PBIS presents festive fun

Snow Much Fun Day was a half-day event planned by PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) so students could be rewarded for their good behavior. 

On Dec. 22, all students who earned at least 15 PBIS points signed up for two activities in the morning, split into two 90-minute blocks. Options included watching a movie, playing board games or video games and coloring, said Math Teacher and PBIS Teacher Advisor Ms. Maggie Gola. 

Students who did not “qualify” for the activities worked on school work with five teachers, she added. 

PBIS was inspired by the middle school, which holds “reward days,” where the students can participate in fun activities similar to “when students had PSSAs and had those free days,” according to Ms. Gola. 

She added that the activities were suggested by the student PBIS team and through a schoolwide poll, due to it being an event never done in the high school before. 

The event turned out well with many students and teachers having fun, said Ms. Gola. 

The PBIS committee chose a group of students, called the Snow Patrol, to monitor the halls and make sure no one was wandering out of their chosen rooms, according to Senior Jaydon Cottage. Ms. Gola added that there was very minimal wandering or other bad behavior. 

Art Teacher Ms. Lauren Richie said that she received positive feedback from many students.  

  “… The more fun kids have at each of these events, the more they will be diligent about going above and beyond in order to earn points,” added Ms. Richie. 

According to Sophomore Skye Anthony, she had a lot of fun participating in the holiday themed activities. She added that PBIS could make future events “more exclusive.” 

Planning the event was very time consuming on top of regular school, said Ms. Gola. It was difficult to organize 500 students into two activities just two days before the event, she added. 

Due to these issues, some students were upset with the activities they were assigned because the PBIS committee wanted to avoid overcrowding activities, explained Ms. Gola. 

Another roadblock PBIS faced in organizing was their original 50 PBIS points goal for each student to participate in the activities, according to Ms. Gola. 

“The teacher staff of PBIS thought two points a day was something students could accomplish within the month of us accruing points. When we got closer to the date of our cut-off, … if we were to keep it at 50 points, only 50 percent could participate in the day,” added Ms. Gola. 

Ms. Gola said that they wanted a good turnout for PBIS’s first event at the high school. So, they analyzed different point values with the goal of around 80 percent of the student body being able to participate, she added. They finally dropped it to 15 points (72 percent participation) because students were not earning as many points as they believed, she said. 

According to Ms. Gola, because of this, the “prices” of some higher point items in their school store, such as sweatshirts, were reduced. This is in hopes that more students could earn these items, but not so many that they will not go out of stock too quickly, she added. 

Ms. Gola said the PBIS committee plans to organize something similar to Snow Much Fun Day at the end of the school year and carrying on this event to future school years.  

She added that PBIS will look for a digital program to improve the sign up and “sorting into activities” process that made the event difficult to plan. 

“I feel that if we would have had some more planning time and some more student input we would be able to create a better outreach throughout the high school to appeal to each and every student,” said Jaydon. 

In addition, the PBIS student team is looking for more feedback and new additions, according to Ms. Gola. Any person who is believed to be influential to their peers and show case good behavior can apply to join PBIS, she said. Ms. Gola said to contact her for more information. 

“Overall PBIS is new to everyone, teachers included. We are all doing our best to make a valiant effort to put PBIS at the forefront of our minds in terms of giving and receiving points,” added Ms. Richie.