The Principal's Handbook

Mini-Series Part #1: My Top 3 Moves to Prevent Behavior Issues This Year
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Principal's Handbook in this episode, this is part number one of a mini series, and I'm going to be talking about three things I'm doing to plan for behavior next school year. That's all coming up next on the Principal's handbook. Stay tuned.
Speaker: Welcome to the Principal's Handbook, your go-to resource for principals looking to revamp their leadership approach and prioritize self-care. I'm Barb Flowers, a certified life coach with eight years of experience as an elementary principal. Tune in each week as we delve into strategies for boosting mental resilience, managing time effectively, and nurturing overall wellness.
From tackling daily challenges to maintaining a healthy work life balance. We'll navigate the complexities of school leadership together. Join me in fostering your sense of purpose as a principal and reigniting your passion for the job. Welcome to a podcast where your wellbeing is the top priority.
Well, welcome back to the podcast. Today we are talking about three things [00:01:00] I'm doing to plan for behavior and I wanna give you a little bit of context. So I was an elementary principal for eight years in a district, , that was a K to five building and I took a year off. I've been coaching principals and, , focusing on my podcast and other coaching resources and decided to go back to being a principal because I really missed it.
And I talked about this a little bit in a reflection episode. I did, , a few episodes back, but basically, this school year coaching principles has been like a year of pd and I've learned a lot about myself and what I really miss. And I miss leadership. I miss being part of a school and I miss.
Students. I got a job actually in the district that I taught in, , before I became a principal. And I'm going back to that district and I'm going to be in a K two building. So as I'm planning for that K two building, I wanted to do a mini series. Just with different areas, talking about all the ways that I'm planning.
So even if you're not going into a new building, you could think about [00:02:00] this in your current building. Or if you are a brand new principal, this is perfect to start thinking about. Or if you're transitioning to a new building like I am, there's a bunch of different ways that you could use this. , but I wanna just give you a little bit of background in the building that I'm going to.
It is a K two building, , in a district that has a hundred percent free and reduced lunch. It is all title one funding through the schools, and there are a lot of different needs within the district. So , it is going to be a little bit of challenge.
I know that there are going to be some behaviors, it's kindergarten. , if you're a principal who has never been in a kindergarten building. You never know what you're going to get in kindergarten. , I previously was in a K to five building and I've had years where it was a very smooth transition. And then there were years where we had a lot of kids who never had preschool or access to, a school setting and it was completely new to them.
And so there was a lot of behaviors that we dealt with at the beginning of the school year. So going into this K two building, I'm not sure what to expect with [00:03:00] kindergarten. Like I said, you never really are. , we even have a preschool in the district, but. You just never know because there's kids that don't go to preschool and they come to kindergarten.
, so today I just wanted to share three big things I'm doing right now to get ahead of any behavior challenges before the first day of school starts. Because my philosophy is that I am out the door by four. I am all about being the eight to four principal where I can have really good work-life balance.
But I think a big part that can hinder that is if you are dealing with behaviors all day and you're constantly putting out fires. So now when it's summer. I'm trying to be really proactive. I'm trying to plan ahead and really think about, okay. What is going to help minimize behaviors during the school year?
So that's what I'm going to share with you today. So the first thing I've been looking at is I am mapping out supervision and the schedule. So this is different for everybody. Of course. If you've been in a building, you might not be doing a new schedule. If you're coming to a new building, you might not even be [00:04:00] creating a schedule.
The difference here is I'm coming to a building where they're actually combining two elementary schools. There used to be a kindergarten building and a first and second. Great building. Now we're combining it to be a K two building. And so with that, they don't have a master schedule for all of those grades.
So I am not only coming into this, but I'm trying to work out the schedule and what that looks like, which is a little bit challenging as a principal when you've never been in the building. So definitely, , getting input from people around you is really important. People in the district, teachers.
, all of that, ideally I like to do scheduling before school ends and get teacher input and have them help with it. But in this case, we need to start the year with a schedule and teachers are on summer break and we need to have most of it done before teachers come back. One of the things I'm really looking at as I'm digging into the schedule is.
What does the schedule look like when it comes to behaviors? And when I say that, what I'm thinking about is unstructured time. So when students are [00:05:00] outside, I'm thinking about how many students are outside at one time, and how many people are going to be monitoring them in this unstructured environment.
Okay, so in my last district we had about a hundred kids per grade level. So we would have two grade levels outside at a time with four adults, and that seemed to work. We also had a big playground, so that's another thing to consider is what is the size of the playground and how many kids can play there safely.
And without, getting in each other's way. Because if you have too small of a space, of course you're going to have behavior issues. So you really wanna think about the space, the number of kids outside,
and how many adults you have outside supervising. The other thing you wanna think about is the cafeteria. In the cafeteria, who's gonna be supervising students? How many students are going to be eating lunch at one time? Who's going to be there to help students? We know, like I said, this is a kindergarten through second grade building.
Students are going to need a [00:06:00] lot of support at the beginning of the year, even opening things or, knowing what to do. And so it's really important that you have the right amount of supervision to support students. So you really wanna think about that, how many adults are scheduled, and then when you're thinking about.
Dismissal and arrival, are adults watching in the hallways, what does that look like? The other thing is just knowing where behavior challenges can pop up during unstructured times. . Like where are times that I can be supervising? Where are times that we might need extra staff? And just thinking through all of that.
