Teacher asking for help

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At our school (a K-8) the 6-8th grades have what they called "eligibility". To be eligible you need to have all work turned in and no discipline referrals. Once a month they have eligibility parties where they make popcorn and get a free afternoon. For ineligible students they have a study hall. Ineligible students also lose some other privileges, but I'm not sure all the details.
 
One of the best things I have seen was actually in college. One professor collected homework and passed it back out as an aid on test- it was the only thing besides the text we could use. If you did the homework the test questions were easy and you got done early and left. The same thing could be done with high school- with passes to the library, study hall, gym (would need to create open gym periods for this), etc on campus. This way you can check for copied homework (if the homework was copied in my class it could mean expulsion from school for academic dishonesty). If you find copied homework- they can't use it and the guilty parties get different homework assignments than the rest of the class (longer ones too) for future assignments. Reward and punishment in one system. Would mean more work for teachers but sounds like in your school the main interest is getting students to succeed
 
My wife used token economy. The kid starts out with x tickets in the morning and they lose tickets during the day for misbehaving, no HW, talking back etc. At the end of the week they could pick from 4 bins. Each bin had a given ticket value. If the kid wanted to save up his/her tickets they could pick from a better prize bin. One time she put up my PSP as a prize for the kid who has all their tickets for the month. No one ever got it but a few got close.
 
Hi mike. This is coming from a 34 year old highschool drop out(please don't flame--I have a good job and care for my family). I hated homework absolutely refused to do it but passed my mid terms with A"s to raise my over-all grade to pass. The only subjects I did homework in were the ones that interested me. If someone is interested in something,no matter their IQ, they will go the extra mile to learn. The problem that the school system has is teacher to student ratio. This makes it hard to capture the interest of all students on different subjects. When studies are put to students in a way they can relate then their homework comes easier for them. I guess I don't have an easy answer for you mike. It takes a patient dedicated teacher to reach kids nowadays in a teaching world where the teachers(not all) are just there for a paycheck.

Good luck man,
Chris
 
One of my teens has a teacher that hands out hw passes. For every 15 hw assingments in a row completed properly they can earn a pass that enables them to pick a day to skip hw and use the pass to get an 100% on it. My teen who hates hw with a passion is now doing it without complaining (as much anyway)
 
At my daughter's school (junior high), they have "school money" they give out at the beginning of a quarter. You lose money by not doing homework, showing up late, etc. At the end of a quarter, they do a party for the students who didn't lose more than a certain amount of money. Pizza, drinks, and socializing.

The grades are also online, so us parents can check to make sure there are no missing assignments. I check my daughter's daily so I can find out if she's having trouble in any subjects before she's failing a class.

Hope this helps.
 
Great ideas so far. We do have smaller class sizes than most schools. We also have grades posted on line. I email them home every other week to make it even harder for them to miss it.

I like what I am seeing so far. Keep them coming. I want as many as possible to kick around.
 
Don't be boring. Students will do work for teachers they like. No punishments or rewards will change lazy students into good students.
 
Younglin, we are trying to come up with ideas to help students. If in education we write off every student that is lazy most of the graduates from my school would have never graduated. Most of them are now successful in college. My school is not an alternative school, but we serve a lot of kids who are lost in the larger 1000s member schools or want more than just regular school has offered.

Again all please post ideas or please do not post comments that are not helpful. I am not a noob teacher. My school and I are trying to gather ideas. A teacher in a classroom is not the only place to learn. This site is a testament to that.

I have a lot of other ideas to help, but trying to get ideas for outside the teacher pool to help. You are all students or were. You are members of a learning community that the state does not force you to be in. Yes I know it is fun and interesting, of course I am doing my best to make my class interesting and fun. I just want some more ideas. Have as many facts, ideas, and possible choices out there when making a decision is the best way to do it.
 
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