It's been a very busy couple of weeks. The kids have been learning about simple machines, work and designing their own Rube Goldberg machines. That was A LOT harder than we thought it would be. Fortunately, I was able to talk them out of having 10+ steps. Aiden has decided that he didn't mind making his, but he was never making one with a pulley again. Needless to say there was a lot of frustration. We managed to get them both working, but Aiden's mysteriously stopped working sometime between Friday night and Sunday morning. We were able to catch Zoë's on film.
Friday night was our studio piano recital. It's always exciting to see how all of the students have progressed over the year. On Sunday Aiden had his first solo recital. He has completed Suzuki Book One, and played all of the songs for about 25 friends and family members. We're all very proud of him! He did a great job, and was really excited to play for everyone.
For the next week and a half we're wrapping up end of the school year things and getting ready for vacation. It will be a light couple of weeks.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Monday, May 3, 2010
New Incentive Program
I've spent a lot of time thinking about the idea of incentives, and internal vs. external motivation. Does providing incentives make for people that are only externally motivated? Is there even such a thing as internal motivation? I've decided that I don't know the answers! I did, however, find an interesting study scientists have been doing with school children in 4 different cities. And I have also decided that people are not intrinsically internally motivated. Even the smallest child will repeat actions if their parents smile at them. Think of the number of people that toil away at work with the only reward being a paycheck.
The study I read is showing that children who are provided small rewards for specific things (like reading a book and taking a short quiz about it) end up getting better grades and higher test scores. This result doesn't happen as often if children are given larger rewards for something as subjective as better grades. Basically, if you don't teach someone how "to get an A," they don't know how to go about doing it. If you want to read the study, it was in a recent issue of Time magazine.
With all of this in mind I've completely revamped our rewards program. First, it's a random reinforcement program combined with accomplishing set goals. Since Pavlov showed us that random reinforcement is the best way to learn something, I had to involve that component. Second, the rewards are in three tiers: bronze, silver, and gold. Bronze rewards are things like a candy bar, $1, an hour of tech time, one book buck (10 = a new book from the bookstore). Silver rewards include a trip to DQ for ice cream, lunch out, 5 book bucks, and pokemon cards. The gold rewards are the best: a reading party, gift certificates, a new video game. I had the kids give me ideas about what the rewards should be, and they helped me put the drawers together where we're keeping everything.
The set accomplishments are things that if done, they will improve in other areas. For example their math skills will improve if they can become quicker with multiplication, so for every 2 hours per week they spend playing our multiplication game or working with the flashcards they can earn a bronze reward. If they listen to their piano music every night they also get a reward.
The random reinforcement can be from anyone, anytime. It's basically the "catch them being good" idea. If they work through their math without complaining or giving up, learn a new song on the piano, have an extra good piano practice, or write an incredible sentence, they might earn a reward. The possibilities are endless.
Everyone is very excited about the new program, and they've both been working very hard with virtually NO whining! Today I was able to give Zoë a reward because she decided to clean out the garage. She was looking for something to do, and asked me (apparently the resident activities director) for ideas. I was busy doing some bookkeeping, and jokingly told her she could clean the garage. Of course her response was an eyeroll and something about looking for something fun to do. After a while I went outside to find that she had all of the stuff out of the garage, and was actually cleaning it! It was fun to tell her she could pick something out of the bronze drawer for being such a big help! They really are great kids, and I could be much better at making sure they know how much we appreciate them. Before now, I think my ideas about internal motivation have gotten in the way of that.
The study I read is showing that children who are provided small rewards for specific things (like reading a book and taking a short quiz about it) end up getting better grades and higher test scores. This result doesn't happen as often if children are given larger rewards for something as subjective as better grades. Basically, if you don't teach someone how "to get an A," they don't know how to go about doing it. If you want to read the study, it was in a recent issue of Time magazine.
