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When we first moved to Tennessee two years ago, I got a job as a long-term sub, covering for a special education teacher on medical leave.

I was there from August until March, working with a bunch of wonderful 4th graders.

Over time, one of the things I noticed was that the same students were receiving detention. Every single lunch period.

Check in Check Out:

About two months into the school year, I sat down with the team of 4th grade teachers and shared an idea about doing a Tier 2 intervention with some of these students. I was pretty familiar with doing “Check-in-Check-Out” while working at Rocketship. It was a really helpful way to keep kids accountable for their behaviors in a non-punitive, encouraging way.

It didn’t take too much coaxing to get them on board. I think we all realized detention wasn’t working for them. So we were eager to try something different.

I created a bulletin board in the class and, each time the kids 1) met their goal and 2) brought back their CICO paper signed by a parent/guardian, they got to inch their stick figure person one day closer to the end. (The end meant they had earned a pizza party!)

They loved it.

And I felt like I was seeing a whole lot of improvement with some of my kiddos.

It was really hard for me to leave the school.

I (obviously) wasn’t sad to be leaving the political bullshit that happened in the county. But I was definitely going to miss working with the teachers and a principal who were all really invested in finding different ways to see kids succeed.

And, more than anything, I was going to miss seeing the kids each morning and each afternoon as they would check in and out with me each day.

Because this wasn’t really an established system in the school, I knew that whoever took my place would probably not continue with the program.

Which really made me feel like I failed.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, I received a text from one of my former co-teachers.

She asked if I would send over any and all of my CICO documents because they were going to implement it school-wide this upcoming year.

I about cried.

It was really hard to leave. Knowing that I didn’t get to shift a lot of things in the system. That kids were still not getting the services that they needed. That there was just so much wrong that needed fixing.

But getting this text message from my friend made me feel like, in some small way, I was able to pass on something that could potentially make a difference to the kids at that school.

I didn’t invent this.

I didn’t create the intervention.

But I saw something that needed fixing. And I offered a suggestion.

And it makes my heart burst that they see the power in it too.

If you’re an educator and you’re looking for a behavior intervention to introduce to your grade level or school, I recommend you browse PBISWorld. There are lots of suggestions and resources to get you started.

Question of the Day: 

• Have you ever offered a suggestion or a piece of advice to someone and it turned out even better than you had anticipated?