The other thing is even thinking about when you're in a K two building, which is different if you're not, for kindergarten there's things that they need extra time at the beginning of the year. . I always scheduled extra lunchtime for kindergarten at the beginning of the year, and then we cut five minutes off after the first nine weeks because they didn't need that time.
One thing when I'm thinking about the schedule is lunchtime. During COVID, we had 30 minute lunches and we had so many [00:07:00] behaviors because they had so much extra time that was unstructured, that it just led to more behaviors versus having a 20 minute lunch. Even thinking about the amount of time that students have for , those unstructured things.
Because during COVID when they had this 30 minute lunch, they didn't necessarily eat more. They just had more time. 'cause a lot of people say, , they need that time to eat. More lunchtime doesn't necessarily mean that little kids are going to eat more. It might be different with older kids, but you just have to be aware about how much unstructured time that you want.
So that's the first one. Mapping out supervision, how many people will be with students during unstructured time and what the schedule looks like. The second thing I'm doing right now is reviewing the PBIS expectations, so I know for a fact this district does PBIS. They've had training in PBIS. They have that system in place, which is awesome.
You might be going into a school or have a school that doesn't have PBIS, which is a little bit different. But knowing that they've done a lot of work and have PBIS [00:08:00] as a system, it tells me that they've already got some clear expectations and systems for teaching them. , and that was one of the questions I asked, , the assistant superintendent when we met.
And so if you have somebody, you could ask that question to figure out what systems are already in place for expectations. But right now, I wanna know, right now I wanna review what exactly are those expectations. Are they posted everywhere for teachers and students to see them? And how consistently are teachers teaching and reviewing them?
Okay. And so what I'm planning to do is find all the resources because I do know that there are lesson plans, there are behavior matrixes, there are, , there are a list of expectations for each area in the school. And so I really wanna make sure, one of the things I always say is, you wanna honor. What's already been there when you're coming in as a new principal.
And I wanna honor, they've already done a ton of work with PBIS, so finding what that looks like and seeing how I can support staff in reinforcing those expectations from day [00:09:00] one. , we know that students need those and we know that teachers. Wanna have that information from day one.
We don't wanna be coming up with expectations later, so just think about what those expectations look like. If your building does PBIS, are they posted everywhere? And how consistently are teachers teaching and reviewing them, and then even other people within those common areas. We'd have recess monitors, do them for recess.
You as the principal, can review expectations for different areas so it, it can be a group effort within the whole school. So that was number two, reviewing the PBIS expectations. And number three is digging into last year's behavior data. So I'm really fortunate to be in a district that has behavior data already collected from last year.
Now I do have to say. And when it's different people collecting data, you have to take it with a grain of salt because, data can be subjective when you have one person entering it. You can't compare school years as apple to apple , because it is different principals or [00:10:00] different people entering the data.
But I will say you're able to look at that data and see. What were the most common types of behaviors that came to the office? When did they typically occur? What day of the week, what time of the day? And what responses or consequences and what responses or consequences were used? So this gives you a little bit of baseline information about the data, and this can give you some really valuable insight because, for example, if I see a ton of issues happening in the afternoon.
Then I'm not gonna schedule a bunch of stuff to do in the afternoon at the beginning of the school year because I know that I need to be present there. I need to be extra visible there because that is where a lot of behaviors happen. If I see a lot of behaviors happen in the morning, then I'll do the opposite.
Okay. So use that to time block to have your schedule, and then also you can see what type of behaviors were occurring and what kind of interventions and support you might need , as you're teaching expectations and seeing that maybe kids aren't getting [00:11:00] them, and maybe we need to teach certain expectations better based on what those discipline issues were. So that's one thing is digging into last year's behavior data. So I just wanna review, those are the three big steps that I'm taking right now to get ahead of behavior challenges. I'm planning for supervision and the schedule.
I'm reviewing the PBIS expectations, and I'm analyzing last year's behavior data to plan proactive supports.
I just wanna share a resource I have as you're preparing for the school year. If you want help with, , creating tier one systems for your building. I have the principal's discipline toolkit, and really this is tools for principals to respond with clarity and confidence because I used to have a lot of mind drama.
Around discipline and dealing with behaviors in the building. And so I know how that can be when you don't have clear systems in place, you're worried about handling things wrong, or you have a conversation with a parent about a discipline issue that you handled and you just.
Replay that in your head [00:12:00] over and over and over again, and it's super annoying and frustrating because you just wanna feel more confident in your discipline. And that's why I created this toolkit. This toolkit has the discipline toolkit mindset, where I help you with your mindset around discipline, but I also give you a four step process for discipline.
Where it's actually going to help you feel like , how you handle discipline is more systematic and it doesn't feel like you're just making something up as you go. Right? You have a clear system in place, a clear way to gather facts, a clear way to figure out the right consequence , and a clear way to communicate all of that
to parents, to students, and to teachers. So if you wanna grab that toolkit, I will have it linked in the show notes, but that can be really helpful as you're thinking about how you want your behavior and discipline systems to look for next school year.
and in the next episode, I'm going to be sharing how I am preparing for staff, so stay tuned and I will talk to you next [00:13:00] time.