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MTSS School Systems That Support Student Behavior with Crystal Ceresani, ep. 231

A girl and boy painting in a classroom. These words are at the bottom, "MTSS School Systems That Support Student Behavior with Crystal Ceresani ".

This episode is sponsored by IRIS Connect


Wish your school had a more effective approach for handling student behavior?

In this episode, Crystal Ceresani from the Behavior Alliance of South Carolina joins me to chat about MTSS school systems that support student behavior. Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) is a framework designed to address our students’ needs at multiple levels – whether in academics or behavior.

During the conversation, Crystal emphasizes the importance of proactive strategies for student behavior, starting with Tier 1. She highlights the need for clear expectations and involving students and staff in defining norms.

We explore what school-wide behavior systems look like in practice, common challenges, and what sets successful schools apart. Crystal also offers practical tips for instructional coaches ready to get started, from forming a team to using data effectively. Listen to the full episode for practical tips, real-life examples, and actionable steps to build a more supportive school environment.

What Do MTSS School Systems That Support Student Behavior Look Like in Practice?

Wondering what a school-wide behavior system actually looks like in action? In the episode, Crystal breaks down how a cohesive approach can transform student behavior and what it can look like in practice.

She explains that taking a school-wide approach means:

  • Creating a shared set of behavioral norms.
  • Developing a common language across the school.
  • Explicitly teaching students what is expected in every setting (classroom, hallway, cafeteria, etc.) and appropriate consequences.
  • Giving both students and staff a voice in shaping these expectations.
  • Designing a school-wide behavior matrix using positive, student-friendly language.
  • Teacher created classroom matrices that align with the school norms.
  • Focusing on prevention, not just punishment – proactively teaching behavior at the beginning of the year and revisiting it often, rather than addressing it only through consequences.

By aligning staff and empowering students, schools can create a positive, predictable environment where everyone understands expectations and what success looks like.

Challenges Teachers Face When Implementing MTSS School Systems That Support Student Behavior

Let’s be real – changing behavior is hard! Crystal acknowledges that teachers face obstacles when implementing MTSS school systems that support student behavior:

  1. Lack of Training: Teacher prep programs don’t adequately teach effective classroom management. They tend to focus more on consequences rather than preventive strategies.
  2. Time Pressure: Teachers have a lot of content to cover every day, and that leaves little time to explicitly teach behavioral expectations.

So, what can instructional coaches do to help?

  • Professional Learning: Provide ongoing training and coaching, not just one-off PD.
  • Empower Students: Focus on shaping and teaching behavior, not just consequences.
  • Data-Driven Conversations: Use data to identify problem areas and prioritize interventions.
  • Recognize Triggers: Encourage staff to identify their personal triggers and how they can handle them better.

How Coaches Can Get Started Creating a School-Wide System for Behavior

There are several ways that coaches can help create a school-wide behavior system. Crystal shares a few practical tips to get started! To launch or improve a behavior system on your campus, she recommends:

  1. Getting a big picture vision and prioritizing Tier 1.
  2. Forming a small team to get the conversations started, review data, and outline a plan.
  3. Celebrate progress and small wins.

MTSS School Systems That Support Student Behavior

Behavior challenges show up in every school, but the solution must go beyond consequences. Implementing a school-wide behavior system is about creating a positive culture and proactively teaching expectations. By putting clear, consistent systems in place, schools can shift from reacting to behavior problems to setting every student up for success.

I really enjoyed my conversation with Crystal about MTSS school systems that support student behavior, and I know you will too. Tune in now to hear all the details!

