Let’s talk about stickers. They’re great! Everyone loves stickers – I still love a good sticker – and it still makes me feel special when I get a new one. The question is, what should we be using stickers for? Reward for good behavior? Sure! To track success on charts? Not so much. Isn’t that the same thing? Not really, no. Charts with stickers to track how many books a kid has read, or to track how many math goals have been achieved, or any other form of PUBLIC COMPARISON is just not really helpful for anyone. The kid at the “top” of the list might be real proud – and his/her parents are pretty darned proud too, but what about ALL of the other students? Is this motivational? I think that’s the teacher’s goal – to motivate – but is it working? Is that the right way to motivate? Let’s think this through…. It’s a struggle for me to read, but I’m doing my very best, and I’m still toward the bottom of the group. I’m labeled as not-so-smart and lazy. The kids look at my stickers and judge me every day. The first thing the parents do is look at the charts to compare their kid with the other kids – to judge. The charts make one kid feel special, and let’s be honest – make ALL of the other kids feel “less than.” Like “losers.”
Is that the goal of education? It shouldn’t be. The goal should be to inspire. To motivate every individual student to be the very best that he or she can be – without feeling the pressure of public comparison with everyone else. Rewarding students with stickers is a GREAT idea – but what if every student had his/her own personal goals? What if they kept their own goals in their own notebooks, with their own stickers on the back INSIDE cover of their own notebook? Individual improvement should be rewarded – individually – according to each person’s capabilities and accomplishments.
I know a teacher who bragged about how she gave stickers out every day. She stuck them to the shirts of the kids who were doing a good job. She laughed about how the same kids go home with a shirt full of stickers every day. Do you think the other kids in the class know which kids go home with stickers every day and which kids don’t? How do you think it feels to be the kid who never goes home with a sticker? Do you think they’ll try harder to get stickers, or just give up and behave badly on purpose, so that it becomes THEIR choice to not have stickers? Or do you think maybe they’ll actually start believing that they are “bad” and don’t deserve a sticker? Do you think this might have an impact on their behavior and self-esteem?
Stickers are fun and should be used frequently. Kids should be rewarded for improvement, for effort, and for accomplishments. Not empty achievements, but real ones, based on their own abilities – not in comparison with everyone else. Think through the way you reward. Create an environment where every student feels safe. Safe enough to try harder. To give their best effort and not be afraid of failing. To feel free enough to learn without being judged. To be OK with the struggle because they know it won’t be followed with humiliation – but with pride. The pride of knowing – and having the teacher know – that every day they feel free, secure, and safe enough to try again. To learn more. To grow academically and personally. To thrive in mind and spirit. To be weighed – and to not be “found wanting.”
Behavior Incentives with the Marble Jar
Welcome to your new school year! WooHoo! Instead of meeting your year with dread and trepidation, whip out those Fluffilos and add some FUN!! Start your first day with “Get-to-know with toss-a-Fl’o!” and you’re on your way!
Teaching is a joy – as long as you choose to make it so. Embrace the funny little moments. Just look at how cute those kids are when they’re mad! And don’t let that be you! Your students think it’s pretty funny when they get you to blow up – as a matter of fact, many students believe that is their job – to push you to your breaking point just to see where it is!
For my first blog topic, I’m going with my favorite form of behavior incentive – the marble jar. This technique is effective because it motivates and rewards the entire class. Here’s how it works: Place an empty jar (not too large) in a very prominent and visible location. Whenever the class is on task, behaving well, cooperating, sharing, learning… place a few marbles in the jar. When the class is getting too loud remove a few marbles. When the jar gets full, the class gets a reward. This can be something the class comes up with and votes on, or it can be your choice.
I like to use a glass jar because it makes a really loud, enjoyable sound when you drop the marbles in, and it really gets the kids’ attention when you dump them out! You can take out only a few, or for those really big moments, you can just dump out the entire jar! Since your goal is always to “catch kids being good” this is a perfect opportunity to reward responsible behavior. If you have one student exemplifying a particularly amazing quality you can even add a couple of marbles just for that. NEVER ever remove marbles for the behavior of one student. Individual students need to be respected and disciplined privately.
Kick off the year on a positive note – get those Fluffilos flying, and get the marbles rolling! If you are interested in having a class Fluffilo-making party for your reward you can email, call or text me at 559-250-0771 and I’ll let you in on a few of our Fluffilo making secrets! Another great reward is to go out and play some super fun games from the Tandalay website at www.tandalay.com . There are literally thousands to choose from!
Here are a couple of fun Fluffilo games for you to try out!
Get-to-Know with Toss-A-Fl’o
- Review the importance of good manners. What does it mean to have good manners? Can anyone name some things that might be considered good manners? (Let students come up with a few ideas.)
- What about saying please and thank you? In this game we are going to practice throwing and catching while we work on nice manners! (Demonstrate the game as explained below.)
- Form groups of 5-7 players.
- One student steps forward one step and says his/her name.
- Entire group in unison says the name of the person…Go around the circle getting to know each student’s name.
- Now add a Fluffilo that is tossed to another person.
- To toss, call the name of the person, make eye contact, then easy toss.
- The receiver says “Thank you” and the person’s name.
- Play until everyone is comfortable with each other’s names.
Fluffilo Juggling
- Form groups of 5-6.
- Have one Fluffilo per student on the team.
- With the group in a circle, the captain of the round will begin with a basket/bucket of Fluffilos (Fl’os) at his/her feet.
- Captain will toss the Fl’o to another player, who will in turn toss it to someone else and so on, until each player has caught and tossed the ball ONE time each.
- Encourage students to remember who they are catching it from, and who they are tossing it to. It will be the same for each Fluffilo in that round.
- The last player to catch the Fl’o will toss it back to the captain.
- Repeat, following the exact same sequence of tossing and catching with each consecutive Fl’o.
- The captain adds Fluffilos more and more quickly.
- On whistle blow, change captains and the order of tosses, and repeat the game.
- Continue play as time and interest permits, or until each player has had a chance to be captain.