Press Release - TuscBDD Congratulates Starlight School on Gold Award
Tue, Nov 14th, 2017PRESS RELEASE
TuscBDD's Starlight School Wins PBIS Gold Award
New Philadelphia, November 14, 2017: Congratulations to the Starlight School's Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) team for winning a 2017 Gold Award by the Ohio PBIS Network and the State Support team for implementation of school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports. PBIS involves teaching students expected behaviors in a consistent and positive way, modeling and acknowledging those behaviors, and helping all students meet expectations and be successful.
Starlight School's PBIS team consists of: Alisha Ketchem, Dana Digenova, Farrah Raines, Katy Ganz, and Sophie Graves-Clore. Starlight School utilizes the Lego theme in their PBIS program, which helps students relate to the fun and interactive program. Students get excited to see Starlight School's real-life and interactive Lego Man when they earn their Master Builder badge and other good work badges. "Seeing students light up when they are visited by Lego Man and awarded their special badge and lanyard in recognition of their achievement is the biggest bonus in using this program that provides these and other incentives as students achieve behavioral and speech goals" expressed Farrah and Katy, Starlight School's Occupational and Speech Therapists. Both Farrah and Katy spent time over the 2017 summer preparing a portfolio and creating their unique program that awards students incentives when they go above and beyond in their behavior and therapy goals. This program is for all Starlight School students and was developed to spark an interest with all kids of all different cognitive levels.
Along with the reward of seeing the kids excel, both Farrah and Katy said that putting together their portfolio really opened their eyes to their own strengths and weaknesses which further aided them in developing their program. "We have seen kids make big steps and even go outside of their own comfort zone to improve on a behavior because they are motivated by the incentives this program offers. One example is that a student who has social challenges was so excited to earn his badge that when he did, he got up and hugged the Lego Man, which was a big step for him" expressed Farrah. Out of all 108 awards given this year, only 7 were Gold Awards. "Starlight School received the Gold Award, and we are the only school in Tuscarawas County that received one this year; it is just so rewarding" expressed Katy.
TuscBDD would like to extend the congratulations to all 108 Ohio schools that are being recognized for their success in implementing Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). These 108 schools earned recognition at the gold (7 schools), silver (15 schools), and bronze (86 schools) levels of distinction. Congratulations to these schools for their dedication and successes!
https://www.pbis.org/
http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Other-Resources/School-Safety/Building-Better-Learning-Environments/PBIS-Resources/Ohio-PBIS-Showcase