----------------
See also...
A significant shift to being more positive
There has been a strong shift in numerous schools from focusing on Incidents
to really focusing on the positive. The core part of this shift is to increase
positive re-enforcement.
Of course these schools still are really good at managing and using their
incident data. But now that their incidents have reduced with help from SWPBS,
the Planner..., they have been able to really focus on the positive.
One Launceston school has already achieved a positive to negative ratio of 4:1
in their Planner records !!!
All very nice, what makes this worth the effort?
Here are some of the reasons for giving and recording positive acknowledgements:
- Acknowledgements highlight what we are "for" rather than what we are "against"
- Recording and reporting this data demonstrates that the school really takes these things seriously (not just when things go wrong)
- Positives are more likely lead to doing things "with" students rather doing things "to" students
- As social beings, most of us value having our efforts acknowledged to some extent we care what others think
- As social beings we have an expectation of fairness students and parents need to know that the school values the student and is prepared to "give credit where credit is due"
- Many of our "problematic" students have had few positive acknowledgements from anyone, anywhere in their life
- Some schools are using the Planner to account for tokens in their "token economy"
- The data also enables accurate reporting of awards, e.g., in the weekly Newsletter
- The data is also useful in regular Teacher reporting and in Parent-Teacher interviews
- When the Planner is used to inform conversations, there is more positive content to work with not just issues and problems
- Thus, the view of the student provided from Planner data is more balanced
- The contrast between the student's positive and negative data can be useful for balanced analysis, problem solving, coaching and counselling
- Recording individual positives enables accurate and fair longer term awards, such as monthly or annual awards
- ...
Warning!!
This needs to be done well (consistently) across the whole school. Parents and students can develop doubts about the school when siblings reveal that positives are being managed extensively in one class or grade but not in another.
