I have found that I have an effective bribe reward to make the ninth graders behave.
Music.
Somewhere or other, they figured out that I sing, that I’m pretty good, and that I’m vulnerable in the vanity for it. Now of course the first thing they thought of was that perhaps, just perhaps, they could distract me from teaching them Algebra (or Social Studies or Composition) by pestering me to sing. Didn’t work.
So a couple of weeks ago when I was subbing for the algebra teacher, they started this shtick. In order to shut down the begging without yelling about it, I told them that if they behaved, if they were quiet and attentive and did their work and didn’t get up out of their chairs every other minute (requiring increasingly sharp reminders to sit down) and didn’t call across the room to each other or poke each other or grab the next kid’s pencil or otherwise behave in ways the kids in kindergarten know they shouldn’t, then when there were 5 minutes left to the period, I would sing.
They weren’t perfect, but they were far more cooperative than they’d ever been before, so I sang. I don’t know current music, so I sang the first thing I thought of. It was from Pippin, and they were delighted. Next hour the same thing happened; the kids from 4th period Algebra told the kids in 5th period, so the whole thing got repeated. Okay, then. Once-lucky.
But evidently it wasn’t. The first thing that happened when I walked into Algebra today was that a kid saw that I was the sub, and asked me to sing a Christmas song. Same deal. They behave, I sing. Except that that first class didn’t behave. Five minutes before the end of class, I heard “Will you sing now?” And I told them no; that they had made me spend the whole period reminding them what they were supposed to be doing, and so there would be no reward.
You should have heard them on the way out the door. They didn’t try to argue with me, but they were coming down hard on the worst offenders “because now Mrs. C. didn’t sing!” Next class behaved like absolute angels, and they got their song – Gloria In Excelsis Deo. Nor was the adventure over; a couple of the Freshmen stopped me on my way out at day’s end to say they were sorry, and ask if I would please sing for them next time I was in, “if we’re good”.
I’ve always tried to find rewards instead of using threats; if nothing else, it sets me apart and makes my version of discipline more memorable. (It also works.) I’ve been trying to find something for these kids since they were in 7th grade, and I have been failing. I’ve finally found it, and it’s a thing I never would have thought of. That’s okay. Not only do I have it now, but it’s an easy thing to do and I will use it shamelessly.