Sticker Shock

At some point in my first year of teaching, I acquired three sheets of these stickers. I wasn't sure when I would ever use them, as I didn't think high schoolers would be motivated by a sticker reward. At the end of every school year, I pack everything up in my classroom, and every summer I think about throwing these stickers away. (However, I have an issue with throwing away anything that may have some future purpose.) So I held on to them, and this semester, I'm glad that I did.


This year has been the hardest year of my teaching career, for a lot of reasons. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend a training by Lee Meadows in January, and I used what I learned there to completely change my teaching style. I now use a day-to-day inquiry format, where kids work in groups to gather evidence to answer a specific question of the day, which leads them to be able to answer a larger question for the unit. It's only been 2 weeks, but I've already decided I'm never going back to traditional teaching. The new format has alleviated a lot of the issues I had first semester. More importantly, students who were struggling last semester are doing beautiful work this semester. They are engaged in class, and are actually learning. 


I've had one student who I've struggled with all year. He's super smart, but rarely demonstrates it. He carries a backpack all day, but never opens it in class. Doesn't use a pen or pencil, or paper. Because he isn't doing any work, he gets bored easily, which means he starts distracting other kids, who were just barely on task anyway. This semester, I put him in a group with kids he can't distract, and far from his friends. For the past two weeks, he and his group have been doing amazing work. Last week, they finished a little bit early, and the wingnut made a joke that he thinks they deserve a sticker. Because I was happy that they were learning, I dug out these sticker sheets, and put one on each students notebook. The jubilation was intense. I've never seen a 16-year-old get so excited over a goofy "Whale of a Job!" sticker. The excitement rippled through the room, and since then, everyone has been asking about stickers. 


Earlier this week, some kids were trying to convince the wingnut that stickers weren't that cool. His argument was this: "You know how it feels when you put something in the microwave, and then walk away to do something else, and come back right as the timer goes off? That's what getting a sticker feels like." I was a bit puzzled by the argument, but every kid in the room just got quiet and went, "Oohh". They were convinced. Guess I need to go buy more stickers...