Mamma's does your child's school have a good behavior program emplented? With all of the bullying and bad influences going around some teachers are spending at lot of time on correcting behavior durning school hours so I thought about presenting a incentative to the school other than the student of the month that they already have. Any ideas would greatly be appreciated.
They use "Caught You Being Good" and pick out one or two kids who are doing the right thing. They put their name in a box and pull out a small prize from Oriental Trading if their name is one of the 10 picked that week.
It motivates kids to walk quietly, keep their hands to themselves, line up on time, and so forth. Also, they choose them for being kind and helpful.
Any staff member can give them out at any time.
Our school doesn't have one that I know of, but my daughter's classroom does! The teacher calls it CLASSROOM CASH. The teacher uses things like completing homework assignments daily, doing exceptional listening, etc to earn $1. Things like not being nice, not listening, etc. means they have to pay it back.
At the end of each week, the kids that have CLASSROOM CASH to spend get to shop at the teacher's STORE. She mostly has dollar store items and some bigger items like Zhu Zhu pets and whatnot. It costs about $2 classroom dollars to buy ONE little item (prob worth about 50 cents).
Typically kids earn $1 a day, maybe more for exceptional behavior.
However when they lose money it can be $1 or even $5.
The kids who don't do homework or have behavioral problems in class, never seem to have any money to spend. The good kids do well, and even save up money for days or weeks to get bigger toys.
Ours presents kids in each grade level with monthly awards (paper certificates) for displaying behaviors that reflect the school's core values, such as integrity, helpfulness, empathy, etc. It's done in a special ceremony with the principal.
In one elementary school I worked at, we had a morning assembly in the gym where all students participated/attended. Part of each morning assembly was spent doing "Brags." If a teacher wanted to "brag" about a child, they would fill out the form and put it in the principal's box. THe principal would then read the brag. It sounded something like this: "____ is bragging about ____ for _____" with the time and date and teacher signature on it. ie: "Mrs. Jones is bragging about Monica for holding the door open for her without having to ask. What a respectful and thoughtful young lady you are." And the child went up to the stage to recieve their brag. It was their little 'certificate' they could take home and show mom or dad.
Also, at the same school, a classroom could earn "blue stars" for having overall good classroom behavior. One catch was that THEIR teacher could not give stars. Only other teachers/staff could do so. So when I was walking my class to the library, a teacher might walk by and say "Oh what a beautiful line. All the children are walking so quietly and with their hands behind their backs. I give you a blue star." Also, sometimes a teacher would say "Oh bummer. I was going to give you a blue star, but these two kids at the end of the line are talking. Maybe next time." There were rewards for classroom stars. ie: After a class earned 10 stars, they all got special stickers. After 20 stars, each student got special pencils. After 100 stars, the class got a popcorn party ......
For what grades are you looking for ideas? Hope I gave you some idea.
Our school does the same type of thing as Laura's school and they can use their Golden tickets to vote for extra recess or a special lunch. This past Thursday my daughters class got to have a special pancake breakfast, prepared by her teacher and student teacher....with a couple parents helping out also. It was so much fun. They have also earned PJ Day and a special event at the school pool. Lots of fun things they could put their tickets in for. They don't do the tinket type thing but they can also use their tickets individually for a special lunch with the principal or a teacher. It has been real successful. Good luck.
I HATE HATE HATE HATE these programs and so do my kids and their friends.
Our entire school district has one, each school puts its own spin on it. Coupons of some type are handed out by a teacher when the child does something positive. Then the coupons can be used to "buy" prizes, or as raffle tickets. Like 5 tickets would get you pencil. I found over 400 tickets in my daughters room after she graduated elementary school. She didn't want or care about the crappy prizes.
In middle school tickets along with some other criteria like attendence and grades would earn you an event, special seating in the cafeteria, a movie. My kids hated this. Special seating in the cafe, you sat with the other kids who earned it, often it would not include the people you wanted to sit with. A movie, they'd much rather watch a movie at home. The other problem it was so unfair. The teachers would focus on the kids who had behavioral issues. The kids that had good behavior day in and day out, always did homework etc, were never praised and often didn't have enough tickets. So a few of the teachers, who did simply appreciate the everyday good behavior would let the kids know that if they were short a ticket to just let the teacher know.
I live in Brighton Twp and my children go to Hartland Schools. They have a program at the middle school called Challenge Day. I've volunteered at this event 2 days last year and 1 day this year. It is AMAZING! Challenge Day is a non profit company. I truly believe EVERY school district should have this program. www.challengeday.org is the website and you can find out more. Also, if you want to call me and hear about my first hand experience, you can reach me at ###-###-####.
My daughter's elementary school uses a SOAR program to recognize good behavior. SOAR stands for self-control, on-task, acceptance & respect. When the kids are modeling this behavior, they may be given a SOAR card by any adult in contact with them at school. As a room mom, I've been able to give them out when the kids I'm working with are behaving exceptionally.
They do distribute them judiciously, though, so it's a big deal when you get one and the kids are thrilled to earn them. I saw one little girl running to her mom at pick up the other day saying, "Mommy, Mommy, I got a SOAR card today!" All the kids who have earned cards in a given week put their names on them and they go into a drawing for the "Privilege of the Week." It's generally something like extra recess time, or being line leader for a whole week, or special one-on-one time with the principal. It's very exciting when you are chosen for the "Privilege of the Week." I always hear about it when someone in my daughter's class is the winner.
I'm actually taking a class on motivating students and the research that can be backed up actually shows these programs are not really affecting the kids they are meant to target. Instead, teachers and schools should be focused on setting up ways for each student to be successful. It's pretty interesting. As a classroom teacher who's done the incentive programs- I think this other approach is much more probably to make the changes we are looking to make.
