Incentives/Free time By Patty

I work with middle and high school kids and they truly don't care about points for behavior.
For middle school I write the misbehaved kid's name on a piece of paper and tell him/her that if they behave I will throw it away and the teacher won't know they were bad. This works great.

For high school, no incentive has worked; a lot of the kids laugh at it. So, I tell them I will call the vice-principal, which I had to do with one class that kept pushing their limits, until they pushed me just a little too far. When the vp was coming, they scrambled like lost chickens. Then, they did their work knowing I meant business. I hate to use threat, but these high schoolers are just too cool and don't care if I tell their teacher or not.

I usually tell the kids they can have free time if they finish their assignmets. Besides a couple of kids not wanting to do their work at all, most kids respond well and finish their work eager to have free time.
I'm happy because They've completed their assingments and I've accomplished what the teacher wanted, and they are happy because they get to have free time.

Use what works with you and the kids. I've had other teachers walk in to "check up" on the class, and thank goodness the kids were busy doing their work.

Good luck!