PBIS

What is Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS)?

PBIS is a school-wide discipline program that focuses on positive student behavior, uses data to make decisions, and establishes consistent expectations school-wide. Because PBIS takes a prevention approach, it differs in intensity depending on the student’s need. PBIS focuses on helping staff members catch the students doing “good” (positive reinforcement) and re-teaching appropriate behavior when needed.

How does PBIS work at Cherry Drive?

All students are taught Cherry Drive’s behavioral expectations through the school acronym PAWS, which stands for Positive Attitude With respect Safety. School-wide expectations are posted throughout the building and continually taught and reinforced throughout the school year. Also, we have a monthly character education trait, and this month we focused on respect. Every morning, we had a different behavioral announcement where students acted out what respectful behaviors looks like and sounds like at Cherry Drive.  Expectations are taught by all staff members through various activities such as walking tours and positive behavior assemblies to remind and teach students what positive student behavior looks and sounds like. Students have the opportunity to earn PAWS for demonstrating these positive behavior expectations and have the opportunity to redeem their PAWS at the PAWS store.

When students demonstrate inappropriate behavior at school, the focus is on putting proactive measures in place, such as teaching students the appropriate behavior and skills to prevent the behavior from happening again. PBS uses data-based decision making to examine all students’ needs and puts appropriate interventions in place according to student needs.

We believe in PBIS at Cherry Drive because of the focus on positive behavior. Research shows that children respond at a much higher rate when they are praised for positive behavior than when punished for bad behavior.  We feel that students need to learn pro social skills to make them successful both in and out of school.  At Cherry Drive, we believe that we can help students put their best PAWS forward.

To support our PAWS teaching, we have a character education trait of the month that we teacher and review with students. Classes also create their own videos for morning announcements to teach the other students about these character traits. On a monthly basis ,we will be posting book and teaching ideas for parents on these character traits.   August/September-Respect/Responsibility October -Self-Control November-Gratitude December-Caring January -Courage February-Service March-Cooperation April-Perseverance May-Self-Esteem