Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports

Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (PBIS) is a process to create a safe, positive, and productive learning environment for all children.

At Colorow, we have 3 general behavioral expectations: Safe, Respectful, and Responsible for Self and Others. Furthermore, as we work to develop into an International Baccalaureate (IB) school, we have a mission to develop active, compassionate and lifelong learners, the IB programmes foster a distinctive set of attributes. These qualities—embodied in the IB learner profile—prepare IB students to make exceptional contributions at school and in life. Each month we will focus on one of the 10 attributes.

• August - Open minded

• September - Knowledgeable

• October - Inquirer

• November - Communicator

• December - Principled

• January - Risk Taker

• February - Caring

• March - Balance

• April - Thinker

• May - Reflective

Rewards and celebrations occur in classrooms and throughout the building to let students know that we see how amazing they are and how hard they are working every day to model these behavior expectations!

• Each week students will be selected from each class and rewarded for showing exemplarily IB Learner Profile Attributes

• Each trimester many students throughout the school will be honored during an assembly at Colorow where families will be invited to attend

• All staff are encouraged to provide "Class Clawsomes" at any point throughout the day to whole classes who show exemplarily IB Learner Profile Attributes. The class with the most Clawsomes will earn a reward of their choosing (e.g. pajama day, movie day, etc.)

• Individual students are provided "Tickets" throughout the day who show any of the 10 Attributes

How can you support your student at home?

• A core principle of PBIS that you can use at home is the 5:1 rule. For every corrective statement made, provide five positive statements or praises of your child's behavior

  1. • Parent praise has been supported as one of the most impactful to encourage positive behaviors

     • When we focus our praise on positive actions, we support a sense of competence and autonomy that helps children develop real self-esteem

     • When parents of children with emotional and behavioral disorders are taught to increase their rate of behavior-specific praise, children’s rates of positive behaviors increase

     • Each time you give attention to a child, you are reinforcing the behavior you are paying attention to-- whether the behavior is positive or negative. Therefore, you should pay at least five times more attention to children when they are exhibiting positive behavior than when they are exhibiting negative behavior

     • When individuals increase their ratio of approvals to disapprovals to five to one, the behaviors and affect of all involved invariably improves

     • Giving five approvals for every disapproval has been shown to be a beneficial ratio of approvals to disapprovals in changing the behaviors of children who struggle to show positive behaviors

• Learn and use the 10 IB Profile Attribute expectations to reinforce student behavior at home

• Talk to your children about what these behavior expectations look like at home and in the community

• Speak with your children about what they want in life and help them set small goals to achieve larger goals

• Speak with your children about their emotional states. Do not assume what you see on the outside is actually how they are feeling on the inside

• Plan frequent fun activities that you can do with your children

• Ask deeper questions about your child's school day:

  1. Tell me about the best part of your day.

  2. What was the hardest thing you had to do today?

  3. Did any of your classmates do anything funny?

  4. Tell me about what you read in class.

  5. Who did you play with today? What did you play?

  6. Do you think math [or any subject] is too easy or too hard?

  7. What's the biggest difference between this year and last year?

  8. What rules are different at school than our rules at home? Do you think they're fair?

  9. Who did you sit with at lunch?

  10. Can you show me something you learned (or did) today?