Incentives

Greetings Apples,

One of the most important things a teacher needs to have is good classroom management.

While I do have consequences in my classroom, I really try to have a lot of different incentives for positive reinforcement.  One of the things I do with my students is a raffle jar. The kids receive raffle tickets for being on task, returning their weekly behavior folder on time, doing their homework, getting a parent signature in their assignment notebook, etc. Kids can put their tickets in the raffle jar right away or save them up. We hold the raffle once a month, at the end of the month.

I have always had a prize box for my raffle winners, filled with things like novelty school supplies and little trinkets from the Target dollar bin. I also offer a homework pass to winners, which is good for any one item of homework on any night of the student's choosing.

Over the summer while scouring Pinterest, I saw "incentive coupons" popping up. (Remember making your parents coupons as presents when you were little, before you had an income? Five minute backrubs and car washes that you never really intended to pay out, but the sentiment was there? Same idea...) Incentive coupons are great for so many reasons. First, aside from the materials to create the coupons, they cost nothing. And let's face it, teachers spend enough money out of pocket to run their classrooms, so something that costs nothing is a welcomed treat. Second, I liked the idea of offering the kids privileges as rewards, rather than things.

A friend of mine just donated her old love sack beanbag chair to my classroom, so I figured it was a great time to buckle down and set the incentive coupon system up. I still plan to offer the prize basket, too, as I have a ton of things left to raffle off, but as the basket empties out, I won't need to replenish it.

To make sure the coupons hold up for more than one use, I printed them on cardstock and plan to have them laminated. I can't take credit for the design of the coupons. I found them on the Teachers Pay Teachers website here and here. I liked the pre-made ones by Mel D. very much, but I didn't like that I couldn't edit them. Some of the wording and rewards won't work for the way I run my classroom, so I found the second (free!) set of coupons that I was able to edit to my needs. I also got a plastic bead holder at Michael's (use a coupon - it ends up only being a couple dollars) to sort the coupons.

Here's the final product:

Here are the coupons that are inside:

1. Teacher's Chair: Kids can use my chair at their desk for the day.

2. Stinky Feet: A student can take his/her shoes off in class.

3. Job Swap: The kids are all assigned weekly jobs - they can switch their job to a job of their choice for the day.

4. Teacher's Assistant: I will give a student odd jobs to help me throughout the day - you'd be surprised at how excited they get to erase the board and turn the lights off and on!

5. Show & Tell: Kids can bring in something special to share with the class.

6. Feeling Lazy?: A student can pass on the morning warm-ups on the board.

7. Teacher, Teacher: A student can prepare a lesson to teach his/her classmates - making a paper airplane, how to draw something, etc.

8. Teacher's Desk: A student can sit at my desk during independent work time.

9. Ink Pens: Kids can write in pen all day.

10. Cool Cat in the Hat: Students aren't allowed to wear hats in my classroom. Redeem this coupon, and a student can wear their hat indoors for the day.

11. Tech Break?: A student can go on the computer throughout the day as soon as his/her work is finished.

12. Thirsty?: Students aren't allowed to get up and get a drink during class time. This coupon enables them to make as many in-class water fountain trips as they please.

13. Learning from the Love Sack: Kids can sit in the beanbag chair in the front of the room all day.

14. Chew Gum in Class: I will provide gum for the student that he/she can chew in class.

15. Read Outside: A student can sit on the lawn outside and read when his/her work is completed.

16. Lollipop Learning: I will provide the student with a lollipop that he/she can eat in class.

17. Listen to Music While You Work: A student can bring in his/her MP3 player and listen to music during independent work time.

The Rules:

• Students need to turn in the coupon they want to use first thing in the morning.
• If students want to redeem the "Teacher, Teacher" or "Show and Tell" coupons, they must let me know what lesson they want to teach or item they want to share ahead of time, and I will plan a 10 minute block of time for them as soon as possible.
• If any student is not redeeming their coupon responsibly or if a reward is causing a distraction in class and preventing any student from learning, I reserve the right to revoke the privilege. 

I'm introducing these on Monday afternoon when we hold our December raffle. I'll let you know how they go over!

Miss H.