Rewards for middle schoolers

Join Teachers.Net

Chatboards

Recent Groups

Classroom Mgmt

MEMBERS

25 Members

+ Join Group

Pinned Posts

ALLAll Teachers

Teachers.Net LIVE CHAT Support group - Tues eve!

Featured Jobs

Full-timeMontessori Teacher

Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada

TemporaryTeachers, rural schools

Peace River North School District

Full-timeHead Teacher: 2nd/3rd Grades – Mills College Children’s School

Mills College

Teaching Jobs on Teachers.Net

Featured Job special only $39!

https://teachers.net/jobs

Become a Teachers.Net sponsor!

Classroom Management Chatboard

Rewards for middle schoolers

by jeff

Feb 23, 2011

Hi. I am a 2nd year inner city teacher struggling with class room management. For my 7th grade and possibly 8th grade class thought of having a goody bag that the 3 best kids in the class for the week could choose something from.

Anyone have ideas about what goodies I could stock it with? Want it to be desirable but not expensive.

Grateful for any thoughts!

Comment

(8)

report post

view previous comments

Chris C. Hi Jeff, I think that an incentive based rewards system certainly has its place among the junior high school age bracket. To stay desirable and appealing yet economical with your rewards is indeed a challenging question though. I coach 5-8th grade baseball in a much smaller school district than yours sounds. Some immediate ideas that come to mind a...See More

Feb 23, 2011

report post

todd Hi Jeff, I think your reward system is a good idea. I would ask other teachers what they would use as prizes. I might also ask some of the students what they would like. I am going to try this with my lacrosse team. Thanks for your idea. todd

On 2/23/11, Chris C. wrote: > Hi Jeff, > I think that an incentive based rewards system cer...See More

Feb 23, 2011

report post

Kathy F I mentor an 8th grader at our church and one night our pastor asked the students what they wanted for a reward if they were the first person to turn in their slip. The answer was a special smores kit for their week at bible camp. It was simple and inexpensive. I think if you ask them, they may come up with something that would work for everyone. I ...See More

Feb 23, 2011

report post

Jared Baldwin On 2/23/11, Jcollins wrote: > Jeff, I have taught in an inner city school for over 15 > years. In my experience, a lot of students are not motivated > by grades or praise alone. Some kids come from very rough > homes where education isn't valued at all. > > I have tried lots of rewards: homework passes, special > lunches, movie...See MoreOn 2/23/11, Jcollins wrote: > Jeff, I have taught in an inner city school for over 15 > years. In my experience, a lot of students are not motivated > by grades or praise alone. Some kids come from very rough > homes where education isn't valued at all. > > I have tried lots of rewards: homework passes, special > lunches, movies, field trips, etc. All depends on your school > and your principal support. As a team, we used to have > homework/behavior incentives each quarter. Kids who met the > requirements got to attend a field trip, movie, game day, > etc. Other kids had to go to a homework room to work on their > missing assignments. The kids really liked that. Now I teach > fifth and sixth grade. The kids sit in groups and I give out > tokens for each table having all of their homework done, good > behavior, sitting quietly, etc. At the end of the week, the > table with the most points wins. > > I have pencils, homework passes, sometimes chips, pop, water > bottles, juice boxes, fruit roll ups, candy, etc. Ask your > friends who are in business if they have free highlighters, > markers, pens, etc. A lot of kids will be happy with > anything. I also randomly give kids good notes home for > improving their grades, behavior, completing all homework, > etc. It can get rought to keep up with, so whatever you > decide, stick with it. > > I would also be interested in any other ideas people have > tried that worked and were inexpensive. > > Hope this helps, Jackie Hi Jackie,

I'm not a teacher yet and I've only had limited experience in the classroom... This semester I'm taking a classroom management course and this week we were going over a rewards system and discussing the difference between bribery and rewarding students (seems necessary, but a little tricky). It sounds like you have a really neat system, because the rewards seem for the most part, to keep the students grounded and are almost part of the whole teaching/learning process, especially when the rewards are homework passes, school supplies ect... It's great that a lot of your students have bought in and want to continue to have their educational experience evolve. If every once and a while a student gets a treat, I'm guessing that it's more special to the student. My concern w/a rewards system is that to many "goodies" could cause the student to lose focus on the importance of why they are there, which is to learn. Seems like you have balanced this process pretty well. Your use of groups/teams seems like a perfect motivator, as well! I really enjoyed reading your above post, thank you/very helpful!

Jared B

Feb 24, 2011

report post