Positive Behavior Intervention Systems

Hello again, somehow the past two weeks have gotten away from me. I've sat down with great intentions to blog, and then life happened. Can't win um all right? In my defense, I've been working my booty off getting every last bit of next week planned, and in my file folders, so at 2:30 on Friday I could walk out with a clear conscience; and think of nothing but this guy all weekend. 

There really is nothing better that starting off the weekend snuggling my Squish while he naps and I read Gone Girl (so good!). Now that I've included the obligatory photo of my favorite boy, let's talk positive behavior intervention systems! If I end that with an expiation point you'll all be as excited as I am right?! 

The truth is, having a positive behavior system in my classroom has saved my sanity and spirit for teaching. To explain this, we have to go back to my first year of teaching where the behavior in my classroom, to put it lightly, was not exactly peaches and cream. I had a lot of students with major behavior issues individually, and when put together it was a recipient for disaster... and it was. I had six different behavior plans going at once, my principal on speed dial, and I was drowning. I put so much energy everyday just into getting my class to semi behave, it took every ounce of everything I had left just to teach. I felt defeated, and I felt like a huge failure; BUT I was also determined that I would make some changes, and I would NEVER have a year like that again.

Enter a positive behavior intervention system. It all started with a clip system. My first year, I only used a system where students moved down for misbehavior. There was no warnings in place, and no incentive for students to turn their behavior around. Basically my students weren't motivated to behave, so they didn't. Thus, I adopted a clip chart where my students were rewarded and noticed for positive behavior, they received a warning before a consequence AND they had the opportunity to turn their behavior around and move their clip back up. Once I had the basics of a positive system in place, the rest snowballed from there.

I could talk about the PBIS in my classroom for days, so I will! I'm going to be making a weekly series on my blog about the positive behavior intervention systems that I use in my classroom. I feel so passionately about having a classroom that runs on love and positivity, and I want to share how I've come from a classroom management system where I was drowning to a system that is fun, happy and encouraging. I hope you enjoy taking this journey with me!