The great thing about middle schoolers is that they can be bruttaly honest. Our school has performed three PBIS rallies so far. After each one, we (those of us on the team) asked the students what they liked and didn't like. Here is the summary of what they like
Memes
Videos (with students and teachers role playing)
Games/Questions (lots of opportunities for student involvement)
Jeopardy
Kahootz
A good MC (presenter)
PBIS rewards for games and answering questions
We do two rallies a year. The first rally replaced the school expectation assembly. It still teached the components of the schools expectations (tardies, dress code, cell phone use, but now it is in PBIS form, using the language of our school wide matrix. The second rally reviews the classroom expectations or any reminders of rules or adjustment of rules that need to be made. Our rally is all on a power point and is designed to take 50 minutes. As part of your rally, don't forget to include the expectations for coming into the multi-purpose room and the expectations for leaving the multi-purpose room. It only took us two years to figure it out! Don't be afraid to have music playing while students are coming in or the cheerleaders performing a simple routine as students come in. Another thing that is helpful, make sure the staff is aware of their own expectations during the rally. The staff should be supporting the multi-purpose room expectations, so disappearing to the "bathroom" for 30 minutes is a no-no.
Memes
Almost each power point slide had a pictures of some sort. If it's not a game, video, or picture on the slide then I added a meme. You can get meme's online and even find websites where you can make your won for free. Animals and pop culture are popular choices, or you can use staff members to volunteer for a pose
Videos
We got smart and decided to make scripts. I wrote the scripts up so that we have a hard copy that we can re-use every year with the 7th graders. I sent them out to the team to review before it was finalized. We want the students to know the people in the videos to connect better with them, so we re-do the videos with the 7th graders at the end of the year. This way our videos are ready to go at the beginning of the school year. It also helped to have a student or staff member film. Our teachers demonstrate what not to do and our students demonstrate how to follow the rules at school. Scenes were created and chosen based on areas of concern. We made videos for the bike rack, cell phone use, cleaning up trash at lunch, and copying student work.
Filming our Videos
We used our speaker system so we could hear everyone in the video, although you can add captions if it's hard to hear. Practice the scene two-three times before filming. Scene should be no longer than a minute (we re dealing with the attention span of a middle schooler!) I emailed the scripts to al the participants, set up days to film in advance, got class coverage to film if it was needed (filming only took 10-15 minutes if you had everything ready to go). Don't forget to keep props simple!
Games/Questions
If there are delays in the rally, ask questions to review what your PBIS slogan stands for as a way to fill time. Students who are correct when called on get a prize.
We put up "famous failures" and students were asked to guess the celebrity. The failure was based on one of our PBIS matrix like Michael Jordan for Perseverance and Oprah Winfrey for Self-Discipline. Students who are correct when called on get a prize.
Jeopardy
You can find free jeopardy power point games online. I want to the different areas of the school like the library, office, and other staff members around campus and asked what they tend to repeat to students over and over again (regarding rules) and we made sure those expectations were put in the jeopardy game. We always ask two of our outgoing students to host our jeopardy game. We let the "hosts" chose 3-5 students to play explaining that they need to vary up the genders and ages and chose students that are not going to play around. All participants get a prize at the end.
Kahootz
If you haven't played Kahootz, you are missing out on some fun! It's a free game online. The caveat, students need their phones. So we always do this game last. We create about 8 questions that summarize school expectations (topics that have not been reviewed in the other games). Kahootz can be set up with a time limit to sign-in (which I recommend) and will give random animal names to participants. We usually have 100 students participate. The winners are listed at the end of the game and they get to come up for a prize.
A Good MC
You need someone who is comfortable on stage, who can improvise with the students or with asking questions when malfunctions occur, is aware of what is on the slides, and has personality. We've switched off pieces of the rally to different members within the team, but the students like it when there's one or to confident and comfortable MC leading the rally. The other team members in PBIS help out by giving out the rewards, keeping track of time, running the power point, and taking care of the lights.
PBIS rewards
Students are excited to get prizes, but are not sure what to do with the cards we give them. Have a slide to explain the reward system and even pictures of the different types of prizes they can receive for their cards. (Have I mentioned that almost every power point slide had a picture?) Otherwise our students have thrown away the cards, not knowing their value until after it's too late.
