Difficult class/positive rewards

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Difficult class/positive rewards
By Trish

Hi,

I am teaching 7th and 8th grade this year. The previous teacher never let them do labs (I teach science) and I am using that as one reward. I plan 2 labs every week. I also do positive rewards. I place 3 lines on the
board at the beginning of class. If they get out of hane, without saying anything I erase a line. Those lines are for their positive reward. (I have a box with blank paper in it 'tickets' when caught doing something good, I say, John, I like how you did that, please sign a ticket. At the end of the class, if at least 1 line remains on the board, I pull a ticket out of the class box (where

they put their signed ticket). I might pull 1, or 2.. depends on their behavior. Sometimes I give chocolate, or they can have something from my prize box which contains free homework passes, pencils, candy, passes to sit in the infalttable chair, etc. THey love it)
When the lines get all erased, I put up the word LAB and do the same thing. If I have to erase that word, the class will not have lab. THey will get an assignment to do that is worth the same amount of points. Not fun. I haven't had to erase the whole word of LAB yet. This age groups really seems to respond more to peers correcting them than to me. My next step is to call parents. Which I have. That also seems to help a little. I call parents for the good and the bad things. I try to call the trouble makers parents for something good first to get them on my side. The students also like to know that I will call for something positive. I have one child that gave me hell the first few days. I promised her that I would call her step mom if she behaved. I did, no more problems with Chelsea. I just llok at her and say, I would love to speak with your step mom today.. hmmm.. will you let me?
I do have a class that I dread. It is my last class of the day (yea)and it is a 7th grade class. The problem with this class is that there are so many different needs in it. I have students that should be classified as BD, some that are LD, some that are on a higher level and those that are still babies. They drain me. I have 'clicked' with the other 4 classes that I teach. I just can't seem to get through to this class at all. My mission: to win them too!

Good luck to all. I hope I was able to help some.. If it is hard to understand, please email me and I will try to make it clearer

Trish