American School of Valencia is committed to establishing and maintaining an optimal learning atmosphere each year and, for third consecutive year, has adopted the PBIS framework to guide this work. PBIS stands for Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports and is an internationally-used proactive and responsive approach to positively support students, decrease disruptions, increase instructional time, and improve social behavior and academic outcomes. The ASV PBIS program teaches students the school expectations (based on the C-A-R-E* Values) and recognizes students for their good choices.
During the first weeks of the academic year, all of the ASV school staff have been using the PBIS framework and students have been engaged in discussing and reflecting on the importance of clear expectations and routines, and then practicing those routines in a positive and productive manner. Teachers also have been pouring on the recognition for students who are making good choices.
One of the PBIS principles is making decisions based on data. The PBIS Leadership Team would like to publicly track the school progress on the positive recognition that has been given, and this is depicted on the visual display board placed in the atrium. The artwork was completed in September and the left side has containers where each division collects stickers –each sticker represents 100 PBIS positive recognitions. On the right, there is a complementary slogan that inspires the project this year as well as some explanatory information about PBIS, ASV C-A-R-E and the role of the PBIS Leadership Team.
The Fun PBIS-meter in Preschool
Children in Preschool spend most of their time in a separate building but also may be more engaged if they have an specific measuring tool in their class. This is how our Preschool team leader, Ms. Lauren Guerra, developed the idea of the PBIS “gumball machine”! Each class has a poster depicting a gumball machine, and when students are recognized for their positive choices, they place a “gumball” (a colored circle sticker) on it. At the end of the week, they celebrate all of the good choices that were made.
We invite to all of the school community to make the language of our 4 Values* part of their daily routine and join us in watching the positivity flourish at ASV!
