Classroom reward program

Hello Everyone,

I am new here, and was hoping to reach out to members for feedback and advice. I am looking to build a classroom reward program that helps teachers reward students on behavior, attendance and learning outcomes. My vision is to give teachers an easy to use solution to create tasks and reward students using points, badges and donations from local businesses.

Before I go in to specific questions, I wanted to first listen to what members think and get some feedback on what you are current using and what are the biggest frustrations.

Thanks All in advance

 

I'm not huge on complex reward systems. I feel like they promote shallow characteristics in students making them think that the only reason they should do something is if they get a physical reward. I want to encourage intrinsic motivation more.

That said, I do have a very simple ticket reward system students can turn in for otter pops if they do something I feel merits a physical reward, like sweeping my room, helping me carry things, etc. Usually when they offer to help me and I want to show gratitude.

 

I've used the same rewards system for a couple of years and it's worked wonders in my classroom--both motivational and management wise.

I use a ticket rewards system in which students earn tickets for various things (turning in homework, doing their best on tests and projects, classroom jobs, helping a friend, participating in class or answering questions during a lesson, and whatever else I deem worthy of a ticket at that moment!). I use the tickets with stars printed on them that come in a roll of 2,000 from Mardel. I use those because the ones from walmart can be bought at many stores and my kids are somewhat clever at their age .

After they earn their tickets, I call at least a couple students at random during our DEAR (drop everything and read) time at the end of the day (almost every day) to come spend their tickets in my class store, which consists of three buckets of various prizes. I mark all the prizes with stickers that say how many tickets they cost.

My whole team also used Class Dojo this past year, which I really enjoyed. The parents really love being able to log on and see their child's reports on Class Dojo, and students love earning tickets for earning positive Class Dojo points.

Yes, it takes a little time and effort, but it's completely worth it.

Some of my team is going to try and use classroom economy next year, which seems like a big effort, but also seems neat since it teaches financial literacy!

I really hope you find something that works for you and your kiddos--because that's what's most important!

 

Thanks all for the feedback. Class Dojo looks very cool. Is there anything that you don't like about it? Also do you know of any other websites that do similar things that I can check out?

Thanks

 

This looks just like you said, neat but a lot of work! I would love to hear from anyone who's tried it.

 

I don't know of any other websites like Class Dojo. The next best thing I know about is an online reading log (called readingrewards.com), which my kids loved too.

I can't really think of anything I didn't like about it personally. It is a great way to have a record of behavior in class (it saves each day for each child so you can print reports since the very beginning if you need to show a pattern of behavior to a parent)

Also, not only do parents create their own accounts where they can check on their kiddos (I require this be done for my class, and send it home as a homework assignment the first week of school...the kids get a kick out of making their parents do something for homework), but students can also create accounts and log on to monitor themselves in case they forget how many positive (or negative) points they've earned that day. They seem to like changing their little monster avatar the most though...

 

I used Class Dojo last year, and plan to use it this year as well with some tweaking.

I will be using certificates as prizes to save myself some money. 5 points-candy, 10 points-treasure chest, 15 points-fancy pencil or pen, 20 points-code to change avatar (that is prize because do they love that part!) up to 100 points which is a secret.

My only problem was having to have it up on my computer the whole time...alot of times I would forget to do that, and during smart board lessons etc..switching between taps and such annoys me. But if you are one of those lucky people that has a ipad in your room or you keep your phone out then they have the app you can use as well. The phone would be nice to take to library/lunch/recess, so you can keep up with points then.

 

I used and loved Class Dojo at the start of the school year. But then I found that students would act differently when Dojo was up: they'd behave more. When it wasn't on the screen, they'd relax a bit too much. Sure, students behaving is the point of any management system, but it was more effective to build rapport and use logical consequences as a means of managing behavior rather than relying on this system. I let it fizzle and my students actually performed better.

I did like that it documents behavior, though.