Ruth Bonner-Thompson, Ed.D.
Tools for Schools: Making It Work
North Summit
December 7, 2011
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Achieving quality and excellence through student
engagement and personalized learning.
 How can schools be organized so students are
engaged and learning? (school-wide /classroom)
 What activities and interactions engage students in
learning?
This session identifies strategies used to model
personal responsibility for learning, based on:
 Capturing Kids’ Hearts – EXCEL Model
 LSU PBIS: http://www.lapositivebehavior.com/
 Tools for Teaching – Dr. Fred Jones – Classroom
Management
Bottom Line: How do we get students to do what we
want them to do?
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Schools and school districts are required to develop a
plan and implement a data-driven process for Positive
Behavior Interventions and Supports.
2003 – Juvenile Justice Reform Act (1225)
 Good behavior and discipline are essential
prerequisites for academic learning…and the
development of student character.
 Bad behavior and lack of discipline in schools are
impairing the quality of teaching, learning, and
character development.
 In some cases, bad behavior and lack of discipline
are creating real and potential threats to school and
public safety.
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Legislation passed in 2010:
 Districts provide ongoing classroom management
training related to positive behavior support, conflict
resolution, and reinforcement of positive behaviors.
 Schools use data-driven decisions to refine process;
based on data such as referrals and observations.
 Different for each school, based on students’ needs.
What is your school/district doing to address student
engagement, PBIS, and Act 136?
 How does your school collect and review data?
 Who is responsible? PBIS Team?
 Administrative support critical.
 80% buy-in of faculty and staff.
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Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports is a
systems approach to enhance the capacity of schools to
 educate all students, especially students with
challenging social behaviors;
 by establishing effective and efficient systems that
 support staff efforts and student success, and
 use existing data to guide decision making.
 Ongoing; dynamic; refine the process; look at your
students.
How do your students respond to the rules &
consequences?
 Why doesn’t “the system” work for all students?
 Discipline starts in the classroom.
 When teachers use the “backup plan,” they often
relinquish authority/respect.
No
Student Engagement
Discipline
separate
Response to
Intervention
Literacy
programs!
Attendance
Positive Behavior
Supports
Special Education
School Climate
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“Green students:” All students are exposed to basic
management techniques (student handbook; classroom
rules). Approximately 80% respond well to techniques.
(0-1 referral)
“Yellow students:”
Approximately 15%
will need additional
targeted, small
group interventions.
(2-5 referrals)
“Red students:” Approximately 5% will need
intensive, individualized management (>6 referrals).
Start in the
classroom!
Classroom
Management
Yellow and
Red need
more
“teaching”
and support.
1.
State behavioral expectations.
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2.
Specify student behaviors (rules).
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3.
Jean Day (no referrals), SONIC cards (perfect attendence), drawings for prizes.
Define behaviors and develop an array of consequences &
interventions.
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6.
Homeroom, regular classroom, special assemblies; Take them to the site!
Reinforce appropriate behaviors.
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5.
Very specific—Develop a matrix by setting.
Hallway, cafeteria, bathroom, bus ramp/students parking lot, recess
Model, teach, and practice appropriate student behaviors.
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4.
Broad, Positively stated, School-Wide expectations.
FPHS: Be Responsible; Show Respect; Respond Appropriately.
What does willful disobedience look like? (Write definitions.)
Major and minor infractions.
Evaluate in order to make data-based decisions.
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Surveys to find out what students think; what teachers think.
JPAMS
Great teachers teach their students to
build bridges, facilitate their
crossings, and then happily collapse
those bridges and encourage them to
build bridges of their own.
Chicken Soup for the Soul
RAH
Classroom
Hallway/
Cafeteria
Bathrooms
Commons
Respect
Be on time;
attend regularly;
follow class rules
Keep location
neat, keep to the
right, use
appropriate lang.,
monitor noise
level, allow others
to pass
Put trash in cans,
push in your
chair, be
courteous to all
staff and
students
Keep area clean,
put trash in cans,
be mindful of
others’ personal
space, flush toilet
Achievement
Do your best on
all assignments
and assessments,
take notes, ask
questions
Keep track of
your belongings,
monitor time to
get to class
Check space
before you leave,
keep track of
personal
belongings
Be a good
example to other
students, leave
the room better
than you found it
Honor
Do your own
work; tell the
truth
Be considerate of
yours and others’
personal space
Keep your own
place in line,
maintain
personal
boundaries
Report any
graffiti or
vandalism
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Command/Control vs. Relational
Social Contracts:
 Teachers collaborate with students to create a
classroom discipline management plan .
