I recently shared on my teacher IG account about how my coworker shared an (amazing) idea about using Instagram as a theme for classroom management- & now I want literally everyone to know about this! Basically each class period develops their handle. They REALLY like this. My last class didn’t make the pic but they are called little chicken wings. (: The goal is for each class to get 10 likes. I give likes for being awesome, everyone working on the bellringer when the bell rings, being good for a sub, showing kindness, working well in groups, leaving the room clean at the end of the class period, etc. The key here is that the classes aren’t necessarily competing against each other- whoever gets to 10 first is great, but everyone else keeps going as the winner then gets to start over. I do this because we know there is that one class that would NEVER get there first and would totally lose interest. I have uploaded the templates for the IG theme free here if you want to print/laminate them for your board like I did. They are taped for now on my whiteboard- I will eventually do velcro when I have time haha!
When I posted this on IG, a lot of people wanted to know the incentives. I will start by saying some teachers may not want to use food/tangible items. That is totally fine- you do what works for you! I have a mixture of tangible/non-tangible items on a wheel from Amazon. However there are free virtual ones you can Google if you want! Here are my rewards:
- Seating choice (I normally assign seats)
- ice cream sandwiches
- popcorn + candy
- Game Time (Uno, board games, etc. last 15-20 min of class)
- 15 min phone break (We are a no-phone school now so if we allow them to do this as a reward it’s a big deal bc it’s pretty rare!)
- Chips
- Go outside to work for the class period
- Netflix Time (Last part of the period)
- cookies + coke
- Little Debbies
- Donuts
- Teacher’s Choice!
I want to ad that my 7th graders LOVE this. I was worried if they would buy in, but they totally do. This could also be used even if you don’t swap classes or if you want to do table groups, etc. What incentives do your students like!? I would love to know!
If you are looking for other classroom management strategies for secondary classrooms, head over to Lindsay Bowden’s post!!