Using a Classroom Economy System

Brittany: 00:00

Hello everyone. Welcome to today's podcast. I am Brittany and I am here today with Ellie.

Ellie

Hello there.

Brittany

Have you been thinking about whether or not you should use a classroom economy? Classroom economy systems are great ways to incorporate some real-life skills and to encourage positive behavior. Today we'll explore what a classroom economy system is, how it's beneficial, and we'll give some specific examples of classroom economies in action.

So let's start off with what a classroom economy is.

Brittany

Ellie, do you wanna explain that?

Ellie: 00:01

Sure. Let's think about what it is and how it can be beneficial. So, a classroom economy is basically a system that kind of simulates a real-life economy, but it's in the classroom. When you're using a classroom economy, students can earn like classroom money, or points, or some other type of income that they can use to then buy items or buy different privileges in the classroom. Like maybe items from a class store, if you want to set up one of those, or homework passes, or extra recess, or even sitting in the teacher's chair. (My kids used to like that).

So, how's that helpful in the classroom? First, it could teach students a little bit about financial skills, like budgeting and making good spending choices. It can reinforce positive behavior and helps encourage students to take responsibility for their actions. Brittany, can you think of any other things it could do to be helpful?

Brittany

Well, depending on how you set it up, if you

Brittany: 00:02

let kids join together to spend their money, it can also help create a sense of community and teamwork as they have to work together to maybe earn enough money, or decide how they're going to spend their money to maybe earn a pizza party, or a game day, or something like that.

Ellie

So the purpose of the classroom economy is to promote positive behavior and then incorporate some life skills.

So Brittany, how did you use a classroom economy system?

Brittany

We tried lots of different things. We tried beans, we tried tickets, and then we eventually settled on paper money, that we made on the copier. Each teacher had their own name on their money. So, in some years we would change it. So I had Turtle

Brittany: 00:03

Tender, 'cause I like turtles. Um, I had Sachem Simoleons at one time.

I had a couple different names, but Turtle Tender tended to be the biggest one that I used the most.

Ellie

Mm-Hmm.

Brittany

My building mate had, uh, Star Bucks. And each teacher picked a different color for their money. So it was easy to discern who had what person's money. And then we would print different denominations. So, ones, fives, tens, twenties, fifties, and hundreds.

And we would keep them in like a letter, file that you would get, you know, at the Staples or Office Depot or wherever you shop. And just keep that in our desk drawer. And then what we did…at the beginning of the school year, is we would give the kids maybe like $60 a week

and

Brittany: 00:04

then we would make them pay back money for locker rental

and lights. And desk rental and that sort of thing, so that they would kind of understand what their parents went through in terms of like taxes and, you know, mortgage and, you know, or apartment rental and groceries and that sort of thing.

And the kids hated that part. And we would do that for like the first month or so. And usually the kids would end up with maybe like $12 to $20 a week left over.

And then after that first month, we would just give them the $12 to $20. And then every quarter we would give them a little raise.

And so, every quarter they got a small incremental boost. Just kinda like, you know, their parents might get at their job.

Brittany: 00:05

Then based on behavior and other things, we would deduct money or give them money.

So if they were prepared for class on time, if they were lined up first in line, if they followed directions, if they were the first to bring back maybe a signed field trip slip or something, they might get some money as a reward.

And then if they did not have supplies ready at their desk, if their locker was a mess, if they were late to class, if they had to use the bathroom at a time where we were in the middle of a lecture, they might have to pay like two bucks as a, as a fine.

And if they went into debt, they would have to spend some recess time with us.

So, that's how,

Ellie: 00:06

Wow. I love that system.

Brittany

Yeah. And then we did have a classroom store, and we did do like passes where they could earn things like sitting in the teacher's chair. That was a big one, like you mentioned. That was a favorite.

Listening to music in an earbud. Doing things like, having a pizza party, having a game day. Those were all big, big things that we used. So we relied heavily on our classroom system.

And we also, towards the end of my time using it, we also used it as…let me back up a second. We went on a giant field trip at the end of the school year to a big amusement park. The kids had free reign in that amusement park.

Like we had parent chaperones, but they had pretty much free reign,

and so

Brittany: 00:07

we had to trust them and their behavior in that amusement park that day. And so we didn't really want to take, you know, the bad kids who we knew we couldn't trust.

And so the kids had to pay $250 of the classroom economy bucks to go on that field trip. Towards the end of our time….that was like our last three years.

