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Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports at Sugar Creek
Intervencion de Apoyo para Comportamiento Positivo y Sugar Creek
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At Sugar Creek, we promote a “Culture of Learning” by teaching and acknowledging learners’ positive behaviors. This systemic approach is called Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS), and at the most basic level, it is delivered by all staff members to all students. This approach starts with our school’s school-wide expectations called The Fantastic Four:
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Be Kind and Respectful
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Be Responsible
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Be a Problem Solver
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Be Safe
First we teach…
Through Cool Tools and the Passport for Learning, classrooms work together to understand these four expectations and understand how to meet them in our different school locations. For example, classrooms will role-model, act out, and discuss what it means to be responsible at recess or in a zoom classroom. The Cool Tools and Expectations create a common language throughout the school and explicitly teach the positive behaviors we’d like to see from learners.
Then we acknowledge…
Once the Expectations have been taught to students, staff work to positively acknowledge learners and classrooms who demonstrate the expectations. In a typical year, both learners and classrooms can receive Blue Thumbs Up Tickets for behaviors such as walking quietly in the hallways, sharing with a classmate, or cleaning up in the lunchroom. Throughout the year tickets are collected and counted in a variety of ways to earn celebrations such as dance parties, extra recess, dress-up days, or board game time. Student and staff suggestions are used to determine our next celebration.
Individual students are also acknowledged for their positive behavior through personal conversations with teachers and staff. Mr. Brunner also takes time to contact parents and make Good News Phone Calls for students who have gone above and beyond.
Always building community…
Additionally, our entire staff works to create a positive school environment by starting their day with a Morning Meeting. The purpose of Morning Meetings is simply to build community, trust, and a sense of belonging for all students. This community building is supplemented by positive teaching strategies such as Love and Logic, Nurtured Heart, and Restorative Practices.
Social Emotional Learning is an important part…
Finally, teachers and school counselors deliver a social-emotional curriculum called Second Step that creates a common language around empathy, emotion-management, and problem-solving. These lessons are delivered weekly.
All of these things are delivered to all students. According to the PBIS model, this “Tier 1” system is sufficient to support most students. If students need more supports, however, student service staff and teachers collaborate to collect data and implement further supports. These supports are detailed in our informational sheet on “Tier 2”, and parents are an important part of this implementation.
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