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."

"Pencil only."

Two words I have said, been told, and heard others say repeatedly throughout my life as a student and a teacher. In Math class especially, you use pencil. Pen is not acceptable. Nope, no markers either. Colored pencils? You've crossed the line.


The problem is, I cannot decide where I stand on this issue. I have heard some arguments, valid ones, from either side of this debate, but I'm still a total swayer when it comes to the Pencil v. Pen debate.

This past year I have even gone through a bit of a roller coaster on this issue. I started the year off with, "No pens! Only pencils allowed!" Then, after a few months of having a significant number of students each day without pencils and having gone through my stash of 50+ pencils to give to kids it became, "You must give me collateral in order to borrow a pencil!" (Turns out collateral for a 13-year-old often involves a shoe). When I was tired of the ever growing pile of Jordan's on my desk, I switched to "Fine! You may use a pen, but your work must be neat! No scratch outs!" I thought, sure this will teach them! They'll learn on their own that a pen is not an effective tool for work which breeds mistakes and backtracking...But, of course, they continued to use pen and scratch mistakes out anyway, so now my rule is a very strict "Bleh, whatever, just turn it in."

I've questioned myself on the pencil stance: Is this a rule I'm enforcing simply because it's the norm? Do they really need to use a pencil in order to be successful?

Yes and no.

I have a few students who are a mobile Office Depot; meaning that they have with them, at all times, no less than 30 colored pens, highlighters galore, stickies of all sizes and white out. They label and color-code absolutely everything and if when they make a mistake, they white it out as if it never happened. These are the students that spit in the face of the Pencil Nazi.

Here's what I know...

1. Neat, organized work is important. Especially when doing multi-step, complex problems.
2. Scratching work out directly competes with neatness. 
3. Sharpies, just, no.