Topics and Questions Discussed in Episode 231 – MTSS School Systems That Support Student Behavior with Crystal Ceresani

  • MTSS school systems that support student behavior
  • What is MTSS, and how does it apply to behavior
  • How taking a school-wide approach helps change student behavior
  • Why punitive discipline doesn’t work, and the practical tools teachers can use instead to shape student behavior
  • Creative approaches to building a common schoolwide language and shared vision for behavior with staff and students
  • Why we need to explicitly teach behavior expectations (just like academics) and practical strategies for calibrating them across classrooms
  • What Tier 1 behavior support looks like in practice and how it can transform your school culture
  • Why a schoolwide, proactive system matters more than consequences alone
  • Steps for developing a schoolwide behavior matrix and classroom matrices
  • Common issues teachers face when implementing MTSS school systems that support student behavior
  • The challenges of classroom management and why most teachers aren’t prepared
  • Tips for overcoming real-world obstacles to implementation, such as lack of time, competing initiatives, buy-in, and different definitions of respect
  • Real examples of successes Crystal has seen with a school-wide approach, and what those schools do differently from less successful ones
  • How instructional coaches can get started with creating a school-wide system for behavior
  • Recommendations for forming a team to get the conversation started
  • Using data to drive decisions and celebrate small wins

This episode is sponsored by IRIS Connect. IRIS Connect helps you streamline teacher development with the world’s most advanced PD facilitation system.

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MTSS School Systems That Support Student Behavior with Crystal Ceresani, ep. 231, Instructional Coaching with Ms. B Podcast

Chrissy Beltran  00:00

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Chrissy Beltran  01:22

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Chrissy Beltran  02:39

Welcome to instructional coaching with Miss B where we believe that every teacher deserves a coach, and every coach does too. I’m Chrissy Beltran, an elementary teacher who became a coach, and I had to create my own coaching program that worked. Now I teach coaches how to design their coaching programs, build a school wide action plan, and use differentiated strategies to support teachers. Plus, I’ve got a special spot in my heart for literacy coaches. Now let’s dig into the episode.

Chrissy Beltran  03:06

Hey coach, and welcome to episode 231, of instructional coaching with Miss B today, we are talking about school systems that support behavior, specifically through MTSS with crystal. Charassani Crystal was a guest on this podcast, probably, I think, the first season, and she shared about a completely different topic, but lately she’s been doing work around MTSS, which is Multi Tiered Systems of Supports, and it’s a framework that’s used in education that we use to provide support to students in multiple tiers. And it can be around academics, it can be around behavior. Specifically, we’re going to look at behavior because it uses this tiered framework, so students are taught exactly what is important at each tier. And I feel like we kind of neglect your one behavior a lot. We have a lot more consequences. We have a lot more disciplinary actions, but maybe not so much proactive teaching. So I’m excited to get into what that looks like with crystal today, and so let’s welcome her to the podcast. Welcome to the podcast, Crystal. And thank you so much for being here. Well,

Crystal Ceresani    04:07

I’m so glad you had me. I’m excited to talk with you today. Awesome.

Chrissy Beltran  04:10

So okay, you’ve been doing so much work with MPFS. And so what I want to know is, how can taking a school wide approach to behavior support systems change student behavior?

Crystal Ceresani    04:21

So ultimately, the goal with the work we’re doing around behavior is really setting up systems to help students to be kind of successful in all locations, and thinking about a preventative and proactive approach that students can come in knowing what’s expected of them, what success looks like, and they can take ownership of their behavior that way. So it’s not so much about like changing behavior, it is, but ultimately, it’s like framing it in a way that they know what is needed and what success looks like, so that you can come in and be successful in that work.

Chrissy Beltran  04:53

Okay, so then what does that actually look like when you undertake that at a school level? Because I love that. I think that’s. We don’t teach kids enough of what we expect, and we just kind of expect all these things, and then different teachers expect different behaviors. And so what does that look like at a school level, if you’re trying to actually get that started?

