at Jimmy’s Rollerdome. Two cities intertwined in history and heritage, the residents of Erlanger and Elsmere are proud of their school district and all that it has accomplished since 1928. In fact, in 1956, Lloyd Memorial was one of the first high schools to be racially desegregated after the 1954 Brown v Board of Education Supreme Court decision. And since then, Erlanger and Elsmere residents have come together (often, at the Dixie Club Cafe) to create a beautifully diverse, creative and valued school community. 

An integral part of any community is how people use positive interdependence to create and sustain the environment in which they live. And to do that, sometimes we have to find ways to open our minds, change our mindsets and seek positive ideas and solutions. That is why Mrs. Roberts and her colleagues at LMHS have begun using the Positive Action program to promote positive behaviors. “The lessons are accessible and encourage positive thinking and positive speaking, getting rid of the negative self-talk. It also gets students to think about why their brains work the way they do, why teens often resort to negativity and how they can change their mindset,” she said. The students use journaling as an activity to process the information. She admits that teenagers are still teenagers, and, “even though sometimes (they) like to roll their eyes and act like they don’t care, the message is still getting through.” 

Background

The Positive Action Grant is a federal grant through the Northern Kentucky Cooperative for Educational Services that began this school year being led by Dr. Kathy Burkhardt. It is an evidence-based, integrated and coherent K-12 program that addresses the school’s entire ecosystem: school, family and community. The program is based on the philosophy that you feel good about yourself when you do positive actions, and there is a positive way to do everything. (You can hear Dr. Burkhardt talk about this program on the NoLimitsEDU podcast!)

The Positive Action program is just one of many approaches to promoting positive behaviors in schools. According to Safe & Civil Schools, “Positive behavior support is not a specific program, but a broad, generic term that describes a set of strategies or procedures designed to improve behavioral success by employing non-punitive, proactive, systematic techniques.”  The Positive Action program is fairly new, but positive behavior supports in our schools today have roots in the theory of applied behavior analysis, and foundational work in this area began in classrooms in the early 1970s (Safe & Civil Schools, 2019). In 1981, Randy Sprick wrote The Solution Book followed by Discipline in the Secondary Classroom and Foundations which became a first step to moving this work forward for educators. Sprick’s theories, along with the work of many other researchers and educators, has evolved into what we now know as positive behavior supports or PBS (Safe & Civil Schools, 2019).  Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports (PBIS) shares the same set of components as PBS and has been an approach many schools in Northern Kentucky have taken to cultivate a more positive climate in our schools. PBIS can be one strong piece of MTSS, a multi-level prevention system to support student achievement and social-emotional behavioral competencies through an integration of differentiated core instruction, assessment and intervention.

What it Looks Like in Schools 

Schools and districts in Northern Kentucky take many different approaches to this work. However, there are some universal, underlying elements that are consistent throughout programs and systems of positive behavior support. 

• All stakeholders share the operational set of values, beliefs, vision, mission, and purpose that shape the climate and culture of the school/classroom.

• Expectations for learning and behavior are clearly delineated and actively taught.

• There is a caring, inclusive climate and a collegial, cooperative culture.

• The climate emphasizes connecting  the student — helping the student to feel a part of something worthwhile.

• Decisions are driven by data.

• Staff pays more attention to appropriate behaviors exhibited by students than they do to misbehaviors. Staff views misbehavior as an instructional opportunity and provides correction calmly and consistently.

• Administration is actively involved in the process. (Safe & Civil Schools, 2019) 

One strategy that can be used K-12 is focusing on and praising positive behaviors instead of calling attention to negative behaviors. Teachers can practice planned ignoring during a negative behavior and then follow up with that student later in private to discuss strategies to handle the situation next time. Another strategy would be to plan one quality, positive interaction each day with each student. 

Getting Started 

To begin working on promoting positive behaviors in your classroom, start with ensuring you have clear and consistent routines and expectations, and that those are clearly communicated with students. If you are starting mid-year, do a quick temperature check and ask students to revisit those expectations and routines. Find ways to take their feedback and make adjustments, then work with the students to ensure the routines and expectations are universally accepted and understood. Whether you study the Seven Behavior Positions of Win-Win Discipline or work on building relationships with your students, it is our team’s goal that that this month’s focus of teachNKY connects you with other educators, ideas and practices that will allow you to try something new that will improve student outcomes and elevate your classroom culture.

Until next time…keep growing the Bluegrass. 

Jess

References

Positive Behavior Supports- A Discussion.(2019) Safe & Civil Schools.   

Getting Started. Center on Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports.