What is PBIS?
PBIS stands for Positive Behavior Intervention and Support. PBIS is used by schools nationwide to help young people work through behavior challenges in order to succeed academically and socially in their schools and communities. PBIS focuses on the prevention, teaching, and use of positive reinforcements rather than punishments to help students find ways to learn and demonstrate expected behaviors.
How does PBIS work?
Pardeeville Middle School students are expected to have Bulldog PRIDE: be positive and respectful and have integrity, discipline and empathy. PMS has developed a behavioral matrix that outlines key expectations in different locations of the building and grounds. These expectations are specific, measurable, age appropriate, succinct, and stated in positive wording. All faculty and staff teach expected behaviors using a direct instructional approach: explain, model, incorporate different teaching modalities, allow time for role-play/practice, and give reminders and prompts/pre-corrections. All faculty and staff actively supervise and positively reinforce expected behaviors. Bulldog PAWS are used by all faculty and staff members to reinforce those behaviors, promoting a more positive and nurturing environment where all students feel valued and recognized. Tickets are put into monthly drawing and at the end of the year, students can "spend" their accumulated PAWS on items such as Subway subs or Kwik Trip donuts. Students whose names are drawn are publicly acknowledged; a postcard is also sent home to those students’ families.
How does discipline work at PMS?
Pardeeville Middle School has established which behaviors are handled by staff (minor problem behaviors necessitating verbal re-directions, teacher consequence, pre-correction and restatement of expected behaviors, etc.) and which are handled by the office (major and/or repeated problem behaviors). Procedures exist for ongoing data entry, monitoring of problem behaviors and evaluation. The middle school PBIS team meets regularly to review the school’s behavior data to move forward with problem-solving, interventions and decision-making.