Crystal Ceresani    05:10

Yeah, I think the word expect is important there, and like, what we expect as teachers, what we expect as schools, and it’s hard, because we can’t expect that students come in knowing what’s expected of them, right? And I think oftentimes in education, we hit the ground running so much in academics that we forget the value and importance of teaching behavior. And so what it really looks like is taking a step back and looking at your tier one systems that you have in place around behavior and around student success in the classrooms and around the school, and it’s really about setting up a place where the kids can come in and they know this is our norms and the values of our school, and here are the behaviors that support those norms, and really looking at that in different places around the school. So we use the school wide matrix for that, and we also have teachers creating their own classroom matrices that align to the norms, but it’s more than a decoration on the wall. We want that to become a part of the culture of the school. We want those norms, whether it’s responsible, respectful, belonging, outreach, like if there’s different like letting one thing that we did a lot of is letting the students and the staff be a part of choosing those norms, letting them have a have a voice in it, because it’s more than having systems in place. It’s about creating a culture around those things. And so I think that’s been the heavy focus of our work this past year. Is really starting to think culturally, how can we create this culture in our school and changing the view of behavior as a means of this is just how it is, but knowing that we can teach students to change behaviors, we can teach them what success looks like, and having explicit plans to teach what that looks like too.

Chrissy Beltran  06:58

So can you, like paint a picture for me, a little bit of maybe like an example? Of what that has looked like in terms of what those tier one supports are, what that tier one because I’m, I know, I’ve done some behavior work at a school where we like, aligned everything. We created all these, you know, it was like, it was good work, but it was, I mean, obviously it was a huge culture shock for a lot of teachers. It was a real challenge for certain people to be like, you’re telling me how I’m going to talk to kids now, you know, because that had never been done. So

Crystal Ceresani    07:29

it’s a big mindset shift that has to happen, and it’s all the way around a mindset shift. And so the way we the approach we’ve taken this year is we have districts and schools that we’re supporting in this work, and they have teams that are coming in. And the analogy we’ve used this year is that we’re building our plane before we fly it. Like I hate the analogy that we’re building a plane while it’s in the air. So we’ve really like taken a hold of this year we’re building and if there are some test drives you want to do, but we also wanted to have to go on with that analogy. We wanted everyone to have a part in building the plane, right? So what we’ve done is, first, we’ve talked about the mtssb framework. We looked at current initiatives that each schools had in place that this could support. We never want this work to feel like one more thing, because that’s the first thing that will push people away is, oh my gosh, here we go again. Something else on my plate. So we’ve looked at like, if they’re doing that, we’ve had some schools who set up like a Ron Clark Academy type vibe, or like a house system, or they have like incentive systems. They’re doing with Classroom Dojo or Leader in Me, different, you know, different initiatives that people are rolling out, all trying to find the solutions. And so we’ve taken those, put them in place, and then we’ve engaged in looking at what are the school’s values, and that’s where they’ve talked to the staff and students and getting their take on what’s important to you so coming together and having a conversation with everybody about what are our norms going to be. Then, once they’ve established those norms, having conversations about, what are our problem areas that we’ve seen a lot of discipline in, and what does success look like in those areas for each of these norms? So what does it look like to be respectful in the cafeteria, you know, that kind of a thing, and then explicitly writing out in positive language what that looks like, so that it’s teachable. So then when students so right now, they’re building it. So next year is going to be their first year of implementation for our current cohort. And they’ve so they’ve worked on building the systems around their matrices. They’ve worked on aligning behavior, language and definitions, because, like, the word disrespect is very different for right? What does that mean? Like I had a teacher that I worked with who if a student rolled their eyes at her, she lost her mind, where that didn’t bother me as much, like it’s and so it’s hard, because in her mind, that was major disrespect. And media offers referral, and so the school needs to come. We use the term caliber. Conversation a lot, and calibrating on the language around behavior, and then also knowing what are your level one, level two, level three behaviors as well. So thinking about what’s classroom managed versus what’s office managed? So to get tier one where it is, needs to be to, you know, support students and successfully behaving and knowing what’s expected. It’s really about calibrating, first as a team, then as a school, then with the students. Let them have a, you know, have some conversations with it as well. Yeah,

Chrissy Beltran  10:31

I like that. I think whenever I was a teacher, I remember I went through a train of Boys Town training. I don’t know if you’d ever gone through Boys Town. It was, there were things that were good and things were not as good, but what I loved is that it specifically encouraged, like you had to specifically teach procedures, specifically teach what appropriate responses were, like you were proactively teaching your kids. This is the way that we communicate. And I love that. And I think that sometimes what’s left out of, you know, teacher preparation, preparation programs is we have, like, lovely ideas about classroom management, but they’re not very proactive. And then you get into the classroom and you’re like, I don’t like, Okay, I’m just gonna, like, start this. Can tell kids what I want, and then we’ll see what happens. But we, but we are not taught to explicitly teach those procedures and what methods work to do that, and then we expect kids to do things, and then they don’t do them, and then they get in trouble that we have expected, because we have expected them to do something we never taught them how to do.

