Bathroom Cleanliness is the Latest Cool Tool

Click on the link at the right to find the latest cool tool for use at home. This time we are focusing on cleanliness and hygiene in the bathroom. This is an issue that we focus on at school as well, so students should be expected to meet the same standards at home.

Cool Tool Spotlights

This week's Cool Tool Spotlight is about bathroom privacy. Often an issue, especially with younger children, this cool tool discusses respecting oneself and others by maintaining privacy when using the bathroom. The skill includes the need to be respectful by not, for example, yelling outside the bathroom door as well as by not walking into an occupied bathroom. While these seem like obvious skills to an adult, for an uninhibited youngster, these are skills that may need to be more directly addressed.

This Week's Spotlight

Continuing with the the theme of automobile safety, this latest "Cool Tool" discusses how to introduce and reinforce the wearing of seat belts when traveling in a vehicle. Please click on the link to the right under Cool Tool Spotlights to access this home lesson plan.

Cool Tool Spotlights

Cool Tools are what we call the lesson plans that we use at school to teach students the expectations that we have for them in order to maintain a safe, responsible, respectful community. The great thing about these expectations-and about Cool Tools-is that they can also be used to help your student understand behavioral expectations at home. In order to provide you with some help in doing that, and to reinforce the way we teach these expectations at school, the Longfellow PBIS team will spotlight a new Cool Tool for use at home every couple of weeks on this blog. Simply look at the column on the right for the Cool Tool Spotlight and click on the link for the Cool Tool you would like to see. These are PDF documents and can be printed for your use. The first Cool Tool Spotlight is a lesson plan for appropriate behavior when riding in an automobile.

PBIS

What is PBIS?

PBIS is the acronym for Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports. It is a positive behavior management initiative being rolled out at Longfellow Elementary, as well as other district schools, as part of the District 97 Strategic Plan. A formal definition states that:
School-wide PBIS is the integration of

• Operationally defined and valued outcomes,
• Behavioral and biomedical science,
• Research validated practices, and
• Systems change.

The goal is to prevent the development and the escalation of problem behaviors and thus maximize the academic success of all of our students.

PBIS is a proactive, systems approach to providing the behavioral supports and social culture needed for each of our students to achieve behavioral, social and academic success.

PBIS involves setting school-wide behavioral expectations. At Longfellow Elementary, those expectations (the “Bear Necessities”) are to:

• Be Respectful
• Be Responsible
• Be Safe

Once behavioral expectations are set, we teach those expectations to students in a variety of setting and situations throughout the school. We have begun and are continuing to develop a continuum of consequences both for meeting and for violating those expectations. Our emphasis is on acknowledging appropriate behavior and celebrating positive growth in individuals and as a school community. Fundamental to PBIS is the recording and ongoing use of data for decision-making.

How do states, districts and schools implement PBIS?

Illinois has a strong commitment to PBIS and provides training, technical assistance and evaluation support to districts interested in implementing PBIS. For more information about PBIS at the state level, visit: www.pbisillinois.org.

At District 97, we have a district or external coach who assists with the overall implementation of PBIS including training and funding.

At Longfellow Elementary, we have an Internal Coach and a PBIS Team. We work together to help train staff members and plan for all of the components of PBIS to be put into place. We monitor the data and use it to help in the planning process.

What are the outcomes associated with PBIS?

• Decrease in office discipline referrals
• Increase in instructional time
• Decrease in administrator time spent on discipline issues
• Efficient and effective use of resources
• Increase in school safety
• Sustainability through the use of a team approach

Perhaps most importantly, PBIS supports the Illinois Social Emotional Learning Standards, which include the following three goals:

• Goal 1: Develop self-awareness and self-management skills to achieve school and life success.
• Goal 2: Use social-awareness and interpersonal skills to establish and maintain positive relationships.
• Goal 3: Demonstrate decision-making skills and responsible behaviors in personal, school, and community contexts.
  

PBIS is currently being used in over 30 states and the District of Columbia. It has solid research that supports the positive outcomes associated with its implementation.