Building Relationships With School Family Fun

By Monica Piccari

Staff and students at Gibbs Elementary have been focusing on fostering relationships and growing closer as a school family. Creating and sustaining a safe and loving school environment has been a priority in the building, and the PBIS team at Gibbs has taken this opportunity to further that vision. We have been teaching and reviewing our BARK behavior expectations and sometimes when a student demonstrates one of these positive behaviors, they are rewarded with a “Bulldog Buck.” Bulldog Bucks are virtual dollars that are collected and managed through an online app that the entire district is now using. The app not only tracks the amount of “Bucks” they have earned but more importantly, the positive reason that the student earned the Bulldog Buck. Students can use Bulldog Bucks to “purchase” incentives in their classroom, some tangible items such as stickers and snacks, and some intangible items, such as lunch with their teacher. Collectively, the entire school works on earning a “Whole-Class Incentive” in which the entire class works as a family to earn a set amount of Bulldog Bucks and, in return, get to celebrate together with a special event. The parties are fun and exciting, but the true benefit to our school family community is that students have begun to support one another more, encourage each other to make positive choices and celebrate each other’s successes! Some past whole-class incentives have included a glow dance party, gym station party, ice cream sundae party, and a board game and crafting party. These parties allow students, teachers, principals and other staff members to join together to have fun and build stronger bonds between each other which transfers throughout the school.