And so they had to earn up that money over the course of the year and pay that money.

Ellie

Did you have many that didn't go then?

Brittany

We would usually end up with about three or four who could not attend.

Um, but we made it very clear from the beginning of the school year and kept reminding them all year long that this is what you're saving for.

You know, make sure you have enough money to go on this trip.

So, yeah.

Ellie

That’s awesome. Good lessons there.

Brittany

What about you? Did you ever use a classroom economy system?

Ellie: 00:08

Yeah, a couple different ones. Earlier on my teaching career, when I taught fifth grade in elementary school and we were more self-contained, I did a classroom store and a banking kind of system. So they would get a weekly paycheck type of thing, and then they would earn extra money by doing, you know, positive things in the classroom.

They could earn extra money that way. If they were noticed doing good things, if they were helping their peers. They could actually bring items in to sell in our classroom store. So if they brought something in, they got paid for bringing it. Um, 'cause it was something that they didn't want anymore, they couldn't use anymore.

So almost like, you know, selling it at a garage sale or something.

Brittany

Yeah.

Ellie

But they were selling it to the classroom store. And then they would get paid for that. If they had classroom jobs….so we always had classroom jobs… so they would get paid for the classroom jobs. I didn't do anything like rent or anything like that, but that would've been a really good idea.

Ellie: 00:09

So they used to buy things in the store. They had checkbooks and so they would have to record any checks that they got. They would have to record if they wrote a check to buy something. So the focus in that one was really trying to learn how to balance a checkbook and use a checkbook. There wasn't so much of the online banking at the time. Um, so that was something that we were still doing, you know, with actual paper. So, they really enjoyed that. They had a great time with that. And so we did have to set aside time though for actual shopping in the store and balancing the checkbooks and recording everything. So we did have to set time aside for that every day or every week, so we could keep up with that.

But then when I started in middle school, there was already a system of bucks in place or team money. So… we had three to four different teams, depending on how they configured us all, but there were 13 different classrooms, and so we had X-bucks because we were Team Extreme,

Ellie: 00:10

and we had a certain design for our bucks. And then the other teams had different designs for their bucks. So you could tell which team had which ones, which bucks belong to which team, and students could be given those bucks really for any positive behaviors. I don't think we really started them out with a certain number at the beginning of the year. Maybe we did, maybe we started them out with five.

They were each just worth one. They were just one, one buck. And so any positive behavior like participating in class. If they were walking down the hall and we saw them picking up a piece of paper that was lying in the hallway and throwing it away in the garbage, they could get a buck for that.

Helping other students. Anything really that showed good character, positive behavior was something that they could be noticed for and then given a buck for. And any teacher on any team could give them a buck. Like, if they were down the hallway at somebody else's classroom and they were, you know, they saw a student that dropped their books and they decided to stop and help them

Ellie: 00:11

pick it up, then that teacher might decide to give them a buck and then they could be honored on your own team or on any team. And so they would use those for things like going to their locker…they would have to use a buck because we, we also had a demerit system. So we didn't take their bucks away from them, but they got demerits for certain things. And if they had forgotten something in their locker, and they had to go to their locker, they would get a demerit. But if they had a buck, they could pay for that and then they wouldn't get a demerit and they would basically just buy a locker visit.

So they could use it for that. They could use them to buy maybe homework passes, or like you said, the class might decide to combine their bucks and get extra recess or a game day or a party or things like that. Um, I kind of feel like they were allowed to use them to get lunch…get at the front of the lunch line even. And things like that.

One of the really big things

Ellie: 00:12

that we did…one of the big benefits of earning and saving their bucks was at the end of the year, we had a big picnic. And we would do gift card drawings so they could take all of their bucks that they still had, and write their name on the back, and put them into the drawing.

And we did a, a lot of gift cards and so we would end up with this huge bag full of bucks from all the kids in all the 6th grade classes. Then, you know, we would pull their names and they could win gift cards.

So that was a big benefit of saving their bucks.

Brittany

That’s neat. Yeah.

Ellie

Yeah.

Brittany You reminded me of a couple things. Once quarter, we would have an auction. And so they could bring in stuff. They'd have to bring a note signed by their parent saying that they were allowed to sell that item.

Um, but they could auction off toys that they were done with, or a soda, or something like that.

