I’ve always said that strong leaders recognize a great idea when they hear it. After reading an article about an incentive program from the National Board's daily "Accomplished Teacher" email, I approached my fourth grade team about starting a similar program at our school. My fourth grade team of teachers decided to join me in initiating a new incentive program for our students. This idea has been developed based upon a teacher in Missouri that did something similar with his 5th grade boys (see article here).
We implemented our “4th Grade Professionals: Gentleman in Ties & Ladies in Pearls” incentive program in January. We kicked off the program by hosting a pep rally to get the kids excited about this new tradition we’re starting for our fourth graders. Our district is unique in that we have grades kindergarten through twelfth grade all in one building; therefore, I sought out different people that students would know and look up to in our district to pump up our students. Our high school football coach came dressed professionally and talked about how his men come on Friday to school “knotted up” in their ties, and shared with our students the importance of dressing for success. Also in attendance at our pep rally, were our elementary Site Based Council members, Board of Education members, administration from the district, and high school seniors who are student athletes. Everyone came dressed for the part: ladies in pearls and gentleman in ties. We sent our boys with our gentlemen leaders to learn how to tie a tie. Our girls went with our women leaders and high school senior girls to study what professional women wear, using celebrities and professional women as examples.
The philosophy behind this movement is that professionals wear ties and pearls; our goal is that each student will see themselves as professionals by the time we start state testing. Therefore, students will all feel proud of themselves, and will be ready to work hard as a professional on their test to represent themselves, their families, teachers, and their school.The overall idea of the program is that students will earn points for academic and social performance. Students will earn points for various things such as a 4 on Open Responses, compliments from Beechwood staff members, performing acts of kindness, meeting MAP goals and earning A’s on assessments, etc.
We have asked for donations from the community for ties and pearls for students to use. The ties have been easy to come by, but we’re still looking for more costume pearls. The goal is that each student, once they have earned 100 points, will choose which tie or set of pearls they’ll wear each day from their classes’ collection.
As we are finishing our second month of this program, it is amazing to see how motivated students are to earn these points. Their faces light up when you sign off on their sheets. We look forward to having our fourth grade students dressed the part to rock the state testing!
As we are finishing our second month of this program, it is amazing to see how motivated students are to earn these points. Their faces light up when you sign off on their sheets. We look forward to having our fourth grade students dressed the part to rock the state testing!
This is a guest blog written by one of the teachers in our Innovative Teacher Leader cohort to share about an innovative teacher or practice from their area of the state. To learn more about the work happening in the Commonwealth from these Innovative Teacher Leaders, who are working to redefine teacher leadership in Kentucky, check back throughout the month of March. We’ll be sharing guest blogs all month long.
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