Motivational+Ideas

8/31/11 Mrs. Self gives a table a penny to put in their cup when everyone at that table is behaving during morning work time. Whichever table has the most pennies by the end of that week gets a prize!

9/1/11 Long Branch Elementary gives out purple, yellow and gold feathers as a reward to a whole class for always behaving on the bus, in the lunchroom, etc.


 * Here are the purple feathers that Mrs. Self's classroom has earned. She keeps track of how many they have by placing the feathers in the right number pouch.**

9/2/11
 * Here is a picture of one way the students are motivated to behave in the hallways!** Mrs. Self rotates who is going to be the line leader, door holder, and caboose that day. The students get so excited when it is their turn to do anything, and it makes them want to behave when walking to another class, to lunch, or to recess.

9/23/11 Mrs. Self gives out "smartfood" to students that (who) are behaving well, working hard, answer a question correctly, etc. "Smartfood" could be smarties, goldfish, or animal crackers.

10/8/11 Mrs. Dickens gives a lot of praise in the classroom when she sees someone doing something that really stands out to her such as listening well, working quietly at their desk, or if they are doing an awesome job on an assignment, etc. She also keeps candy at her desk to reward students with, or just to give as a treat. She currently keeps an assortment of candy corn in a jar for Fall.

10/9/11 I try my best to motivate the students by giving them praise if I see someone doing something good such as behaving well. I will actually point out to the class what exactly it is that the student is doing well. For example, I will say, "Jim sure is working quietly this morning; great job Jim!" Another example is I will simply say, "Thank you Susie for working so hard on your morning work!" By letting the students know that I notice when they are working hard/behaving well, it motivates them more in the classroom.

10/10/11 Motivational Ideas (from textbook): -Use songs, rhymes, and skits to learn. -Do not always use the same motivational strategies if the students are getting bored with the same motivational techniques. -Come up with reasonable expectations and requirements to avoid confusion with tasks and activities that the teacher asks of the students. -Always provide praise and encouragements. -Hold classroom discussions so that the students can give the teacher feedback with new motivational ideas/rules that they may prefer. -As a teacher, always be a model for the students to follow.

10/11/11 Today Mrs. Dickens' class earned a total of fifty purple feathers! This means that over time they have been rewarded purple feathers for having good behavior around the school. Because they now have fifty feathers, they get their classroom announced over the loud speaker during morning announcements by Mrs. Head, the principal. They will also all receive a prize for earning the feathers.

10/18/11 Today Mrs. Dickens made the announcement that she is going to have a "pajama party" for the students who earn 20 Accelerated Reader points by the end of the year. She informed the students who is close to the 20 points, who is about half way or getting closer to 20 points, and who is no where near the 20 points. She wanted them to all know where they stood with points that they will work extra hard to earn the goal of 20 points. Mrs. Dickens placed so much emphasis on how important it is to read a lot of books, and not only take the AR tests, but pass them! She knows that the students who do not end up earning their points will be very disappointed that they can not attend the "pajama party" with the rest of the class, so she will continue to encourage them to do their best with the AR tests.

10/20/11 Today I rewarded the students who did a fantastic job on their Irregular Plurals Booklet illustrations and sentences. I walked around the classroom as they worked on them, in order to observe who was working extra hard! I picked six students to walk to the front of the classroom, read their sentence that I picked, and show their illustration for that sentence. I gave these six students candy for working so well. I also used candy as a motivation strategy for the review game I played with the class that activated prior knowledge about plural nouns. Whoever was behaving the best got to come up and change the noun to the correct plural form, and then they got rewarded with candy.

11/10/11 Mrs. Dickens will often reward the students who are on their best behavior with candy. She always keeps a "candy jar" on her desk with different kinds of candy in case she needs it for a reward. Also, she may reward students who answer a question correct, do an exceptionally good job on a class assignment, etc.

11/11/11 If it is a student's birthday, then Mrs. Dickens will buy that student an ice cream from the ice cream machine to eat after lunch.