I am currently revising my syllabus for the 2008-2009 school year, but I've run into a snag. I DO NOT want to continue using the rewards system I used last year. It was an experiment that did not work, but I would like to have a cheap and efficient way to reward students. What I used to do was give students stickers as rewards and they could redeem those stickers for candy or passes at the end of the week. Well, the students always wanted candy and my school will not pay for rewards so I ended up paying for the candy. And guys, candy is NOT cheap. Also it was kind of difficult to remember to give stickers every day when I teach 80+ students. We also had problems with other students stealing stickers, etc. I would like an easy, cheap, convenient and efficient rewards system. If anyone has ideas please advise.:confused: THANK YOU!! ;)

Ahhhh, always trial and error to see what works and what doesn't... then tweak as necessary. We are not allowed to reward with candy, so many have done away with the skittles and found other means to boost motivation. I teach elementary, so some things just won't transfer to middle school... :)

What about:

*homework passes (not for use on projects or reports)
*extra computer time

We used to get 3 bathroom passes per six weeks (colored paper, teacher wrote the name in permanent red sharpie to cut down on reproductions), and each one we had left at the end of the six weeks we got 5 points added to our grade.

Also, as kind of the opposite thing here, when I was in elementary school, we had a chart on a clip board at the front of the class, and if we did something bad, didn't turn in homework, etc, we had to write our names on the board and our teacher would put a check by our names on the chart. Each thing bad we did after that, we got another checkmark on the chart (a weekly tally) and a check mark on the board next to our names. Three checkmarks on the board and we got sent to the principles. Bear in mind, I was in private school with 7 kids in the whole grade, so this worked nicely. I don't know about 80+ though.


I don't know if you could tweak these to work for you, but decided to comment anyway =D.

I teach 7th and 8th grade students and something that I do is use cash but fake that I have made on the computer. Each student gets paid $25 dollars at the end of each week. If the student has $100 by the end of the month they get to have a free period such as a classroom party, watch a movie, walk to McDonald's, ice cream and so on. If a student breaks a rule he or she than pays a dollar and owes me lunch as well as sentences. I know it is a little bit of old school but believe me these kiddos don't want to give up their social lives. But if I also see them doing something great or just being nice or going on and beyond I give them a dollar or sometimes even 20 if they got a good grade on a test or assignment. I usually give them a Starburst when they get money for doing something good because the school rules follow STARS. If the student does not have $100 at the end of the month he or she will stay with the teacher next door to me and work on an assignment. This has worked out great for me because students now that if they are not prepared they pay money and lunch but if they do something great they get cash which then helps them have extra money so they can afford to go to the restroom during class (not when I am teaching though). Just an idea! Hope this helps.