rules and procedures. For example, when students follow our class rules and procedures, and demonstrate the PBIS principles of being respectful, responsible, resourceful and safe, their clip is stays on green. They earn two ram bucks daily for being on green. In addition to following the class rules, students are excited to send positive energy to each other and snap their fingers when someone is sharing an idea because they want their clue to be moved up to blue. When a student is on blue, they can earn 5 ram bucks. At the end of each day, one of the students , who is the behavior manager, distributes the ram bucks to students who were on green or blue on the behavior chart. When the entire class is positive in their interactions with each other, they also earn ram bucks. At the end of month, if the class has collectively earned 55 ram bucks, they earn extra recess. These strategies and systems help to create a positive classroom culture and gives positive reinforcements to students who follow our rules and procedures.
Click on the link below to see a gliffy of the decision making process.
Process Chart
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