Review of: Creating the Culture of Positive Behavior Supports

Review of: Creating the Culture of Positive Behavior Supports

Selecting broad, memorable, and school-wide expectations allows students to not have to wonder what is acceptable and what is unacceptable in each classroom environment. Because the rules are the same school-wide each student knows what is expected of them and only requires them to remember one set of rules. Monroe School, in the video, expects three things of its students, and if students forget it they can remember its acronym, CAR. Be a caring person, to care for others, to be academically involved, and to be able to be respectful towards each other. Only a few expectations are needed because these expectations are broad and envelop many things. Expectations are better than rules because rather than saying you can’t do this and you can’t do that you are giving each student and idea of what they should do and that way when they meet expectations they will be praised for it. Non classroom environments are the parts of each school that are not considered classrooms, such as the cafeteria and the hallways. Before these expectations were implemented many schools had issues with children pushing, shoving and writing on walls. Typically, non classroom settings are problematic because schools have unclear expectations, inadequate procedures, lack of acknowledgement of positive behaviors, inadequate supervision, and the expectations have not been taught. PBS changed the environments in the halls in the morning by putting lines down on the floor to show children where to sit and changed students to hallways closer to the breakfast hall and then taught the expectations. After identifying expectations and procedures, PBS schools teach those skills and expectations to students the first few days of school. The students are rewarded for meeting expectations which reinforces their positive behavior. The majority of students from years past immediately did what was expected of them on the first day of the new school year at Monroe. Also, the teachers develop teaching plans for each part of the school building, such as the cafeteria. These teaching plans are then implemented through guided practices, ongoing supervision and positive feedback. Using seniors to talk to some of the younger kids can be very helpful. Many PBS schools use the seniors that are very active in the school setting, such as students on the student council and captains of various school teams. Older students come into classrooms and demonstrate how to act appropriately in class and the inappropriate ways to act in class. Positive recognition is a very important part of the PBS program. When students perform well they are given tokens to put on their backpacks. Some schools have a raffle every Friday and the student who wins gets a dragon and dragon paw in their classroom for the week. This lets the other students know that that particular classroom has performed exceptionally well that week. PBS schools have saved hundreds of hours in referrals as well as saving valuable class time because students are not being sent out of class. There is a very steady decline in the number of office interventions each month. As the number of office interventions has decreased so has the number of students being identified for special education. Through helping the whole schools behavior problems, the school was able to help students learn and be supported in the classroom without needing extra supports in the classroom.

Creating the Culture of Positive Behavior Supports. Dir. Gray Olsen and Paula Baumann. Creating the Culture. PBS. Web. 1 Mar. 2010. .

School House. Digital image. Free Clipart Pictures. 2008. Web. 2 Mar. 2010. .