how's the reward system working in your dc's class?

[MommyDOK]

So my dd's teacher does a buck system. Two bucks per day for good behavior...students get a warning and then a buck removed for each infraction. Every two weeks they shop in the teacher's store.

IT seems that the children that are already well-behaved do well w/ the system. But the children that have infractions have LOTS of them (clearly, buck system doesn't motivate them). There are two students that have lost a buck almost every day--sometimes more. So, if by November, the same two students keep losing bucks (one has lost 55), then maybe the system doesn't work??

I don't have any alternative, but it just seems kind of odd that the same two are losing all the bucks and the other 13 are keeping all of theirs.

[Emmeline II]

Our school uses the "traffic light system." I think if a child gets "green" all week they earn money for the school store (ds is broke), but that isn't the main focus. The teacher marks the color on the monthly behavior chart that goes home daily and we deal with the results at home.

Ds's teacher is a 'firm but fair' type.

[SoCaliMommy]

The do colored cards.. everyone starts the day at green and can move back to it if they get a different card durring the day.

Pink~ Incredible Day~ Exhibits exemplary behavior for the day, they will earn 2 stickers for their sticker folder, and get a Pink Award to take home.

Purple~Great Day~great behavior

Green~ Fine Day~Stay green by doing what they are supposed to be doing.

Yellow~ Warning~ chooses to not follow classroom rules.

Orange~ for the second infraction this is a 2nd warning

Red~ Poor Behavior~ The must sit out a entire recess and a note will get sent home.

Students recieving all green,purple,pink cards for the week will earn stickers.

Burbank Bucks~ As a school the principal give the teachers bucks so they can give bucks to students for following class rules and good behavior. When i student collects 10 Burbank Bucks they get to "shop" in the principals office.

[WantRice]

Originally Posted by SoCaliMommy

The do colored cards.. everyone starts the day at green and can move back to it if they get a different card durring the day.

Pink~ Incredible Day~ Exhibits exemplary behavior for the day, they will earn 2 stickers for their sticker folder, and get a Pink Award to take home.

Purple~Great Day~great behavior

Green~ Fine Day~Stay green by doing what they are supposed to be doing.

Yellow~ Warning~ chooses to not follow classroom rules.

Orange~ for the second infraction this is a 2nd warning

Red~ Poor Behavior~ The must sit out a entire recess and a note will get sent home.

Students recieving all green,purple,pink cards for the week will earn stickers.

Burbank Bucks~ As a school the principal give the teachers bucks so they can give bucks to students for following class rules and good behavior. When i student collects 10 Burbank Bucks they get to "shop" in the principals office.

Wow, I can't imagine having to keep track of all this as a teacher. Seems like the teacher's day would be spent entirely on management and no actual teaching or building relationships with students. I don't use a reward system in my classroom and it works great.

[SoCaliMommy]

Originally Posted by WantRice

Wow, I can't imagine having to keep track of all this as a teacher. Seems like the teacher's day would be spent entirely on management and no actual teaching or building relationships with students. I don't use a reward system in my classroom and it works great.

From what i hear from my daughter, they stundents themselves change their cards when they need to be changed

[WC_hapamama]

My 4th grader is in a special day class. His teacher gives rewards from a treasure chest to students who have gotten stickers for good behavior all week. Not difficult for my kiddo as he's never really been a behavior problem (he has a language processing disorder).

My 2nd grader's teacher does "table points", where each grouping of students gets points for good behavior, and gets a reward once they reach a certain number of points.

[suabel]

I'm a kinder teacher. Here's what I do: we do the traffic light signal idea, just red, yellow, green. Everyone starts on green and after a warning might move to yellow (think) and then to red (stop). At red the child fills out a behavior contract with me (dictates and draws what choice they made this time and what choice they'll make next time). Then they take it home and discuss it with a parent. They bring it back signed and I keep it in their (classroom) file so that I can see if patterns happen. At the end of the year I pitch them, btw. We only have someone on red maybe once a week. We really just don't need to go there very often.

On the flip side, our whole school has a positive behavior system where kids earn eagles (our mascot) for positive behaviors shown. They are given out schoolwide by any staff member who sees a child exhibiting the target behaviors (basically falling under the umbrella of respect yourself, respect others, respect property). There are some school wide rewards associated with that, but in my classroom they get to dip into our reward jar after getting five eagles. My reward just has very tiny gifts, like pencils, plastic spiders, etc. It's very motivating for my kiddos. I'm all for intrinsic motivation, and certainly we talk about doing your best, being proud of your work, etc. but these kids are five and external motivation sometimes helps keep them on track, I admit.

