Teach by Design

Turquoise or Blue? How One Test Uncovers the Hidden Assumptions in Our Classrooms

Defining shared values and norms starts with conversations about differences. Here are two activities to jumpstart those schoolwide discussions.

Unlock Your PBIS Potential With a Continuous Improvement Cycle

Implementing PBIS means continuously looking for ways to improve what you already do. Let’s kickstart that effort right now!

Teach by Design’s 2023-2024 Year in Review

Here are some of our reflections on a year’s worth of research findings, practical strategies, and a whole lot of GIFs.

Anatomy of a Framework Part 9: Annual Evaluation

An end-of-year evaluation is a data story you tell to students, families, and staff about the work you’ve accomplished and how they helped achieve these outcomes alongside your team. Here's how to tell your story this year.

Anatomy of a Framework Part 8: Discipline Data & Decision Making

Answering just three questions will set you and your team on a data-driven path toward improving equitable outcomes in your schoolwide implementation.

Anatomy of a Framework Part 7: Fidelity Data & Decision Making

Implementing PBIS means committing to the long-game, but when you do it with fidelity, you'll see results.

Anatomy of a Framework Part 6: Schoolwide Community Involvement

Incorporating student, family, community, and faculty feedback in your PBIS implementation ensures your systems and practices reflect and support everyone in your building.

Anatomy of a Framework Part 5: Classroom Procedures

Learn which classroom-level systems and practices you already have in place and use this resource roundup to make your awesome classroom even better.

Our Favorite Things 2023

We have 22 new things you’re just going to LOVE! From puzzles, to poetry prompts, here are the little things that will bring big joy to your day. It’s our Favorite Things for 2023!

Anatomy of a Framework Part 4: Professional Development

For your professional development to improve your PBIS implementation and student outcomes, it’s got to be high quality. What does that mean? Here are six criteria from federal law to help you evaluate your next event.

Anatomy of a Framework Part 3: Creating Schoolwide Expectations

We continue our exploration of the 15 features of PBIS implementation. Today, we're talking about schoolwide expectations. How do you go about selecting the three to five expectations that define your schoolwide values? There's an activity for that!

Anatomy of a Framework Part 2: Teams

We continue our series exploring the PBIS framework and its features. Today, we're talking about your schoolwide team, who should be on it and which procedures will help you do your most effective work ever.

Anatomy of a Framework: Demystifying the Elements of PBIS

PBIS is a framework, but what does that mean? Here are the systems, practices, and data you need to implement to support your schoolwide efforts.

Teach by Design's 2023 Year in Review

Here are some of our reflections on a year’s worth of research findings, practical strategies, and a whole lot of GIFs.

PBIS + School Mental Health = A Winning Combination

Too often, our PBIS implementation doesn't include school mental health data, systems, and practices. The Interconnected Systems Framework is one way to leverage your systems so students get the social, emotional, and behavioral support they need sooner.

Let’s Talk About Behavior Trends: What the Data Say and How to Address Your Classroom Realities

Supporting student behavior continues to be a top concern in schools across the country. Before layering on additional support, we have to confirm the basics are firmly in place.

Disrupt Your Vulnerable Decisions with These Simple Solutions

Once you’ve named a schoolwide vulnerable decision point, then what? You implement solutions, of course. Here are a few to get you started.

Equitable Outcomes Require Finding Vulnerable Decisions

When it comes to identifying the situations most vulnerable to inequitable decisions, it helps to define the problem with precision. Want to know how?

Dust Off Your Practices: 4 Tools to Refresh Your PBIS Framework

If your PBIS implementation fell by the wayside last year, we’re here to tell you it’s not too late to make a comeback. Here are four components to tackle sooner rather than later to set up your reboot for a successful start.

Our Favorite Things 2022

We have 21 new things you’re just going to LOVE! From pencil dispensers, to pep talks from kindergartners, here are the little things that will bring big joy to your day. It’s our Favorite Things for 2022!

