Ticket Reward System

Whew, with school starting, I have been so busy adjusting to all the changes this year I forgot to post about what good things are happening with my ticket reward system!  We just completed our second full week of school, and let me tell you, it has been a doozie of a school year already!  These kids need some major motivation this year, and I believe my ticket system is helping with that at little cost to me.  My school has virtually taken away all of the candy rewards we can give students, plus I have two children with diabetes in my room, so I feel bad rewarding anyone with candy when they are not allowed to have it!  So, I tweaked my ticket system from previous years that worked so well with the intermediate kids.  

As a form of review (and also to get my 4 rotating classes of kids settled and to work right away) I use "flashbacks" which are a few questions that "flash back" to previous topics learned in the school year, or at this point in the year, to topics learned last year.  Anyway, I try to grade these questions right after kids finish to give them immediate feedback, so I require students to read when they finish in order for me to get to everyone and let everyone finish before we move on.  

Tickets are a great way to let students know I notice their good behavior and get them in the habit of reading after they complete work instead of talking.  I drop a ticket off at a student's desk whenever they are caught doing the right thing (often when other students around them are not).  I have found that when students see that I notice others' good behavior, they usually follow suit.  

The tickets go into a lottery that is only drawn on Fridays, so I only need to supply one reward per class per week.  Having 4 classes and 2 different grade levels to keep up with can get very confusing, so I found a way to make the students responsible for organizing their own tickets if they want to make the lottery.  I purchased 4 small buckets from the Target "dollar aisle" and secured them to the wall beside my agenda that is conveniently located next to the door which students exit through each day to go to their next class.  

The students are instructed to drop their tickets off in the correct bucket as they exit the room, so I do not have 20-something kids getting up during class to deposit their tickets.  It is their responsibility to keep up with the tickets until then and make sure they put their name on the back.  I never have a problem with no-names on these babies!  I labeled each bucket with Math 1, 2, 3, or 4, so students know which class to put their tickets with.  This has worked out great so far, and made it so easy for me to keep track of all the tickets!  

This is also a great math lesson in probability.  At this age, students are able to comprehend the fact that the more tickets they earn, the better chance they have of being the one chosen; yet not quite able to comprehend the unlikelihood of their one name being pulled out of 100 or more tickets.  ;) It also gets the kids excited about the mystery of who the winner will be each week.

I guess I'll be heading to the dollar aisle tomorrow to select 4 awesome items for students to win this week!  I think putting them on display throughout the week may remind them of what they could earn if they do what is right!!  

All the rewards aren't tangible, though.  I also have "Mystery Cards" they can choose to draw instead of receive a prize.  The rewards on the cards range from sitting at the teacher's desk for the day to bringing a stuffed animal to school for the day.  

*one last note: I buy the big double rolls of tickets at Wal-Mart for about $7 and they last me almost entirely the whole year.  Pretty sweet deal to keep 99 4th and 5th graders on task and motivated for a whole school year!!! :) 

* ms. charity *