[LilyGrace]

Originally Posted by suabel

I'm a kinder teacher. Here's what I do: we do the traffic light signal idea, just red, yellow, green. Everyone starts on green and after a warning might move to yellow (think) and then to red (stop). At red the child fills out a behavior contract with me (dictates and draws what choice they made this time and what choice they'll make next time). Then they take it home and discuss it with a parent. They bring it back signed and I keep it in their (classroom) file so that I can see if patterns happen. At the end of the year I pitch them, btw. We only have someone on red maybe once a week. We really just don't need to go there very often.

From a parent's point of view - this system is one of the reasons why we decided to homeschool.

It is very hard on a 5yo. Every day for a year I watched my normally happy son come home frustrated because he talked too much or wiggled too much and dropped from green to yellow. This was nearly every day. By the second year, he gave up caring. He had tried so hard to earn the weekly prize and the semester prize of putting his handprint on the wall for being a good student, but when he got an infraction an hour or so into the day there was no incentive for him to care. There weren't any second chances, no possibility for him to climb back up to green.

I hate this system. I think it is cruel and unnecessary. The only thing it does is label the student from the beginning of a school career and teaches them to silently suffer for being completely age appropriate, eventually leading them to pretend to not care at all because they don't see the point. They tried to conform, it didn't work and nobody cared.

3.5 years later, after abandoning this system along with public school entirely, I have a child who loves to learn, who is mature and responsible for his age. I can't even imagine how much his self worth would have suffered if we had continued to let him be a pawn in this reward game. It's not even discipline, just shuffling students through. As a parent, I implore you to find something better for your classroom. You have a duty to respect and teach your students, not hinder them by teaching them to rely on prizes or other gimmicks that will do nothing positive for them in the long run.

[suabel]

I respectfully disagree that kids are "shuffled through" a reward system such as this. For my five-year-old students, it's a visual reminder of their progress through the day, in terms of adhering to our classroom rules. If you'll notice, I did not include wiggling as one of the reasons a kindergarten student might move his clip to red. If your son's teacher had a rule against wiggling, then I'm very sorry for your son and his classmates. Our rules basically deal with respecting ourselves, property, and our schoolmates. So, children who progress to red have been disrespectful in one of those ways, and I do not take this lightly. The reasons my students have needed a behavior contract include things like hitting, swearing, destroying property, etc. I have never used the behavior contract for age-appropriate behavior. If you have experience with a teacher who is not well-versed in age-appropriate behavior, I'm sorry for that. I do think that children should be responsible for controlling their behavior in a classroom within the boundaries of making the learning environment condusive to all. Naturally the rules for that will be different in a fifth grade classroom than in a kinder class.

Also, if you read carefully, I do not tie rewards into the traffic light system. We use rewards for positive behavior. ALL of my 25 students eventually earn those rewards. Those children who have difficulty at first being respectful of themselves, others, and the environment quickly learn those rules, as we provide immediate feedback for it. There is not a loss of a reward--it is a completely different system. My students are gorgeous, vibrant children who have learned to be respectful and my classroom is one where learning takes place freely because my students know that they must participate in making it one where all children can learn.

I respect your right to homeschool and I'm so glad that you have found ways to give your child a top-notch education. But please don't catagorize all classroom behavior systems as being unfair, public school as being deterimental to a child's self worth or that a behavior system will always squelch a child's love for learning. That is unfair.

[LynnS6]

Our school does Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, and I like it a lot. http://www.pbis.org/pbis_newsletter/..._4/issue4.aspx

I like that it focuses on prevention of problems, rather than punishment. I like that it's positive. I like that it includes a direct teaching component to TEACH the desired behaviors. I like that the teachers are trained to look for the reasons behind the misbehavior. I like that all children can earn rewards ('gotchas', which sound a lot like the 'eagles' system someone else posted about). You don't have to be perfect to get one, you just have to be caught doing something good.

[suabel]

Lynn, yes, we are a pbis school.

[MommyDOK]

My only beef w/ the system is the same two children are losing their bucks every day. It CLEARLY is not a motivator for them. What can a teacher do at that point??

