Expert Instruction: The Teach by Design Podcast

There are two primary questions every team should ask related to their PBIS implementation: Are we doing what we said we would do? (Fidelity) How does our implementation affect the people in our school? (Outcomes) Because PBIS is an evidence-based framework, you know there are data to help you answer these questions. Which brings us to today’s topic: How do you choose a system to store and monitor...

For PBIS implementation to feel authentic to your school’s culture, it’s important to ask your larger schoolwide community for their feedback about the systems and practices you’ve put in place AND to use that feedback to improve your implementation. In this episode, Dr. Ambra Green joins us to talk about how you can implement the foundational features of PBIS to create culturally sustaining, trul...

Today, we’re bringing you another installment in our mythbuster series. In October, we tackled the myth that PBIS is only about rewards . Spoiler alert: Rewards are part of it, but there’s more to it than the myth suggests . In this episode, we’re exploring the myth: There are no consequences in PBIS. Back again to help us bust this myth is Dr. Kent McIntosh. Kent is the Philip H. Knight Chair of...

A system-level feature of your PBIS implementation involves the professional development you offer to all staff. Many of us take advantage of conferences to receive professional development, especially related to our PBIS implementation. We love a good conference. We also know lecture-style learning alone isn’t enough to sustain the outcomes we want to achieve. We wondered what it would look like...

We’re back with the second installment of our Expert Instruction Mythbusters series. Today we’re exploring the myth: “PBIS is just about rewards and tokens.” Joining us in conversation is Dr. Kent McIntosh. Kent is the Philip H. Knight Chair of Special Education at the University of Oregon and the Director at PBISApps. He is also Co-Director of the Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and S...

Two system-level, foundational features of PBIS implementation relate to your schoolwide team — specifically who’s on it and how it operates. While research tells us team-based decision making is an effective practice, it can’t pinpoint exactly which practices contribute to that success. , That’s because what makes teams so great has a lot to do with how well they fit within the culture and contex...

PBIS has its skeptics — folks who just aren’t so sure the framework is useful. It’s fair to question things and criticisms push us to think about how our implementation can be more inclusive. When you hear a critique or even a misperception, how do you respond? We thought we’d help you out. Today’s episode of Expert Instruction is the first in our new series: PBIS Mythbusters. Mythbusters was a te...

Who’s ready for summer? Literally every hand in our office is up…maybe yours is, too. The end of the year is the perfect time to tie up loose ends, pack up your things, and look back on everything you accomplished. Reflection is an active process — one that keeps our work fresh and helps us improve from year to year — and it’s what we’re doing today. In this episode, we’re looking back at every co...

This month, we’re taking the opportunity to explore the ways schools embed school mental health within their existing PBIS framework through a process called the Interconnected Systems Framework (ISF). The ISF offers you a way to take advantage of the expertise within your larger schoolwide community, add it to the systems, practices, and data accessible on your PBIS teams, and get students the co...

Teachers across the country say the number of behaviors they manage in the classroom is up this year compared to before the pandemic. We know the first step to improving behavior trends schoolwide is to verify your Tier 1 systems and practices are fully in place . When you’ve verified they are and behavior trends continue to rise, what can you do? In this episode of Expert Instruction, learn how t...

Surprise! It’s our first bonus episode of Expert Instruction! We’ve been working as a team to bring some new labels and language to the Schoolwide Information System (SWIS). As part of that work, we revisited the category label definitions and gave them a refresh. As that project comes to completion, we realized the work overlapped with the conversations we’ve had over the last two months. When yo...

In this episode of Expert Instruction: The Teach by Design Podcast, we’re continuing the conversation from last month’s episode about vulnerable decision points (VDP) . Drs. Maria Reina Santiago-Rosaria and Sean Austin are back to share how we can disrupt our decision making in those moments. Today we’re talking about neutralizing routines: brief, step-by-step processes to make our quick decisions...