The Serious Business of Play

When students play, they do more than blow off steam; they practice social, emotional, behavioral, and sometimes academic skills. So how can we incorporate more time to play during the day? Research has some ideas.

Slow the Climb: 4 De-escalation Strategies to Keep Behavior from Going Downhill

Behaviors are bound to escalate at some point in spite of your best classroom management practices. Here are four de-escalation strategies to try before a situation become a crisis.

Creating Calm: 5 Ways to Prevent Big Behaviors

Keep your classroom calm by leveraging your existing school-wide systems and practices.

Start With Why: How to Put Purpose Back in Your Work

Your school has a mission statement. What about a purpose statement? This is your 4-step process to committing your school’s purpose to paper.

Teach by Design’s 2022 Year in Review

Here are some of our reflections on a year’s worth of research findings, practical strategies, and a whole lot of GIFs.

Mental Health Matters: 12 Things I Learned From an International PBIS Conference

Mental health and social-emotional learning were trending topics at this year’s Association for Positive Behavior Supports Conference. These are 12 tips, tricks, and resources we learned from the experts that can support everyone’s mental health in your school.

Decisions, Decisions: 5 Keys to Creating a Data-Driven School

When it comes to using data, nothing beats a solid process to guide the decisions you make. Here are five key factors to take your decision-making process to the next level.

Proven Ways to Make School-wide Feedback Work

So, you asked your students, families, and staff to take a survey about your school climate. What do you do with all the data you collected? You go through it all one step at a time.

Microaggressions: What’s the Big Deal & What Do I Do About Them?

Microaggressions happen everywhere, every day. What do you do when they happen in your classroom? A microintervention is a simple way to address the issue and call attention to the harm someone caused, even if it was unintentional.

7 Ways to Partner with Students and Level Up Your Implementation

Whether you find yourself starting at the bottom or you’re ready to level up, here are some ideas to incorporate student perspectives in your school.

Our Favorite Things 2021

We have 28 new things you’re just going to LOVE! From wireless chargers, to custom stamps with your face on them, here are the little things that will bring big joy to your day. It’s our Favorite Things for 2021!

Building System-level Solutions to School-wide Stress

While we practice self-care, it’s also important to examine the systems creating our stressful environments and find ways to change them. The WRAP process is just the thing to jumpstart those conversations.

4 Ways to Widen Your Problem-Solving Perspective

Have you ever made a decision and wondered if there's something you might have missed? Here are four ways to expand your problem-solving perspective and explore new solutions to some of your most challenging decisions.

10 Strategies to Combat Stress in the Classroom

We could all use some go-to strategies for managing the stress in our lives right now. Here are 10 ideas for how to handle the stress responses in your classroom.

Make It Radical: Ideas For Your Most Welcoming Classroom Ever

As your students come back to the classroom, investing in relationships and fostering a sense of belonging should be at the top of your list of to-dos. Here are some ways to start radically welcoming students in your classroom.

It's a Wrap: Wins That Inspire From a Weird Year

To close out the year, we’re celebrating the wins you experienced in spite of the chaos.

Mental Health Matters: 14 Strategies for Your School

It doesn't have to be a heavy lift. Here are 14 small things you can do to make improving everyone's mental health a priority in your school.

PBIS Practices Pave Your Path to Recovery

​Walk with us on a journey through the past year as we explore the four phases of crisis recovery and how PBIS practices supported us every step of the way.

Respect: Find Out What It Means to Me... Actually Ask Your Students

What's your definition of respectful behavior? How would your students define it? Get on the same page by creating something called a behavior dictionary.

Supportive Environments Create Classroom Community

​Creating a supportive environment requires addressing policies, procedures, and a school’s physical space. Here are some tips to make your school's environment more welcoming and culturally relevant to students.

Including Student Voice in Your PBIS Implementation

​Give students ownership over the way their school feels and center their voices in your school's PBIS implementation.

