PBIS Tip-of-the-Month

February 2025

Leading with Compassion & Empathy

Focus on the Little Things

With February being the shortest month of the year I encourage you to remember and focus on how the little things make a big impact. Small moments that include showing compassion to someone in need ... providing empathy to indicate understanding of another's feelings ... giving validation to strengthen connection. When we engage repeatedly in small, positive ways with others we create trust to build towards a strong sense of connection and belonging. When we continue to do so we contribute to sustaining those connections and positively impacting engagement. The following links take you to resources that are quick to review & demonstrate how the little things we do can make a big impact to our learning environments.

Article:

How to Change Your Life in One Second Flat

Videos:

It Means "I Need You": The Power of 8 Minutes (59 seconds)

Edutopia's 60-Second Strategies Page (1 minute per video) - the videos included are grouped in the following grade spans: K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12

Data:

If your school uses SWIS you now have the option of accessing & using the mobile app for referral entry to get data helpful for decision making. Check out more details here - SWIS Mobile Is Here!

Resources

Impacting Engagement

PBIS Apps Teach by Design ~

The January PBIS Apps Teach by Design article, Boredom-buster Engagement Strategies to Spark Student Interest, brings focus on ways to positively impact student engagement. Recognizing that boredom is a natural feeling and "when boredom strikes, our brains look for something more engaging to do." This article provides four initial strategies to impact engagement and within each strategy some specific ideas. Some might be things you already do and I encourage you to reflect on those in connection to what is shared in this article.

Edutopia Articles ~

The following are additional resources to dig more into ways to impact student engagement.

Cognitive, Emotional, and Behavioral Engagement Strategies That Work - "Teachers can use a mix of approaches to overcome students' attention span limits so they stay engaged in learning."

3 Student Self-Reflection Strategies After They Finish an Assignment - "Teachers can use these ideas to gauge students' confidence & see if they accurately understand how much they're learning."

Using Incremental Progress to Foster Students' Intrinsic Motivation - "A focus on regular small wins rather than lofty goals can help teachers keep students engaged for the long haul."

Question: How Do You Re-Engage Students After School Breaks? - "Struggling to re-engage students after a break? The Edutopia community shares their strategies for tackling this common challenge."

Assessing the Child-Centeredness Of Your Teaching in 6 Steps - "Early childhood teachers can use these strategies to align their teaching to students' needs for optimal engagement and growth."

Using Question Cubes to Boost Reading Engagement - "This activity gives students the opportunity to collaborate, boosting engagement and deepening their understanding of class texts."

Interactive Note-Taking in Social Studies Class - "Incorporating frequent questions and student discussion into direct instruction helps boost engagement with the material."

Using Humor - Sparingly - in the Classroom - "Unproductive humor can hurt students' feelings and damage relationships. Here's how to use it to promote a sense of community instead."

Edutopia Videos ~

How Breaking Up Lectures Can Improve Student Learning (3 minutes 2 seconds)*

*Upper Elementary/Middle School/High School

4 Ways to Integrate Visual Arts Into Elementary Math (3 minutes 9 seconds)

How to Get Teens Engaged as Readers (3 minutes 1 second)