Woodson kindergarten teachers, with the support of the Minnesota Department of Education, have spent the past year developing a program to address these needs, called School-Wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Support or SW-PBIS. SW-PBIS is a system that is developed by a school for improving student behavior. It is used with all students, across all environments in school (classroom, lunchroom, restroom, playground), to help schools create effective learning environments.

Schools that implement SW-PBIS are schools that have decided to explicitly teach expected student behaviors.

These schools are interested in:

1. Identifying and teaching expected student behaviors.

2. Finding ways to reinforce and reward those behaviors.

3. Enforcing consistent meaningful consequences when violations occur.

Teaching behavioral expectations means that the school PBIS team must identify what the expectations are in different locations across the school day. The Woodson team has developed a teaching matrix of behaviors expected. They are different in different environments. The teaching matrix includes details on what expectations “look like” in the classroom, bus, cafeteria, or outdoors. The entire staff, including lunchroom and support staff, teach all students these expectations through lessons, role-playing, and practice. Instead of punishing students for not following the expectations, staff focuses more on the positive (expected) behaviors through a reinforcement and reward system.

When students meet school-wide expectations, Woodson staff will note their success with positive reinforcement. This will include praise and/or Critter Cards that students and classrooms collect to earn all-school special events. All staff (principal, teachers, lunchroom staff, bus drivers, janitor, etc.) use the system.

In addition to teaching and rewarding positive behaviors, the school has identified a consistent way to respond to problem behavior when it occurs. The strategies to address challenging behaviors will be shared with students, staff, and parents at the beginning of the school year and reviewed throughout the school year. This will help everyone to know what behaviors violate the expectations.

Traditional way of dealing with problem behaviors through punishment is not effective in changing behavior. It is exciting to see schools adopt school-wide PBIS, because the model approaches behaviors as skills that need to be developed. It approaches behavior as an instructional need. It addresses parent concerns with safety for all children. It helps schools create effective environments that improve teaching and learning.

Parents of children with behavior challenges are important in a system of school-wide positive behavior interventions and supports because they already know that punishment does not teach skills. Parents already know what individual strategies may work with their own child. Parents are important contributors in developing SW-PBIS in their child’s school, because parents have a great deal at stake — the lives and futures of their children. By becoming involved, parents can have a vital role in improving school climate, safety, and instructional time. Most important, parents can have a role in helping their child to develop the positive behavior skills that are the foundations for a successful future.

Parents who have not yet registered their children for kindergarten, are encouraged to contact Woodson Kindergarten Center as soon as possible at 507-460-1400 for more information.

Jeanne McDermot
Woodson principal