Our Favorite Things 2020

We've picked out 26 new things you’re just going to LOVE! From ring lights to Bitmoji classrooms, here are the little things that will bring big joy to your day. It’s our Favorite Things for 2020!

Go, Engage, Connect: Welcome Student Identity & Improve Equity

Embedding culturally responsive practices in PBIS implementation requires creating a space where all students’ identities are affirmed and validated from the moment they walk in the building.

Suspension Prevention: Classroom Management in Distance Learning

Find out how one teacher uses classroom management to prevent problem behaviors from getting out of hand.

Purpose, Trust, & Time: Tips for Teams Meeting Online

If your team will meet virtually for any part of this school year, here are some ways to adapt your meeting processes based on your new, remote reality.

Get Back to School by Going Back to Basics

Don’t look for brand new ways to manage student behavior during distance learning; look for small changes you can make to your strong classroom management strategies.

Remote Learning & PBIS Resource Roundup

With all these distance learnin' blog posts, district emails, practice briefs, and Twitter threads flyin' out of every corner of this here country, a good old fashioned round-up is in order. This here's your one-stop-shop.

A 4-Step Plan for Handling Problem Behavior Remotely

Managing classroom behaviors when students are physically in front of you is challenging. How on earth are you supposed to respond to problem behaviors over the internet? First, breathe…

4 Tips for Your Families Trying PBIS at Home

While your students are at home, families might benefit from those strong school-level PBIS structures you know and love. This is my family's experience attempting to create normalcy in the middle of a pandemic.

4 Steps Every Team Should Take for Students with Support Plans

​Successfully implementing individual student supports can be challenging. Incorporating data in the process makes the path to success so much clearer.

5 Questions Every Team Should Ask About Racial Disproportionality

Addressing disproportionality is a complex process…however, the complexity of this work should not deter us from having courageous conversations about our systems.

5 Questions Every Team Should Ask About School-wide Behavior

Data is a four letter word, but it doesn’t have to be one that causes your team anxiety. Embrace a data routine and start looking forward to using your data to improve decision making and outcomes for students!

Our Favorite Things 2019

We have 24 new things you’re just going to LOVE! From mini griddles, to easy classroom strategies, here are the little things that will bring big joy to your day. It’s our Favorite Things for 2019!

Don't Discipline Hangry: 3 Steps to a Better Classroom

To break a habit of reacting to every problem behavior, we need to turn our intuitive, knee-jerk responses into deliberate, practiced actions.

Putting a Definition Back in Defiance

When it comes to our referral process, knowing what subjective behaviors like defiance and disrespect feel like isn’t enough. We need to define them precisely and we better do it fast.

How to Bend Your Referral Process Without Breaking It

If you think your referral process is written in stone, think again. You can adjust it to fit your style without sacrificing fidelity.

Consistent Process + Reliable Data = Better Results

Your school's systems work together to make sure you’re collecting the right information in the right way at the right time. When it comes to improving student outcomes, everything starts with your discipline systems.

12 Books for Every Teacher’s Summer Reading List

Looking for a little inspiration to carry you into the upcoming school year? Here are 12 books to check out...preferably poolside.

28 Hacks to Improve Any Meeting

​If meetings are going to be part of your work, don't let them be a waste of time. Here are 28 hacks to make your next meeting the best one yet.

The Best Decisions Take Guts and Data

Using data to make decisions is important. What role does your intuition play in the process?

3 Ways to Ensure School Is a Place Everyone Wants to Be

Research tells us nearly every aspect of school life improves when you make school the kind of place where everyone wants to be. What does "positive school climate" mean? How do you measure it? What mistakes can we avoid in order to keep the good stuff going?

Tidy Up With the TFI

If your school has been on the fence about transitioning to the TFI, or you haven’t been able to let go of your favorite fidelity measures just yet, ask yourself: WWMKD – What Would Marie Kondo Do?