Crystal Ceresani    11:29

Yes, and I think that we live in like not we live, but just in general, our education system is punitive, and like everybody, treats discipline as a punitive consequence, and there has to be some behavior shaping responses in there. There has to be something teaching students. A big thing we talk about in our work is that if we do not prepare students for handling their emotions, their anger, their behavior and their responses, their communication, then when they get out in the real world, what is the punitive response they’re going to get? Yeah, and it’s not good. And so how are we how are we preventing that? Yes,

Chrissy Beltran  12:11

instead of doubling down on it, instead of being like, well, this is the consequence all the time for the behaviors that you have. So then and the cons. I don’t know about other people, but I personally, I don’t feel like whenever I would try to use consequences in my classroom, let’s say they were very ineffective. I If a kid, by the time they got to me in fourth grade was having issues with their behavior, they’ve had it since they were little. So you’ve taken away a sticker that just confirms what they already think about themselves

Crystal Ceresani    12:39

exactly. And so another big part of what we’re doing in our work is so one is building the system when we’ve talked a lot about calibration, but also empowering teachers with practices and resources, because you hit the nail on the head when you said that. Colleges don’t don’t do that, they don’t give you true classroom management courses, and when they do it is more a consequence land, yeah. And so we really, we have some foundational practices that are, like, things that kind of thinking about the beginning of the school year that you can do that helps, like, build the foundation of your year. So it’s the physical arrangement of your classroom. Is it conducive to learning? Low distractions, are you able to get around the room? Also your transitions, the structure of not just the physical structure, but then the classroom structures, the transitions, the things you have in place for when they first come in, thinking about those things, and then relationship building we have, like, those are the three main core like, if you don’t have these things, you’re not building a foundation for success at tier one, that we have explicit practices that we are teaching and providing PL on in those areas, but also with a coaching cycle framework, that it’s more than just a you’ve gotten this PL go forth and be great, but supporting it. So we’re helping them develop systems to support teachers in those practices. So then we have those and then we have proactive and preventative practices that we’re focusing on, student engagement, actively engaging, active supervision and monitoring, like those kind of strategies. And then we have the response strategies to behavior and empowering teachers with how to respond to behavior in a way that’s behavior shaping, not just punitive. So we’re supporting that work as well, because teachers don’t have those tools. I can remember my first year teaching, I’m embarrassed at some of the ways I handled class management and discipline in this because I didn’t know, like I didn’t know, and so I want to, we want to empower teachers to know and have tools that’s not just gonna help them be successful, that ultimately help the students. Yeah,

Chrissy Beltran  14:46

yeah. I love that focus. I think that’s fantastic. I really liked earlier you mentioned about talking about what is handled in the classroom, what is handled in the office. That was something that we had to have. We made like, a little list as well, and it. Was eye opening, because our assistant principal went through and everybody always felt like, oh, the referrals are happening at PE they’re happening at lunch. They’re happening when kids are, you know, in the hallways or whatever. And our assistant principal went through and calculated all the data for a referral she had for like, three years, yeah. And she was like, guys are not they’re sometimes they happen there, but that’s not mostly where they’re happening. They’re happening in the classroom. The majority, like she had percentages to support this, yes, and that was really interesting. So we had to have conversations about what is like, you said, disrespect, general disrespect was one of the ones that we would get a lot as an office referral. And what did that mean, you know, like, did they throw a chair at you, or did they, you know, go, you know, like,

Crystal Ceresani    15:43

and so, and I think that often happens. When I was an admin, we’d have to code our referrals. And I can’t tell you how many of them were student incivility. What does that even mean? Like, what does that even mean? It was a catch all. And that’s, that’s a problem. We haven’t clearly defined what that is taking

Chrissy Beltran  16:01

me off, and I’m done, I’m tired, and sometimes I get that it has been ongoing, and you know, but if you don’t define it clearly, then how do you even know what we’re talking about?

