After a weird year like we had in the 2020-21 school year, we wanted to take some time to showcase the things that went better than you thought they’d go. We reached out to our PBISApps community and asked you to submit your wins. Some stories appeared in our Teach by Design article this month; the rest you’ll hear in this episode.

We sat down with three schools from across the country to hear more about how this year didn’t stop them from creating community and building relationships in spite of the distance. ‍

• Horace Mann Elementary School, Oak Park, IL: Linda Chrystall shared how she modified their school’s Check-in Check-out point card to work better for students engaged in distance learning.

• Elkins Park School, Elkins Park, PA: Shareese Nelson, Stephen Suplick, and Brian Wallace gave us examples of all the ways they went above and beyond to encourage their students to feel connected as part of the larger school community.

• Thurston Middle School, Springfield, OR: Cindy Bonar, Andy Price, and Brandi Starck talked about the weekly show they started during the pandemic as a way to jumpstart relationships between students and staff.

We want to thank everyone who submitted success stories from this past year. We hope these experiences inspire you to try new things to create the kind of school where every student feels engaged, supported, and excited to learn.