7 Keys to Real World Implementation

In all the ways educational research is juicy and full of promise, the way we talk about research findings can be overly complicated. If a journal article loses us at its abstract, those findings don’t stand a chance to see the light of day in a classroom.

Our Favorite Things 2018

We have 23 new things you’re just going to LOVE! From highlighters that erase, to easy classroom strategies, here are the little things that will bring big joy to your day. It’s our Favorite Things for 2018!

11 Easy Tips to Really Engage with Families

Numerous studies confirm that actively engaged families play a major role in improving academic and behavior outcomes for their students. It's time to stop simply involving families and start really engaging them.

Become a Better Team by Solving 3 Common Mistakes

Team-based decision making is how your school operates. How can you turn those teams into effective decision makers while avoiding the parts about group work that make you want to scream?

Your Foolproof Plan to Create Staff Buy-In That Sticks

Sometimes telling someone what to do works. Most of the time, mandates from above do little to inspire actual change. Getting support from staff members is critical if you plan to sustain any program in your school over the long-haul.

Implementation Fidelity: It's More Than a Score

The higher your fidelity score, the better your odds for improving student outcomes. How well you can match the intervention to your context matters almost as much.

4 Simple Strategies for Your Best Summer Ever

No matter what you do, if you want to come back from summer break rested and ready, here are the four things you're going to want to fit into your schedule.

Suspension Doesn't Work: There's Gotta be a Better Way!

Nearly every school reports suspension data at the end of the year. If improving academic outcomes is on your list of goals for next year, don't just send your suspension data to the state; use it.

Motive, Motivate, Motivation: Why Are My Students Doing That?!

Knowing the function of a student's behavior is the difference between creating a support plan that works versus creating one that makes things worse.

The Challenge of School Violence

While we cannot guarantee a violent incident will never occur at our school or in our community, there are measures we can take to reduce the probability.

13 Ways to Get Ready for Spring

Here are 13 ideas to get you thinking about what you'll do when spring is here...as told by hilarious cat GIFs.

4 Ways to Jumpstart Your Goals This Year

Setting goals comes as a standard practice for school teams. Once you've mastered the SMART goal, what else is there?

Our Favorite Things 2017

We’ve got 24 things you’re just going to LOVE! Whether it’s a favorite pen or an innovative way to use technology in the classroom, here are the little things that will bring big joy to your day. It’s our first annual, PBISApps Favorite Things!

5 Ways to Reward Students the Right Way

When students are rewarded and they don’t know why, the reward doesn’t work. What can we do to offer rewards that encourage students to start doing the things we want them to do?

The Future is Now for Students Who Need More Support

Looking for specific ODR patterns helps you offer support to the students who benefit from it the most. The best time to identify these students relies upon a little method we like to call The October Catch.

The Second Year Itch: Why Does Implementation Fail?

Research tells us how to set up schools to sustain PBIS implementation...and what to do if you think they may be dabbling in abandoning everything.

7 Dos and Don'ts to Ensure Your CICO Program is the Best

​​Check-In Check-Out is a great way to help students manage their behavior when they need just a little more practice. Learn about common pitfalls and simple strategies to make your CICO program run smoothly.

7 Ways to MacGyver Your Action Plans

Action planning doesn't have to be an after thought. With a little strategy, you can transform your conversations from all talk to real action items.

Top 5 TIPS Tips for Teams

​Team Initiated Problem Solving (TIPS) co-author Anne Todd gives 5 things you can do right now to get more out of your team meetings.​

The October Catch

Be a Data Hero: Sustaining Practices and Sharing Data

Sharing data with all school staff invites everyone to participate in problem solving and to find solutions. Here are three ways schools creatively share data in their buildings.​

Using SWIS On the Bus

SWIS facilitator, Bob Koenig, shares his experience getting his district's transportation department up and running with the SWIS application.