With all of this in mind I've completely revamped our rewards program. First, it's a random reinforcement program combined with accomplishing set goals. Since Pavlov showed us that random reinforcement is the best way to learn something, I had to involve that component. Second, the rewards are in three tiers: bronze, silver, and gold. Bronze rewards are things like a candy bar, $1, an hour of tech time, one book buck (10 = a new book from the bookstore). Silver rewards include a trip to DQ for ice cream, lunch out, 5 book bucks, and pokemon cards. The gold rewards are the best: a reading party, gift certificates, a new video game. I had the kids give me ideas about what the rewards should be, and they helped me put the drawers together where we're keeping everything.
The set accomplishments are things that if done, they will improve in other areas. For example their math skills will improve if they can become quicker with multiplication, so for every 2 hours per week they spend playing our multiplication game or working with the flashcards they can earn a bronze reward. If they listen to their piano music every night they also get a reward.
The random reinforcement can be from anyone, anytime. It's basically the "catch them being good" idea. If they work through their math without complaining or giving up, learn a new song on the piano, have an extra good piano practice, or write an incredible sentence, they might earn a reward. The possibilities are endless.
Everyone is very excited about the new program, and they've both been working very hard with virtually NO whining! Today I was able to give Zoë a reward because she decided to clean out the garage. She was looking for something to do, and asked me (apparently the resident activities director) for ideas. I was busy doing some bookkeeping, and jokingly told her she could clean the garage. Of course her response was an eyeroll and something about looking for something fun to do. After a while I went outside to find that she had all of the stuff out of the garage, and was actually cleaning it! It was fun to tell her she could pick something out of the bronze drawer for being such a big help! They really are great kids, and I could be much better at making sure they know how much we appreciate them. Before now, I think my ideas about internal motivation have gotten in the way of that.
Long overdue update
I've been so busy thinking about our future, planning lessons, and instituting a new incentive system that I didn't realize it has been almost a month since my last post. Of course there was also planning a vacation, interviewing cleaning services, several trips to the vet, etc... Needless to say things are busy.
In two weeks Aiden has his book one piano recital. We've sent out invitations and he's been practicing every day. I've been amazed listening to him practice. He's been able to practice exactly the things he needs to improve. He'll play each hand separate and repeat sections over and over until he gets it right. Apparently, he's extremely motivated for this performance!
We had a wonderful field trip to the zoo last week with the Nuehrings. All the kids talked about how the animals had adapted. They did a great job applying what they've learned and reading the signs about each animal.
Our "fantastic" school district has decided to throw us for a loop starting next year. They've introduced a new schedule that will result in JET not being on one set day of the week. I still haven't decided what we're going to do. I have the schedule through December, but any snow day would change it for the rest of the year. Basically, this schedule change will make it impossible to have any semblance of a normal schedule, and it will be extremely difficult to do anything weekly. Just writing about this is making me angry!! How in the world are children and teachers supposed know if they're coming or going?! This also means we won't be sending Zoë to art next year. It really feels like the last resource our district has for gifted children is being taken away. I might be able to work around it for a semester, but we won't be able to do any other weekly activities!
Next time I'll share my new incentive program. Right now I'm all worked up and need to relax before we start classes in 30 minutes.
In two weeks Aiden has his book one piano recital. We've sent out invitations and he's been practicing every day. I've been amazed listening to him practice. He's been able to practice exactly the things he needs to improve. He'll play each hand separate and repeat sections over and over until he gets it right. Apparently, he's extremely motivated for this performance!
We had a wonderful field trip to the zoo last week with the Nuehrings. All the kids talked about how the animals had adapted. They did a great job applying what they've learned and reading the signs about each animal.
Our "fantastic" school district has decided to throw us for a loop starting next year. They've introduced a new schedule that will result in JET not being on one set day of the week. I still haven't decided what we're going to do. I have the schedule through December, but any snow day would change it for the rest of the year. Basically, this schedule change will make it impossible to have any semblance of a normal schedule, and it will be extremely difficult to do anything weekly. Just writing about this is making me angry!! How in the world are children and teachers supposed know if they're coming or going?! This also means we won't be sending Zoë to art next year. It really feels like the last resource our district has for gifted children is being taken away. I might be able to work around it for a semester, but we won't be able to do any other weekly activities!
Next time I'll share my new incentive program. Right now I'm all worked up and need to relax before we start classes in 30 minutes.
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