PBIS must better align CICO systems, data, and practices, and Reflective CICO is the best way to do this. Instead of tracking student behavior (which we do anyway with office referrals), we need to track that critical elements of CICO conversations occur as scheduled and as trained. Reflective CICO is the answer.
Category Archives: PBIS
Use your words.
The key to recognizing student behavior isn’t the tangible or intangible ‘things.’ After all, even an intangible bribe is still a bribe. What matters most are our words. Before spending any time designing how many tickets earn extra recess or whether or not to have a pizza party, think about your school values and write out a few examples of what you’d like to be able to say to students when they live a value out loud. Having the words in our heads ahead of time makes them come out easier and more authentically when the moment is right.
Free webinar: Getting Started with Check-in / Check-out (CICO) with Dr. Tim Grivois
Our first webinar, Getting started with Check-in / Check-out (CICO), will be on 28 September. This session is for schools that have already implemented school-wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Support. Often, students need a little extra love to be their best in school. CICO is an excellent framework for providing these students with positive adult attention and connection. With CICO, your school can front-load the love and support for students who need it most.
Developing emotional vocabulary.
-by Timothy (Tim) Grivois, Ed.D. Social and emotional learning is not extra. On the contrary, alongside academic mastery, social and emotional skills are essential to becoming successful learners and good human beings. Emotional regulation, in particular, is critical to maintaining good mental health and developing healthy relationships. Like all SEL skills, emotional regulation begins fromContinue reading “Developing emotional vocabulary.“
Social and emotional learning: From the inside out.
Social and emotional learning is not extra. On the contrary, alongside academic mastery, social and emotional skills are essential to becoming successful learners and good human beings.
Teaching expectations in the bathroom: FAQ
Let’s talk about the bathroom! In most schools, the bathroom tends to generate many discipline referrals. Students often don’t report most of what happens in the bathroom since the bathroom is often a place students go to be beyond adult supervision.
When PBIS teams write lesson plans to teach expected behaviors in the bathroom, these three questions often come up. Here are the questions and the best counsel I have to share:
The best ways to invite grownups to participate on your PBIS team.
-by Timothy (Tim) Grivois, Ed.D. Note: I use “grownup” for “parents” because children have a variety of amazing adults in their lives, and all should be included in our PBIS implementation. Positive Behavior Interventions and Support functions best when grownups participate. Without grownups’ active involvement, teams can’t know if the systems, data, and practices meantContinue reading “The best ways to invite grownups to participate on your PBIS team.”
What’s on your mind and on your heart?
Helping students regulate emotions is essential to their social, emotional, and academic achievement. However, supporting and understanding our students’ emotional learning becomes possible when school adults first know how to connect with their own emotions.
Rethinking Positive Feedback in PBIS
Positive Behavior Interventions and Support centralizes positive feedback as a critical tenet of school-wide social and emotional support. Both the data and my values as a caring professional lead me to support expanding the frequency of kind words on campus. However, we must be mindful to avoid common mindsets that might lead to adverse outcomes. Whatever your system for positive feedback, make sure that the goal is warm, supportive relationships.
Don’t just look at data. Use it.
The best part of using data in this way is that you don’t need a Professional Learning Community structure. In fact, a PLC format might get in the way of the work by making things take longer. Instead, the most important task is to measure what matters, communicate data to your team, and take action that serves students and teachers effectively.