smiles

this is a great reward system that i came up with when i first started in this classroom.

before i started here, i was working for the same school, but in a class of slightly older kids with a co-teacher (two foreign teachers and a japanese assistant). they opened a new school in september and i got my own class, the class that i currently teach for. i had seen my student list and there was one girl on the list who i thought would be a problem. i had seen her in the "baby class" which she took with her mother and she would spend the entire class running around the room. she didn't pay any attention and her mother didn't do anything to stop her.
i wanted to have a really positive environment in my classroom and wanted to come up with a way not to punish her for being bad, but to reward her for being good.
i came up with the smile system.
each child has their own calander and each day is separated into two categories. they can get a smile for being good during lesson time, and a smile for lunch/clean up time. i make a really big deal out of it, especially at the end of lesson. i call each kid's name. if they were good, i draw a little smiley face in the space and they get a hug from me. if they're not good, no smile and no hug.
this actually works really well. there are of course times when the child is not so good, and they don't get a smile. it's kind of sad to watch because as i call their name, the child stands up, anticipating a hug. but then i frown and say "no smile" and they are just crestfallen. but it does inspire them to be good and get a smile next time.
as it turned out, the girl that i thought would be a problem in my class was no problem at all. it's been a while, but i think that her calander was full of smiles at the end of the month.

Tags: esl, teaching, kids, rewards

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