Crystal Ceresani    16:12

And let’s come up with strategies for whenever that, like one thing that we’ve talked a lot about, we’re very heavily using data in all of this, they’re bringing data, support, locations, behaviors, and we’re also teaching them how to check fidelity of implementation. Because we’re doing all this work, we’re building this plane, and if we’re not making sure we’re doing everything as we say we’re going to, we can’t the student outcomes doesn’t align. Yep, so. But with that being said, another conversation we’re having is thinking about your trigger points as a teacher, and thinking about, like, what that can look like in the classroom, and then when responding to that behavior, knowing it’s your own trigger. So a lot of reflected, there’s a lot of reflection that comes in tier one, and I think that’s why it often time gets overlooked, because it’s intimidating, and you have to, like, it’s humbling to look at tier one and to okay, you know what? Maybe this is a tier one problem. And so that’s where a lot of our work has gone into, mindsets, beliefs around it, beliefs around student behavior as being teachable. And also a big thing is making sure that they were they know that we’re not saying students don’t get consequences. But knowing that we’re teaching with those consequences, it’s not solely punitive. ISS OSF,

Chrissy Beltran  17:29

and so really, consequence should be logically related to what the issue was. You know, sometimes we see, like, completely disproportionate responses, or responses that the kid is like, already moved on, and they don’t even know why they’re doing that thing that they’re doing, it has nothing to do with the behavior that they did. Yes,

Crystal Ceresani    17:45

well, and I’m glad you just said that, because that was another thing I was going to say with our empowering teachers, another big thing that we’re trying to get teachers to think about is the functions of behavior. Because we know behavior is a communication. It is literally, if a student is misbehaving, there is some form of communication there, whether it’s task avoidance, attention seeking, like they’re either wanting to gain something or avoid something. And so we are working to help teachers that were work, that are in the schools we’re supporting, to think about behavior in what is the function? Because also, if that student is seeking to avoid a task, and they are misbehaving, and your response is to get them out, or to call the office and have them sent out. They’ve just got what they wanted exactly, or and you wow, you know, because they get you to hear we get and that’s what like, we always want people like, we get it. We’ve been there. I know what it’s like to have a student poke to a point that I’m like, I respond in a way that I shouldn’t, but I’m human, and I tell them that, but thinking about that function and thinking more about the why of the behavior and then responding appropriately to that as well.

Chrissy Beltran  18:56

Yeah, yeah, I like that. So then what are some of the areas? And we talked a little bit about the hinted at it, but what are some of the areas you’ve seen teachers? Struggle in whenever they’re trying to implement a school wide system for behavior?

Crystal Ceresani    19:07

Yes, I think there’s a lot that could go into this question. One is what we talked about earlier, and just not being trained in responding to behavior, not being trained in setting up systems in the classroom that support successful learning and behavior. So I think that’s a big one. So we want to empower our staff with that. But then the second thing is just time and support. Unfortunately, behavior is expected to go back to that word. You know, my students come in, and I expect that they just know how to behave. And I think that time and support and the pressures of academic standards push it to where we feel like I don’t have time to teach you to behave, because I’ve got to get through this list of standards. And so I think, and that’s what leads to some of that pressure and that stress that comes with that is what leads to the punitive responses as well. And the students just got to go, because I’ve got to teach the. Yes. And so I think having the time and support to set up those preventative measures, to look at behavior a little differently and and to look at the data as well supporting, you know, if a student’s not in the classroom, they’re not getting the instruction, that’s also affecting academics as well. So I think just the big thing is lack of PL and college and then just that time and support of of what they need for it.

