Weekly Reflection: Rewards

I am generally supportive of rewards in the classroom.  I think that students are much more responsive to positive rewards for good behaviors rather than punishments for bad ones.  As a teacher it allows you to focus your attention on the good things that students are doing, maintaining a generally positive outlook while teaching.  I have not seen any rewards in my fieldwork this summer, but I have only visited the school twice.  While teaching last year, I found that sticker charts are a good reward system even for older students.  You would think they would find such a system silly, but I had a lot of success. When students responded adequately to exit tickets, or received at least and 8 out of 10 on their homework they received a small sticker to put on their chart.  When the chart was full, 20 stickers I believe, the could turn the chart in for 5 points on a test or 2 homework passes.  It motivated the students to make an effort on the exit tickets in particular.  I did not want to grade them because they were only a formative assessment tool, but I wanted students to actually be trying when they answered the questions.  The stickers were a good method to achieve my goal.  Next year, I will be working at a PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports) school.  I like the idea of an entire school embracing one system because I think it helps students to have consistency across teachers and throughout the building.  I am not yet familiar with all the details, but I am interested to see it in action at the school since I have heard mixed reviews from teachers.