While many of us are accustomed to surprise days off due to weather events, the global COVID-19 pandemic has altered our daily schedules for the foreseeable future. As schools make the shift to eLearning, classroom time can be challenging for teachers, students, and parents. Keep your students on track and make this unusual time a little more fun by using PBIS Rewards!
For Teachers
Student Acknowledgement
Yes! You can absolutely use PBIS Rewards to acknowledge your students, even when they’re in a virtual classroom environment! Try these fun ideas:
- Acknowledge students with points and comments when students:
- Complete assignments by the deadline
- Complete assignments before deadline
- Participate in photo or cooking challenges
- Complete an online visit to a museum or zoo
- Participate in a Spirit Day activity (check out our Spirit Week on Twitter), i.e.:
- Elementary: Monday – wear pajamas, Tuesday – crazy hair, Wednesday – crazy socks, Thursday – dress like your teacher, Friday – hat day
- Secondary: Monday – wear pajamas, Tuesday – wear school colors, Wednesday – crazy socks, Thursday – college gear, Friday – hat day
- Create a Reward Event:
- Using video conferencing tools (Google Hangout, Zoom, Microsoft Teams EDU, etc.) that gives students points after attending the event
- Attend an online drawing class
- Attend an online book reading
- Create a Raffle for a digital gift card
Donwload Student Acknowledgement Tips
Connect with Parents/Guardians
You can also connect with parents/guardians as well as students through PBIS Rewards. Some of the ways you can do this in the app include:
- Provide an option for students and parents to ask questions
- Communicate directly with parents to provide important information, such as:
- Meal availability
- Assignment updates
- Resources available in the community
PBIS Fidelity
Want to know how well you and your students are doing during eLearning? You can review PBIS data and generate reports, including:
- Students earning points
- Daily Points Goal met
Social-Emotional Learning
Yes, SEL is an important part of eLearning, just like it is in the physical classroom. With PBIS REwards’ new SEL Check feature, you can track the social and emotional health of your students, even during distance learning. This feature allows you to:
- Customize SEL settings for your school
- Track social-emotional trends through a variety of data points
- Identify at-risk students and provide additional help where needed
Connecting with your Colleagues
Need to keep in touch with your colleagues? Teacher Rewards can help you do that! You can communicate directly with other staff members through the web portal or staff app. Teachers who feel a little isolated due to the online classroom environment can:
- Post on the Teacher Rewards Wall to share ideas (and GIFs)
- Post updates
- Recommend a teammate that helped with online lesson planning
- Request points, like for participating in Spirit Day activities
Teacher Rewards includes office staff and administrators, too! Administrators can support and encourage their staff members by:
- Awarding points to teachers who are using PBIS Rewards daily
- Awarding points for staff utilizing other platforms in an innovative manner
- Planning a Raffle or Auction for gift card that can be mailed/emailed to staff member
For Students
Once the excitement and newness of the virtual classroom wears off, students will need to adapt to the online eLearning environment. You can help get them focused on this new situation by recognizing them for demonstrating kindness, responsibility, and active participation. For example, students can earn points by:
- Being on time for video lesson
- Participating in online discussions
- Completing and submitting digital learning activities on time
- Working cooperatively with others online
- Completing an activity or project that was not assigned
Of course, earning all these points isn’t any fun unless they can redeem them somehow. While they won’t be able to use their points for physical items right now, you can give them some virtual options, including:
- Google Hangout/Facetime with teacher to:
- Hear a favorite book
- Have virtual snack time with teacher
- Play an online game with teacher or administrator
- Co-Teach an online class – share about a specific topic
- Select a GoNoodle for the class to enjoy
- Show and tell with class members
Check out our full list of incentive ideas for distance learning!
Just add these rewards to your classroom or school store and let them know what’s available during this period of eLearning!
For Parents
Parents are operating under a unique set of circumstances, too. Many are working from home at the same time their children are attending eLearning classrooms. Encourage parents to connect through PBIS Rewards. They can communicate directly with their child’s teacher(s) with questions and comments, and can help their child participate in class activities by:
- Sending the teacher a picture of their child completing an extra project/activity that was not assigned
- Notifying the teacher that the student completed chores to help the family
- Sending a picture of their child working with a sibling to solve a problem
While parents may be familiar with eLearning based on short-term events such as snow days, many may feel overwhelmed during this time. Holding your students accountable to your classroom or school behavior matrix will help. Just as you wouldn’t abandon PBIS after winter break, keeping a sense of routine is important and helpful for most students.
eLearning With PBIS Rewards
PBIS Rewards can help to maintain an atmosphere of learning, even when your students are in the digital classroom for distance learning.
To help boost eLearning during this period, PBIS Rewards has compiled a list of online learning resources designed to assist educators (and parents) in making online learning fun and interesting. We’d love to hear your ideas for websites, online lessons, and other digital methods for education. Connect with us via social media to share your suggestions!