And then they'd get to keep those bucks that they, they earned

Brittany: 00:13

from their auction item. And then also, like I mentioned, our, you know, our bucks were different colors, and I don't know if you noticed this, um, but in ours some teachers were more lenient about giving money and others were less. And the kids noticed it and gave, started having like an economy within the economy, where some teachers' money was more valuable than others.

And so they'd be like, you know, Ms. Williams doesn't give out money as much, so I don't have a $20 bill from Ms. Williams. That's really rare.

I'll give you a $50 from Ms. Abbott if I can have a $20 from Ms. Williams and they would actually

Brittany: 00:14

collect them. And it was, it was just very interesting how they like, wanted a full collection of every dollar. And it had a value system and everything.

Ellie

That's very interesting.

Brittany

And then at the end of the year, there was always a group of kids who would take a whole bunch of money and put it in a coffee can and then bury it somewhere on the playground for the next year's kids to find.

Ellie

Oh, that’s great.

Brittany

And then that became like a tradition, and then the next year some the kids would go, like, dig in the playground to try to find the money that was left from the previous year.

Ellie

That's awesome.

Brittany

It's like, “You can't use it. It has a different year on it. It's not valuable…”

Ellie

Oh my gosh, that's so funny.

Brittany

But yeah.

Ellie

Well, do we have any tips for any teachers who might just be starting with the classroom economy?

Ellie: 00:15

Any tips to make it easier?

Brittany

I would say it takes a while to get the kids used to it.

You do have to decide your system and follow it consistently.

Ellie

Very true.

Brittany

You can't waver. If you waver, the kids are gonna take advantage of that. And you know, they're smart enough at a middle school age to know how to worm the system if you're not consistent.

So you've gotta be consistent and you've got to toe the line, especially at the beginning, so that they know there are rules and there are fines, there are rewards. And you're going to follow them.

Ellie: 00:16

Right. And I think in order to be consistent like that, don't make it too complicated, especially to begin with, you know, make it something simple. Make it something that doesn't end up being lot of extra work that makes it harder to maintain and harder to be consistent with. You know, try to maybe choose something simple, and basic for the first….

Brittany

Mm-Hmm.

Ellie

…year or even for the first couple months. And then if you feel like you've got a good handle on it and it's going well, you could always make some tweaks to it. Make some extra incentive type of things or, extra rules…

Brittany

Yeah.

Ellie

...to go in that economy.

Brittany

Yeah, definitely don't have like 20, 30, 40 rules. You know, stick to stick to like five positives, five negatives, and go with that, you know?

Um, also always have your money printed and ready to go. You don't wanna be writing on a sticky note, “I owe this person.”

Yeah.

Ellie

I owe you. Right.

Brittany

So make sure you always have plenty of money,

Brittany: 00:17

or bucks, or whatever on hand……in your desk or in your pocket or whatever you need. Ready to go.

Yeah.

Ellie

Right. I will say I was guilty of that once or twice. “I owe you an X-buck. When I get them copied……I will give it to you.”

Brittany

Yeah.

Ellie

Definitely don't want to have to do that.

Brittany

It does happen, but yeah, you wanna keep it to a minimum if you can.

And I do have classroom economy bucks in my store. I have small ones and big ones. The small ones are on my website, and the big ones are on TPT, so depending on what size you want…

Ellie

Oh, excellent. We'll link those in the show notes then. That's great.

Brittany

Anything else you can think of that would help?

Ellie

I think we're good for getting started.

Brittany

Yeah, maybe post your rules, post your store, like a poster up on the wall or up on a cabinet or something.

Ellie: 00:18

Right. That's a great idea. 'Cause then they're not always asking, what can I use this for? Or how much does it cost for this?

Brittany

Yeah.

Ellie

Good idea.

Brittany

All right, so today we've discussed what classroom economies are and how they can function in the classroom. We've explored a few different examples of this powerful tool that can help promote student engagement, help with positive behavior, and teach some financial responsibility along the way.

Although we'd like behavior to be intrinsic within students, that isn't always possible at the middle school age. So, if you're looking for a way to help guide your students to be better behaved, try a classroom economy system.

Ellie

If you are loving this show, please feel free to write us a review on Apple Podcast. That helps others decide if they would like to listen in as well.

Brittany

Have a great day.

Ellie

See you next time.

Brittany

Happy Holidays listeners. We are going to be taking a short break for December.  

Ellie

We will be back on January 2nd, 2024 with new episodes for you. Have a great holiday season.