Chances are, your staff has had to adapt every single one of their lesson plans to accommodate online instruction, and they may be feeling overwhelmed. Many school systems have chosen to complete the remainder of the school calendar virtually. So while the end is in sight for your staff, it’s not the ending they had planned for the year. Keeping them encouraged and motivated during this challenging time is incredibly important. For schools using the Teacher Rewards feature in PBIS Rewards, keeping teachers motivated during distance learning can be fun!
Teacher Buy-In and Motivation During Distance Learning
With so much focus placed on keeping students on track for what remains of the school year in a distance learning environment, it can be easy to overlook teachers. PBIS Rewards recently hosted a flash webinar entitled “Distance Learning With PBIS: Teacher Buy-In and Motivation,” featuring educators from schools using Teacher Rewards. Our panel consisted of:
- Kristen Fuqua, Learning Design Coach, Pine View Middle School
- Ryan Taylor, Director of Student Services, Avon Grove Charter School
- Jill Hanson, Lead Customer Support Consultant, PBIS Rewards
- Emily Fiedler, Senior Educational Relationship Specialist, PBIS Rewards
Pine View Middle School is an International Baccalaureate World School located in Land O’Lakes, Florida, serving students in sixth through eighth grades. Avon Grove is a charter school located in West Grove, Pennsylvania, serving K-12 students.
Our Senior Educational Relationship Consultant Emily Fiedler led the discussion. Jill Hanson is a Senior Educational Support Consultant with PBIS Rewards and joined us on this webinar. Senior Educational Relationship Consultant Brittany Kessler also assisted the webinar behind the scenes.
Flash Webinar Recording
Virtual PBIS Resources Mentioned During the Webinar
Kristen Fuqua of Pine View Middle School shared these resources with PBIS Rewards to help other educators adapt their PBIS initiative for virtual learning:
- PBIS Student Survey Example Questions (61 kb PDF)
- PBIS Virtual Classroom Poster (515 kb PDF)
- PBIS Classroom Poster (pre virtual) (57 kb PDF)
Using Teacher Rewards to Encourage Staff
Both Pine View and Avon Grove use Teacher Rewards to encourage their staff. When both schools moved to a distance learning environment, teacher encouragement made the move, too. Topics covered during this webinar included:
- Building community during virtual learning
- Adapting teacher rewards to fit a virtual environment
- Ways to secure funding for rewards
- Recognizing and responding to challenges in the virtual environment
- Supporting teachers who are reluctant to use PBIS
- Encouraging staff members who are uncomfortable with technology
- How staff buy-in supports student buy-in
- Using comments to provide feedback for both students and staff
- Supporting teachers working with special needs students in distance learning
- Defining virtual expectations
- Using data to track how points are being awarded
- How to get support from PBIS Rewards during distance learning
Moving from a physical classroom setting to a distance learning environment can be complex. However, PBIS Rewards can make the shift with ease since it’s a digital token economy. Students can still earn points… and so can teachers. What better way to encourage teacher buy-in and maintain motivation than with PBIS Rewards!
Need help using PBIS Rewards during distance learning? We have lots of distance learning resources available, and we’ll continue to add more as time goes on.
Want to know more about PBIS Rewards? Contact us!