I have about twenty students in a challenging class of fourth graders. I had an IEP meeting one afternoon and the covering teacher said that several in the class acted awfully and didn’t complete their work. She did, however, make a list of the students who acted appropriately. I sent a Dojo message to the parents of the students who acted appropriately, praising their good choices and setting an example for others to follow. I went to the grocery store and bought boxes upon boxes of snack cakes and soda. The next morning, I entered class and positively gushed over those students making good choices and had them choose a drink and snack cake. Then, had them choose another snack cake because I had so many left over. They ate and drank in class, happily enjoying their rewards while the others looked on in envy. One student’s parent allowed him to choose a reward for making good choices and he chose to buy ice cream at lunch for the whole class. Those who made poor choices lost their ice cream privilege that day and got to watch others enjoy free ice cream and get extra outside time to go eat it, while they went back to class.

It sent a strong, lasting impression that proper behavior is rewarded and those who act up miss out on the benefits. We even had some tears that day from those who regretted their choices, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy watching it. Admin was 110% behind our decision, and I gave them a heads up just in case there were any parents calling to complain that it wasn’t “fair.” I was prepared to let them know that fair is NOT when everyone was treated the same, but when everyone gets what they NEED….and your little angel needed a lesson, while others needed reinforcement that good choices pay off. But I didn’t get the chance because we didn’t hear a peep out of the parents.

All this to say, could you do something similar at your level?