Behavioral incentive systems are nothing new. It's well known fact that Socrates invented little shiny gold star stickers.


Alright, alright, that is most likely not true. However, as much as I would love to encourage my students' positive behavior spurred only by their own intrinsic desires to "do good," I find (and actually like) to use some tangible behavior incentive. It adds an element of fun to my classroom!

This year, after my SBG Epiphany, I realized that my whole behavior incentive system was rendered useless by my new outlook on grades. Students could not simply play the points game anymore... and that's exactly what my old system was set up to support! It was yet another light bulb moment for me of how I was perpetuating my students' obsession with points.

So! Half way through this year I scrapped my old system, and introduced some new incentives.

But first, a quick word on my system. 

I feel like this is yet another instance of us Middle School teachers being left in educational limbo. MS kiddos are too old for elementary tactics, and too young for high school tactics. While researching ideas for a reward system, I couldn't help but laugh at some of the suggestions from elementary teachers.

You come across rewards like, "Lunch with the Teacher!" or "Board Eraser!"


These would without a doubt fall more into the category of punishment to a middle schooler. You know, now that I think about it, it's ironic how things we considered rewards as wee ones suddenly become forms of torture to teenagers. Oh, sweet puberty.

As you may or may not know, I am a complete Disney fanatic. My boyfriend and I frequent the parks, watch and rewatch Aladdin and Hercules, and I have a "Lion King Soundtrack" station on my Pandora. It's bad, I am the first to admit it. (P.S. Boyfriend is the best free Disney travel agent around! Email him! bret.miller@keytotheworldtravel.com).

Pay no attention to the horribly chipped nail polish.

So I had to think, "What do Middle Schoolers actually like?!" As I mentioned earlier, my original system revolved mostly around points. For the sake of example, I am going to show you the old system. DISCLAIMER: You are more than welcome to take these ideas if you would like, but I encourage you to fight the points game!


The passes were great! I would give students one on their birthday, anytime they did something extraordinarily wonderful, won a review game in class, etc. Once I realized that most of the passes were point-related, I needed to rethink how I rewarded students. I wanted to remove grades and points from the equation entirely. I was able to keep a few of the old passes like "Invisibility Cloak" and the all-time favorite, "Globe Trotter," but I needed to rework the rest!

Here is the newest version of my "Class Passes."