Positive Prizes for PBS

Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 250

Even with the school year shortened by one quarter, teachers gave our students 1,666 positive referrals at Golden Gate Middle School. I estimated that over 250 students were impacted by the prizes received from this grant. 

When sports balls showed up on the prize table, and student started winning movie tickets right before the holidays, word spread real fast around the cafeteria where the prizes are given away every Friday. I loved it when a boy or girl would walk past the table and say, "Miss, I am going to win that ball next week" and I would encourage them to try to get a positive referral so they would be able to spin for the prize. Students loved getting the snacks, usually Takis, the number one snack among middle school students. They had been begging to get these for the last two years, so there was a lot of excitement from students when they showed up at the prize table. "Finally", one student said to me! Students were also excited when they won the shirts, but they were given a ticket to go to the media center to get their shirt, so they had time to pick the right size and color. I feel bad that I didn't get any pictures of students wearing their shirts. This is one of the many things that would have happened had we been able to return to school for the fourth quarter. 

I spaced out spending for my project in order to get the prizes to last throughout the school year and to have some great prizes during 4th quarter which is "testing season", and also a time where students need a lot of extra support for their “spring fever” behaviors. The shirts were all given away shortly before spring break, which was just by chance by nature of it being on the prize wheel! I had to be careful with expiration dates on the snacks, so the intention was to finish the year buying more snacks and movie tickets after spring break. However, not knowing what will happen with Movie Theatres opening, and not wanting to be concerned about snacks expiring. Therefore after consulting with others, including the PBS team, I decided that the sports balls had been such a hit that we would spend the remaining moneys on them. That will be an awesome incentive waiting for the students when we return in the fall. 

Finally, I can't thank you enough and the shutting down of schools really made it impossible to do the large poster thank you I had planned for students to make and sign. That is a huge disappointment to me, since they were the real recipients of the grant money and I wanted you to see their expressions of gratitude. This year, we will have to settle for my huge THANK YOU for them! I am so grateful that I was able to make so many students happy with better prizes, and able to motivate others who may not have been so interested in the prizes before the grant was received. The grant also took so much pressure off of me to not have to worry about how I would find and get enough good prizes to keep the students motivated to earn the positive referrals, so there is no way for me to possibly thank you enough for the multiple benefits of the grant.  

• GGM report of # of positive referrals
• THANK YOU POSTER