 An agreement on behavior and consequences.
 Personal (and group member) responsibility for
learning and behavior.
 How do you want me to treat you? How do you
want to treat each other? How do you think I want
to be treated? How will we handle violations of the
contract?
Get feedback from students: How am I doing? How are
students doing with the social contracts?
Consistency is everything!
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Engage—building relationships; handshake and positive
greeting daily, affirm (specific); model social and personal
skills; give them your full attention
X-plore—getting in touch
 Identify the customers needs; find a talking point; frontloading
 “Good things;” listening skills; conveying empathy;
probing; asking open-ended questions
Communicate—dynamic dialogue/two-way process
 Communicate caring, relevance, and course content.
 Translate into real world benefits; team-building.
Empower—developing skills; practicing in a safe
environment.
Launch—momentum and direction; practicing new skills in
the cold, cruel world. “Return with honor.”
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Teachers (all adults) will demonstrate social behaviors
that build relationships with others:
 Greeting each student at the door every day with
handshake; firm, yet comfortable; initiate the
handshake;
 Listening and understanding;
 Dress/grooming: professionally dressed, with good
hygiene;
 Energy: positive and energetic, confident;
Any personality type can “learn” these behaviors.
Behaviors can be “taught” to students!
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Model for students!
 55% of what we communicate is through body
language;
 Level of relaxation: be confident, but not
stressed or hurried;
 Eye contact: Look in the eye and pay attention
to the person’s needs.
 38% of what we communicate is through tone of
voice;
 Only 7% of a message if communicated by words.
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Interviewing for a job—real world example.
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Teachers demonstrate SOLER listening skills.
Listening with More than Our Ears
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· S = Square up to the person you are listening to
· O = Open posture
· L = Lean in
· E = Eye contact
· R = Relax and Respond
What “body language” lets someone know you
are not listening or do not find what they are
saying important?
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Reframing is taking a negative comment or
situation and changing your perspective so you
can move on.
Who decides what your hand does? Can
someone make you angry?
What happens when you push people? (They
push back.)
Leaders are responsible for 3 things:
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Their thoughts.
Their attitudes.
Their actions.
Be careful of your thoughts—They
become your attitudes.
Be careful of your attitudes—They
become your actions.
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ENGAGE: Begin each class with “Good Things” (2 – 3 minutes)
 Call on one student to share something good that happened
since the last meeting.
 Welcomes, starts on positive note, establishes a climate of
caring: You are important to me.
X-PLORE : Explore your clients needs:
 “Students don’t care how much you know until they know
how much you care!”
 Front-loading: Find a common ground and be prepared to say
something good about every student.
COMMUNICATE
 Ask open-ended questions.
 Allow students to talk and to think: Plan for it!
 “Process” journals; group work, everything.
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EMPOWER: Create security by starting each day with structure.
When class is consistently successful with you facilitating the
process, you begin to empower students to facilitate the
process themselves. (Ownership)
 Grow your group: Icebreakers; “Get to Know Each Other”
speeches; social contract; “Good Things; Share journal entries;
Small groups.
LAUNCH: End on a powerful note!
 Remember who you are. Remember what you stand for. Lead
by example.
 Send them from you thinking about who they are and who
you want them to grow to be.
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What are you doing?
What are you supposed to be doing?
Are you doing it?
So what are you going to do about it?
So what’s going to happen if I have to come to
you again about this? (Specific consequence is
known in advance.)
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Who are you talking to (teacher or peer)?
How are you supposed to talk to me (or to
your teammate)?
Were you doing it?
So how are you going to talk to me/her now?
So what’s going to happen if you talk to
me/her this way again? (Specific consequence
is known in advance.)
When you do for people what they can
and should do for themselves, you
stifle their confidence.
Bethany Rosebrock
A leader is someone who sets aside a
personal agenda and embraces a
greater agenda of serving others.
Flip Flippen
AKA: It’s not about me.
Franklin Parish High School
Phone: (318) 435-5676
Ruth Bonner-Thompson
Email: rthompson@fpsb.us