Pizza Party

Our first incentive today: a pizza party for the kids who did all (or nearly all) their homework and were well-behaved during the past two weeks. We keep track of this through a point system - we have a clipboard for each class which a monitor gives to the teacher each time they go to a new subject. The teacher writes comments on it if any kids have problems. At the end of the week, the homeroom teacher calculates each student's point total. They start with 50 on Monday, but lose 5 for a missed homework, and go to a zero for the second missed homework. Talking on-line, arguing with other students, speaking disrespectfully, or fooling around in class can also lead to lost points.

This is a new system which we are experimenting with this year. The students will be able to "spend" their points at a school store, to be stocked with school supplies and random trinkets. Also, student point averages will be used to determine who is eligible for school-wide incentives, like trips, parties, movie days, and so on. We needed to start the year off with an incentive so they would quickly feel the effects of misbehavior, so we ordered a bunch of pizzas this afternoon and let the kids who had an average of 45 points or higher attend the party during the last period of the day.

The other kids stayed in their regular classes. My group was a whine-festival... I definitely didn't enjoy it! I just hope they learn from this and work harder to hold on to their points!