Happy Tuesday! How is it already mid-August?!?!? As usual, I have been swept up in the craziness of back-to-school, and I have neglected my posts. I am spending this weekend catching up on the blog, so I hope you all are ready! A new school year always means new goals for our building when it comes to SW-PBS. This year will be our building's eighth year of SW-PBS. I am so excited, but I would be lying if I said building and sustaining PBS in our building has been easy for us. There have been a lot of growing pains, as well as some rebuilding years. However, I truly feel that we have persevered, and I am excited for what this year has in store for us! No matter what year or level you are in with your SW-PBS journey, there are some foundational things you need to do at the beginning of every school year. Check out what our team does every year to ensure success and efficiency: 1. Make a team meeting schedule. Your team meetings ensure that PBS can run smoothly in your building, so setting a time and place that works for everyone is imperative. We meet twice a month, and we choose the first and third Thursdays of the month in the morning before we are contracted to work. We meet for 30 minutes and we send out agendas the day before to remind and inform people. Our goal is to work efficiently in our meeting; I never want to feel like people are attending a meeting that is a waste of time! Agendas have been the winning tool for us in this adventure. Check out a template of the agenda we use from the Missouri SW-PBS website. 2. Make a presence among staff. At the beginning of the school year, there is a lot of things happening for teachers. Loads of information are being poured onto everyone, and sometimes it may feel like SW-PBS may go in one ear and out the other if we talk about it at the beginning of the year. Even though it may feel like a lot, making the presence of PBS known among staff at the beginning of the year will help support its importance. Our principal gives a us a small 30 minutes time slot in her opening meeting to talk about PBS. We give the bare bones of what it is and what tools they need to start their school year on the right foot. 3. Update your documents. Your SW-PBS documents should always be working documents; open to updates and changes as your building grows through its process. The PBS team needs to make sure the documents are updated and made accessible in some way to all teachers and staff. We put all of our documents on a shared Google Drive. Paper copies work, as long as teams are diligent about making sure all copies are updated every year. 4. Create accessible tools for teachers. PBS is only as effective as the tools you have to implement it, so making sure your teachers have access to forms, information, or positive reinforcement tools is crucial. We need things right at ou finger tips because our days are already hectic enough! We have a bin of our tokens in the workroom that teachers can grab throughout the day. We place any form they might need on a shared Google Drive. We laminate any sign they need and personally deliver it to them. We also have a bulletin board with updated information in the teacher workroom. Information is key! 5. Schedule staff trainings for the year. The school year gets busy, and time can get away from any team. Setting training times with your administrator is imperative to make sure information gets passed to teachers throughout the year. Having a hard time scheduling time?? Take what you can get! Even if you only get five minutes at a meeting, use it! Alternatives to trainings if you cannot physically meet with staff: send weekly email updates, record trainings and post them on a shared drive, or ask to attend smaller meetings that teachers may already be attending. Looking for more ideas on how to implement SW-PBS in your school? Check out some of my previous posts that talk about starting the beginning of the school year: I hope your school year starts off on a positive note! Stay tuned for different and new things I am trying this year!
Have a great week friends!
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