Prizes and Rewards for Students - Under a $1 Each!

I will start with concession to educational theorists such as Alfie Kohn, who in his Punished by Reward asserts that students have an innate penchant toward learning, and further, that reward systems or methods can actually be antithetical to the learning process.  Granted, in a natural environment, it is more likely that children will be curious, attentive, and open to learning new ideas, skills, and habits.  However, if you work in a charter school, with at-risk teens, or even in the college classroom wherein you teach requisite (and often dreaded) curricula, you likely will confirm the not-so-forthcoming attitudes of a small population of learners.  Even if there is no recalcitrance or reticence, even when the text and material is exciting, the tools cutting-edge, and the tenor of the room playful and engaged, sometimes you need additional ways to motivate, to provide incentive.




Maybe I’m more fortunate, as I have the quirky personality students know is okay to giggle at; I use unorthodox means to teach curricula that is everything but exciting and fascinating for the average student; and I have extremely high levels of energy and enthusiasm, both of which either engage the student by taking him/her off guard or which are so intense the student cannot help but be, as Barbara Gross Davis reports is necessary, “entertained, inspired, and stimulated.”  So when essays are challenging, when requisite grammar skills are anything but accessible, and/or when protocol is dull and demanding of extra focus and care, I toss a game or “contest” into the repertoire.




ATTRITION and MATRICULATION PRIZES