[meemee]

in our school its tickets system.

they are given a bunch of tickets at the start of the week and tickets taken away.

the teacher is understanding about 'repeat offenders'. she knows what is going on in their lives. she gives them another task to do or involves them in non academic work.

there are a couple (i was there) who just never fit in. just was not the right fit. the parents changed school and the kids are flourishing there.

i think a lot depends on the personality of the teacher and the child.

and i am talking about first grade.

i volunteer in second and third grade classrooms and i dont notice that much discrepancy as i did in the first.

i dont know if it is dd's school or not, but the teachers find some way of connecting with the trouble makers. one of the trouble makers comes from a single parent home where the father is missing. the other one who has a v. violent home life with parents fighting, calling police. just the teacher hanging out with them during lunch time or break time makes a big difference to them. so even though they dont have that many tickets left over to use for the treasure chest, they do get other things.

[suabel]

Speaking as a teacher, if the system is clearly not working for a student, I have an individual plan for that child. The other children may not know about it, though.

[annethcz]

Originally Posted by LilyGrace

From a parent's point of view - this system is one of the reasons why we decided to homeschool.

I would HS under those circumstances as well. I can't imagine sending my kids to a school with one of those silly reward systems. Ick.

FWIW, I've taught in several different environments and I've never felt compelled to use that sort of behavior system. I'm currently a PK4 teacher in a public school and my students don't need a color system to know whether or not their behavior is appropriate.

Originally Posted by MommyDOK

My only beef w/ the system is the same two children are losing their bucks every day. It CLEARLY is not a motivator for them. What can a teacher do at that point??

Give up on the system? Try something else?

[Girlprof]

Originally Posted by suabel

Speaking as a teacher, if the system is clearly not working for a student, I have an individual plan for that child. The other children may not know about it, though.

I have a good friend who teaches KG and this is what she does too. She has red-yellow-green for the general population in the classroom. But if someone is constantly on red, she changes her approach.

[Girlprof]

DS's classroom (and I think the whole school) have both systems. Something like red-yellow-green and then they can earn bears - same as eagles, I think. Interesting that that is a whole system - I sort of thought our principal dreamed it up.

I certainly didn't have anything like this when I was a kid and I worried that DS would be freaked out by it, but he isn't. He's had one yellow day so far - DS is a kid who is way way more likely to be scared of getting yellow or red than he is likely to actually misbehave in some way. He really likes the little prizes they get at the end of the week too.

My impression so far is that my worries about this were pretty unfounded, at least in our case. I don't know that the school would be that different w/o this system, but it seems to be working fine.

I do know that the school is a wonderful place. Children, teachers, visitors - everyone feels that I think. We do not top the academic charts, but we do fine and a very diverse group of kids is learning to respect each other, to work together, and learning some reading and math along with that. This is pretty much your average public school in a small city in CT.

[AAK]

Our preschool uses the traffic light approach, but they also have blue for "extra caring" behavior. If the kids move down to yellow, they can also move back up. Our teachers are very wonderful though--they really do understand preschool behavior. Infractions have nothing to do with wiggling or movement. Rather they move down to yellow if they are hitting/pushing/refusing to help clean up/etc. Also, the teachers are great at intervening. For example: disagreement about a toy--teacher will ask the two kids how they might work it out. If they can't come up with a solution, the teacher will suggest one. This is just "working it out" and wouldn't be a traffic light thing. However, if after "working it out" kid "b" decides to rip the toy for kid "a"s hands and thereby not following the "solution", kid "b" would move down to yellow.

Additionally, each kid CAN move back up to green. The teachers try to watch after the yellow behavior so that they can get them back up to green. The kids almost ALL end on green each day. They have never had a kid actually need to go to red since they started this system (3 years now). But, they really reserve red for mean behavior--not simply multiple infractions. If a kid were to get "on red" they would also be removed from the group for a while and having a chat with the teacher. Then the teacher would be talking with the parent afterwards.

Basically, I think these system can be great or horrible depending on the teacher.

Amy

[Owen'nZoe]

My son's class uses a Red/Yellow/Green system, but to my knowledge there are no rewards associated with the program, and it is pretty rare for a child to be given a yellow or a red. We've not had any trouble with it, but DS is very much a rule follower at school and has never been moved off of green. Knowing him, I think he'd be devastated if he were ever to be moved to yellow.