In this month’s episode of Expert Instruction: The Teach by Design Podcast, we’re diving further into the research and practices surrounding vulnerable decisions points (VDPs). Over in our Teach by Design article , we shared how you can find the VDPs contributing to the disproportionate outcomes you see in your data, but why do we even focus on VDPs in decision making in the first place? Joining u...

We’ve mentioned before the important role coaches play in your PBIS implementation. They help hold you and your team accountable, facilitate your meetings, walk you through intervention options, and guide you through the process of making the systems and practices match your unique context. Coaches are valuable members of any implementation effort, and yet, we haven’t spent much time exploring wha...

This month’s Teach by Design article introduced the continuum of play and how to embed play-based learning in your classrooms. Today, we’re going to take a closer look at one specific type of play on the continuum. Today, we’re talking about free play. Free play is that dedicated time in the day where your students get to move and explore in unstructured space free of any adult interference. In sc...

This episode of Expert Instruction is the second in our 2-part series about de-escalation. Last episode , we spoke with Dr. Kathleen Strickland-Cohen and Alex Newsom about the school-wide strategies you can put in place to help prevent behaviors from escalating in the classroom. We know it would be impossible to prevent 100% of behaviors from getting bigger. So, what happens when those prevention...

In this episode of Expert Instruction: The Teach by Design Podcast , we’re kicking off a two-part series about de-escalating the behaviors you see in your school. Today, we’re exploring the school-wide, classroom-wide systems and practices you can leverage to prevent problem behaviors from escalating in the first place. Joining us today are two of the authors of a recently published practice brief...

We all have a reason compelling us to get up and go to work in the morning. Our personal purpose plays a big role in how engaged we are in the work we do. Defining your why is a hot topic of conversation these days, and it’s an important thing to do. Equally important is defining your school’s organizational purpose , but it’s not something we talk as much about. In today’s episode of Expert Instr...

At the end of any project, it feels right to pause and reflect. The end of the school year is no different. We’re all ready for a break and some relaxation, preferably by a pool, with something cold to sip. It’s also important to take a little time to reflect on everything you did over the course of the past school year. The process of looking back on your accomplishments isn’t selfish, it’s the k...

This spring, we were fortunate enough to attend not one, not two, but three, in-person PBIS conferences. We know scheduling conflicts and budget constraints can get in the way of making it possible for everyone to register. So, this month we decided to take some time to share our conference experiences, the conversations we had, and the things we learned during our time at these events. In our Tea...

What does data-driven decision making mean to you? In this month’s Teach by Design , we showed you how researchers found it means something different depending on who you ask. What works for one school may not work for another, but we were also curious to know whether there were some components of a decision-making process that might be similar across most contexts. In today’s episode of Expert In...

No matter where you are on your implementation journey, at some point you’ll want to take a step back and ask yourselves, “Are we doing what we said we’d do and is that effort having the kind of impact we hoped it would have?” Answering those questions requires data. Once you’ve collected the data you need , the next step is to create a plan. On today’s episode of Expert Instruction: The Teach by...

On today’s episode of Expert Instruction: The Teach by Design Podcast , we continue our exploration of how to add student perspectives to the decisions effecting schools every day. We’ve shared ideas for how to include students at the school level , but what about at the district level? What does it look like for students to be involved in decisions that effect not only the way their school operat...

After the annual PBIS Leadership Forum held this October , I caught up on some of the sessions I missed by watching the recordings . I came across a presentation called “Youth Speaking Up About Inequity: Their Experiences Through Their Own Voices” given by Dr. Felicia Singleton and Marcus Jackson. The two of them presented on the ways they have engaged and uplifted students’ voices in their c...

In this episode of Expert Instruction: The Teach by Design Podcast , we’re talking about stress – specifically the stress so many adults in education feel right now. Our guests are Susan Barrett and Dr. Kimberly Yanek from the Center for Social Behavior Support at Old Dominion and the Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. Together, they will share tangible...