I inherited a route that was not well managed in the past. These children were known to throw water bottles and marbles out the windows to the passing cars, or "give the finger" to the cars behind the bus, they stood up ALOT, and there was bullying. - My first several weeks were hectic to say the least! I actually went home crying more than once, and I asked my husband if it was possible to change routes once you were contracted. My husband, who is also a school bus driver, had very wise words for me.... He said, "Raechel, they did not have any sort of "classroom management" before you, you have to give it time to re-train them in correct behavior." (See, I told you he was wise). That changed my thinking.... what could I do to train them in proper behavior and still showed them that I cared about them and wanted them to succeed?
I decided to initiate the Positive Behavior Systems in my bus.
Anytime you get kids together you are going to have behavior issues. We as adults have a preconceived notion that when a kid walks onto our bus, they will automatically know how to behave. This is not always true. Some kids will know proper behavior, but there will be children that do not know proper behavior for a school bus.
First thing I needed to do is train the
children on proper school bus behavior. I did this by having clear expectations posted. I did not want more than 5 expectations (because kids get overwhelmed with more than
5) written up and visible. These were the 3 I came up with (examples under the expectations)
The day I started PBS in the bus, I showed them the expectations and we talked about what each one meant. The kids and I discussed the examples and thought of new examples too.
Along with the expectations, I had Rewards for achieving the Positive Behavior. First, I showed them the Bus Tickets.
These are like the School Bucks that the schools in our district are giving out, but these tickets will only work on my Bus. They are given out if I see a child that is doing one of the expectations. Now, I don't give them out all the time, sometimes my Positive Reward is saying that I am proud of them for ____________ fill in the blank (sitting the whole ride which shows you are being safe!) or maybe I thank them for picking up garbage that was on the floor because it shows they are being responsible for their bus.. But sometimes they get a Bus Ticket! At the beginning I did hand out a lot of tickets because I needed to shower them with positive reinforcement to the expectations. With those Bus Tickets they can "buy" rewards from me.
I wanted several rewards that would be "instant gratification" for the kids. So several of my rewards are worth 1 Ticket. For a small sum I ordered some stickers (Spiderman, Frozen, and Emoji) on Amazon. They can also be the one to use the counter and count the students as they get on the bus (watch out if a kinder is the counter for the day.... today a kinder counted 8953 children on our bus! LOL), or they can pick the first song that is played from the MP3 player. They have to save up tickets for the other rewards.... 3 tickets can let them play games on a tablet that I have pre loaded with fun games or they can be the DJ of the bus for the day (they get to choose ALL the songs we play for that trip). 5 tickets let them get to choose out of the Prize Box (balloons, glow sticks, marbles, plastic dinosaurs, bracelets, pencils, etc) and 10 gets a choice from the Treasure Chest (Puzzle, silly string, pack of stickers, stuffed animal, etc) The Dollar Store and Oriental Trading Company are great places to get rewards!
The transformation of the kids in my bus has been amazing! It did not happen all at once, and we have had to do some "re-training" of the expectations. But they have come such a long way! They are actively trying to do the right thing - they are happier when they get on the bus and I am so very proud of how hard they are working to Be Responsible, Use Respect and Stay Safe.