Chrissy Beltran  20:26

Have you seen a lot of issues of teachers maybe not having an understanding of the culture of their students, and then maybe that impacts their ability to understand behaviors like this is not a disrespectful behavior. This is a cultural thing. But you know, our school is a different culture, like by me, I think lots of research shows it’s kind of like a middle class white culture, basically, is the, you know, school? Yes,

Crystal Ceresani    20:46

100% yes. I think that bringing that to the surface and having those conversations about looking at your students, and that’s where we’ve really pushed for the schools and the teachers to get student engagement in this. What does respect mean to a student? Because it might mean not making eye contact for them, where for you it is. I expect eye contact so really engaging the students and hearing what it means to them as well. What do these behaviors mean? What does success look like to you as well? But that’s an ongoing conversation. I think we’ll forever be happy. Yes, we have definitely run into that, and it’s a very I’m really excited to say that that’s a lot of intention in the conversations around it that we’re seeing, and like schools really realizing that it needs to be more of a conversation and engaging. Like there’s been a lot more student engagement this year in building their plane, and I think they’re seeing the benefits of that. They’re having realizations as a school and a staff and teachers like, wow, I didn’t even think about that perspective. So it’s been really it’s been really good. How are you

Chrissy Beltran  21:50

getting students? So even in elementary schools, kids are able to contribute their thinking. So what does that

Crystal Ceresani    21:54

look like? So that’s a good question. So what they’re doing is, as a team, we’ve like, for example, the matrix. I’m gonna go back to the matrix I’m gonna go back to the matrix, because we want the matrix to be more than wall art. We want it to be like a form of the culture. So some of that is, they come up with, like, brainstorm a list of ideas for norms, for example, the values they see. But then going to the students and saying, like, Hey, here’s what we came up with. What do you think like giving them a voice? It could be having one of the teacher who’s gone in each room and done it. Some of them have done it during, like, a connections or computer lab time. Some of them had to do virtual surveys to get their input to then look like they’re getting creative with how they’re doing it, and then from there, coming up with, like, what, asking them, What does it look like to be successful? Another thing they found was having conversations with the students about what locations they needed to have like, they might not have realized, like, Oh my goodness. I didn’t even realize that area was a problem area. But so many kids have said that we might need to talk about what success looks like in that area the library. So they’ve so they’ve done it that way, and then from there, when you’re thinking about taking a step further and involving students, is letting them be a part of making signs or posters for the school. Let them do what like, create videos or pledges or kind of examples of what it looks like, and letting them be engaged in a part of bringing it to life in the school, having their artwork everywhere about respect or responsibility and and engaged in them that way as well. Yeah,

Chrissy Beltran  23:25

I like that. So what are some of the success stories you have? If you could share about like, what a school has done that has created success with this approach versus a maybe schools that are not as successful, you know, what are they doing differently, and what does that look

Crystal Ceresani    23:40

like? So right now, the schools we’re working with are really building their plane. So I’ll keep saying exactly the analogy we’re so next year is the year of implementation, and collectively, the schools have shared how prepared they feel about going into next year, how they’ve already got buy in from their staff, like there’s been so much buy in. They’ve already done so much professional learning, and a lot of them have come and told us that they’re already seeing less discipline referrals and we hadn’t even implemented fully yet. But just from the practices and the mindset shifts that their staff are having around behavior, they’re already seeing success in their numbers decreasing for referrals and and seeing those positive outcomes from it. So it’s been really, it’s been helpful. But, and I will say, like as always, there’s also schools that aren’t a little further behind in their implementation, so they’re not seeing that drastic, but some of them are celebrating having a school wide matrix. They feel good about that everyone’s been a part of. So there’s just like the successes are small and and mighty, depending on where they are. But that’s the beauty of this work, is it’s all about there’s no one size fits all. There’s no box. And that’s what we tell them, like you go at your pace for what you have the capacity for. But the biggest thing we’re seeing is the buy in, though, and that’s what they were. Are worried about. And there’s that’s the hardest part sometimes, is that buy in, and so it’s been really good.

