Positive Behavior Interventions and Support
Our school uses the PBIS system, which is essentially a system which focuses on the positive behaviors in students and rewarding those who are doing right (think "Caught you being good" type of thing). At the beginning of the year we decided we needed to really reiterate our PBIS expectations among our students. Yes, I said "at the beginning of the year." I'm extremely behind on my blogging and updating of lesson plans on this thing...sorry!
As the art teacher I wanted to create some nice visual reminders. Also, I wanted to fill our beautiful but empty display case. The PBIS principles that we focus on at our school revolve around the words "responsible, respectful, faithful and safe." Personally, I associate those words with social justice causes, so I used one of my favorite social justice artists, Keith Haring to inspire the artwork I made for our display. I made four large posters (one for each category), a handful of paper arrows, and a few foam core Keith Haring-esque figures. I painted the posters to look like some famous Haring works. I asked all of our teachers to write on the arrows various examples of what positive behaviors look like (I hung the arrows in the case and they spun, so I had them write on both sides) and I asked some students who were utilizing our before/after school care program to write examples on the foam core people. And WAA-LA a beautiful display! A beautiful display which I forgot to photograph, mind you. I did manage to photograph all of the pieces after I took them down (once I realized that I didn't get a pic of the whole shabang). So please try to imagine all of these lovely little items hanging and standing in a lovely display case...
