Classroom Economy

I have been teaching for 5 years going on 6 and I'll have used Beth Newingham's Classroom Economy for all of those years except for my first. When I lived in AZ my friend and co-worker and I wanted to change the way we ran our classroom management. Our kids weren't responding to the obvious ways of behavior management so we started looking on-line and found Beth's website. She changed my life. If you click on her name in the first sentence then you'll be directed to her economy page on her class website. I do it all, store, credit/debit and check writing. I will tell you though that this year I am changing it up a bit.

Instead of having a credit/debit log, I am going to give students $70 at the beginning of each week. This is because they have to have at least $140 in their bank envelope (that they'll decorate the first week of school) at the end of every two weeks. I let them go to the class store every two weeks and they may buy two items, but two of the same items. I usually spend about $50 a month at Target in the dollar section to supply my store, but sometimes parents will donate trinkets and small games and stuff. If they earn more money for having good character qualities or answering a "jackpot" question, then great but if they lose more than $140 over the course of two weeks, then they may not shop in the store that week. What those children will get to do is write a letter to their parents, have it checked by me and signed by their parents explaining what happened and why they did not get to "shop". Mind you, the parent will probably already be aware of this matter because of the ever so important communication I have put in place.

The way I'll keep up with what they've paid me for losing money is by keeping a binder with paper in it where they'll sign, explain their behavior and write down how much money they put in the "money jar". If I notice a student has been signing often, then we'll have a conference and discuss what the problem is and a solution to fix it. At the end of each week, I'll check the binder and call each student to my desk to verify how much money they have and then I'll record that number in my gradebook and that will determine their conduct grade for the week. If they have less than $70 or they didn't get to shop at the end of the two weeks, then their grade will either be a S or N (satisfactory or needs improvement). If they have significantly more then their grade will be a M (mastery) and if they have slightly above that required amount, their grade will be a P (proficient). This is our grading policy..your district may have another way to keep up with conduct. I HOPE my new system will work..it sounds promising. I'll post a pic of the jar and binder once I have them made :)