Chrissy Beltran  25:08

Yeah, is, are the schools that are maybe not as far along? Do they just have so much, like so many things going on, they’ve had trouble prioritizing this as an initiative? Yes.

Crystal Ceresani    25:17

So it’s definitely competing initiatives. Academic world is a big one, and it’s hard because we all know, and even the people, the schools we’re working with that are our teams doing this work, we know the connection between academic and behavior. We know it. I think everybody knows it, but making it real and prioritizing behavior on the same levels academic is hard, and I think they’re, they’re feeling a lot of fat. Also, this year’s been crazy, just in terms of weather events, like, school happened to close. Like, it’s just, there’s just been a lot that, I think some schools have one school, like, caught on fire, and they had to close for a week, and then they had to disperse to another. Like, there’s just been, oh my gosh, there’s just been a lot, like, a lot of life. I think that’s gotten in the way as well, which is expected, and that’s, that’s what we tell them, because this work is, is it’s flexible, and it’s, you know, we’re making it, we make it, but, but I think that’s been the biggest thing, is the competing initiative of of not feeling like their work is prioritized compared to academics, and the timing, that’s probably the biggest feedback we I tell people all the time, I’m like, if I had an answer for time I’d be a millionaire. Because, like, it’s hard, and we know it. We know so,

Chrissy Beltran  26:27

yeah, all you can do is, like, say this is what’s important. And I like the idea of, like, drilling down to the root issue that we’re having. Like, you said, behavior supports everything that happens at a school. If behavior is not in place, academics don’t happen. And the same kids are struggling year after year because they are avoiding tasks and all of these things. So, you know, if we can drill down to like, the root cause of why our kids are doing what they’re doing, then we can support everything above that, yes, but, but, yeah, it can be hard, especially depending on who your leaders are. You know that they may be looking at it in a different way. And it’s, they’re like, no, but we have, urgently, we urgently have to fix this one area, because, if not, the state’s going to do this or whatever, you know, and so that is also very stressful, yes, and

Crystal Ceresani    27:10

that’s where it’s, it’s high stress, and that’s where I always like assume positive intentions, even in the schools that aren’t able to implement, or aren’t getting, you know, aren’t expressing as much of the impacts they’re seeing, but it’s because, like, there’s so many other things that they’re trying to do, and that’s what I always tell them, like anything we’re doing, like, never forget the work you’re doing. And reminding everyone that progress, like goals, are about progress. And if you’re having a conversation with a teacher that’s framed differently than it was before, about a student and behavior, that’s progress. And so I really think that’s a big thing that we keep bringing to the surface. Is guys like, this is a, this is a hard, daunting task. And, like, it’s not something you’re just going to snap your fingers even next year, like, we’ve got this implementation plan. It’s not going to be perfect. There are going to be times that you have to land your plane and fix something and then fly again, like, and that, and that’s okay. I think that’s a big part of it, too.

Chrissy Beltran  28:04

I like that. So then, if a coach is listening and they’re like, you know, I really believe that we need to start doing something different, and they want to create a school wide system, system for behavior, what do they need to do? The first thing, the very first thing.

Crystal Ceresani    28:16

So step one is to just get a big picture vision of what it looks like and prioritize that tier one. I think you’ve got to start with tier one, and then really look at your current initiatives and consider alignment with anything you’re already doing, so that this does not feel like another thing on top of what’s happening. So I think number one is prioritizing the need for it, thinking considering tier one, look at where you are, where you want to be, and then look at the initiatives that already in place to support it. And then from there, I would create a team, like a small team, we do five to eight people to just get the conversation going, start pulling data, start looking at where we are, and really thinking about what the view and vision is for the school. And then from there you start, you just start building one, one part at a time, and really and thinking through those pieces. How

