After I survived the VIPKID hiring process, I spent about three weeks learning about lesson preparation, props, and pacing before I found my groove. Then my stress moved on to the topic of reward systems.
Did I have enough? Was I rotating them often enough? Do I have something that boys will like? Girls? Older students? Younger students? Were my rewards interactive enough? Were my students practicing their English during this time? Was I taking too much time away from the lesson with my reward systems?
I spent So Much Time looking for reward systems to add to my collection. The more I searched for ideas the more I felt like my classroom wasn’t enough. I worried that I would never be fully booked since other teachers had better rewards, fancier classrooms, more props, etc.
One day, I pushed print on this FULL YEAR SET of reward systems and I never looked for new reward systems again. I printed them, laminated them, and added magnets on the back while watching TV one night.
My reward systems had a theme – Penguins! Penguins became the branding of my classroom. Regulars would look forward to seeing what adventures the penguins would be going on next. They would return to my classroom to continue the story.
My greetings stayed fresh and seasonal because I began every class with a seasonal background on my whiteboard behind me. It created a natural springboard to discuss upcoming festivals in my culture or over in China.
I could use the same reward system all day long. For younger students, I could simply say the vocabulary word of the item that I was adding and invite them to repeat it. For older students, I could ask a question about that item or we could create a story together about the scene that we had built together. If I was teaching at multiple online ESL companies in the same day, I could still use the same reward system because it was free of company-specific characters.
All of those rewards that I had collected over the years . . . they were collecting dust. All I reached for were these seasonal GAME CHANGERS.
I got so many hours of my life back when I stopped searching for reward systems and prepping for lessons. I organized all of my reward systems in boxes to help me rotate them during the year without any record-keeping software like Feedback Panda.
Take a peek inside my boxes for each month and organize your reward systems with this free printable organizer today.
Table of Contents
JANUARY
FEBRUARY
MARCH
APRIL
MAY
JUNE
JULY
AUGUST
SEPTEMBER
OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
