The Evolution of SWAG

Moving your classroom management into the 21st century

In the beginning, I combined two great ideas (not my own) from Pinterest...

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Rewards written on ping pong balls and a behavior management system using some "hip lingo" that kids can relate to came together in this creation:

SWAG

During the last few minutes of class we would discuss SWAG criteria 1-5.  For every SWAG goal that they met, the class would earn a ping pong ball in their bag.  There were some ping pong balls that they coveted more so than others.  Game day in the computer lab, donuts for brunch, and an outdoor reading picnic were among their favorites.  Then on a not so random day, usually a day that coincided with one English class being a full day ahead of the other-and that's no good, the class that was a day ahead would get a "Swag Day".  It was kind of a self serving reward, because planning when classes aren't doing the same thing is more work for me. Also, if one class is a full day (or more) ahead of the other, then they were clearly working really hard and deserve a reward.

As my teaching practice has changed, so have my ideas about SWAG.  I got this wonderful app called Class Dojo, and started losing interest in SWAG.  Then I realized, this can all still work together.  Class Dojo will give me a percentage of positive behavior for an entire class.  I can use that percentage to decide which class deserves a bit of SWAG when the time is right. 

                         

Then I found another app called "Win a Spin".  Now I can enter all of the rewards that I want to use from the ping ping balls as prizes in the "Win a Spin" app.  The cheesy game show music plays as the wheel spins around until our prize is revealed, which is so much more thrilling than pulling a ping pong ball out of a ziplock bag-yay technology!

Win A Spin!

SWAG has gone into retirement, as it really seems unnecessary at this point.  Class Dojo keeps track of behavior, "Win a Spin" determines the reward, and my classroom management has moved into the 21st century.  

I still love saying SWAG though...

A New Kind of SWAG