Chrissy Beltran  29:09

do you recommend real quickly forming that team? I, you know, I’ve been in at one school I was working with. They formed a team, and it was open invitation, but then certain people were like, please come join us, you know, but it was open to anybody who would like to join. And then they, you know, requested certain individuals, because they had really strong handle on management. And then after the team did all the work, implemented everything, all the PD people were complaining about, like, who the idea was this and, like, you were invited to join, you know. So would you have any thoughts on on how you can form that team? That’s

Crystal Ceresani    29:41

such a good question, and that’s such a hard question because it’s very contextual to your school and your your environment, your culture. In some cases, we’ve had schools who looked at teams that were already existing, that were doing similar work that could help support this. So that’s been one approach like some schools use, like their leadership team. Or if they already had, like, a PBIS team. Some of them have pulled that. Others have started completely fresh with. Some have chosen and then others, I think, admin, have just went and tapped who they thought would be good for it. But we’ve also had a lot of team turnover as they got it and got in it and realized that the right people weren’t at the table, and we made sure that the culture was that that’s okay. Like, we’ve got clearly defined roles that we have training and like, we’ve got, you know, the facilitator, the data person, the timekeeper, the note taker, and we’ve got like, checklist of what those roles include. And like, realizing none of them are just a check box. Like, this is way more than a check box. And we’ve had conversation that if you have someone on the team that their values aren’t aligning, or they’re overwhelmed, or they’re part of too many other things, it’s to change them. And it’s okay for them to say this isn’t right for me, or for you to be like, hey, this might not be a good fit right now, but you can still be engaged in other ways. But there, I don’t think there is one. There’s no right answer for getting the right team. I think it’s a matter of getting the people who are going to help move the work forward. I think Ron Clark has the move your bus right, getting the runners like you want your runners who are going to take this work and and help make it happen.

Chrissy Beltran  31:19

Yeah, yeah. I love it. Alright. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. And how can people keep learning from you if they want to find

Crystal Ceresani    31:25

out more? Yeah. So we are. We work through Clemson University. We are the behavior alliance of South Carolina, and I can share with you, we have our website, an email list, and our social media pages that I would be happy to share with you so that everybody can have access to them. We share out free resources. Often, we have a lot of free asynchronous modules that support the work we’re doing. So like, for example, all the practices that I talked to you about, the foundational ones and all the others, we’ve got modules that support each of those. We’ve got a module on developing a school wide matrix with the collaboration and engaging others and just how to do it. So we’ve got a lot of free resources that would be happy for you to check out.

Chrissy Beltran  32:07

That’s awesome. Yeah, we can put all of that in the show notes. We can link everything. So if you want to head to if you go to buzzing with Miss b.com/episode 231 all of that stuff will be linked there. So thank you so much crystal for being here, and this was really great. Yes,

Crystal Ceresani    32:19

thank you so much for having me. I love I can nerd out to this stuff.

Chrissy Beltran  32:29

So the minute crystal signed off, I realized I never asked her about her hobbies. Sorry, I don’t know what happened. We were we had a had a time change, and we were running a little bit late, and then my brain just exploded. And so here we are without knowing what crystals hobbies are, which we will always be sad about, but, but anyway, I love talking with crystal about this. There’s so many things like components of this, and doing it well is a real, true investment. But just imagine the way that things could change at your school if everybody was on the same page, and people were communicating with kids effectively, and kids knew what was expected of them. Holy cow, like that could change your school life completely. So I’m so glad that she she shared all of her expertise in this area. Next week, I’m talking to my guest, Lana Penley, about SEL as a school wide approach. And I can’t wait to talk about that, because Sel is, I mean, it’s so it’s getting, it’s getting a bad rap. For some reason it’s really strange thing to me to be so upset about people understanding what to do when they’re angry and what makes them sad. But I don’t know. So I’m excited to talk about it, because there are some common misconceptions. There are, you know, some things that we can kind of uncover, and also some ways that we can use it to really support student behavior at a school level and teacher support as well. So I can’t wait to share that episode with you next week, and until then, happy coaching. Now that you’ve got so much to think about. Head over to buzzing with Miss b.com to grab some free downloads, become a VIBee and check out the podcast. Show Notes. Happy coaching!

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