I prefer to be positive, but there are times you have to give the consequences. It occurs at the end of the school year, and our principal, a couple of teachers, and parents take the kids to a local state park for hiking and a hot-dog cookout. We also have 'No Detention field trips' each semester. The first semester students in grades 6 through 8 go on a ski trip at a man-made ski resort in suburban Chicago. P.A.T. Preferred Activity Time rewards students for saving time during instruction.
Students earn the time they save and can use it for a preferred activity.
Actually earning time occurs, for example, when no students are tardy, for which they all earn one minute, or when students make a transition quickly, earning two minutes. Students may redeem the earned time on a Friday, when everyone is ready for a reward. In Indiana, school districts have the option of rewarding graduating high-school students with cash. Another teacher says each teacher on her team chooses a student of the month. The choice is based on grades, a project, citizenship, or whatever the teacher chooses.