Clamoring for stickers

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Last week, I was horrified and pretty sheepish when I realized that I was handing out the obscene little sticker pictured here to my students. Oops! Who knows how many of them I handed out before realizing that that little cartoon man had his pants pulled down?! I bought a few sheets of stickers at the school supply store to revitalize my sticker offerings, which were getting a little stale. On the same busy-looking sheet of stickers as this offender were other cartoon heroes like Doraemon and Futureman, but I don’t know who this half-naked joker is or why he slipped in there (or why it took me several weeks to notice, for that matter!) Maybe it’s a cultural thing and not considered inappropriate (?).

Partway through the term, I got out the stickers I had brought from home, as an experiment. My classes were still pretty rowdy at times and the students weren’t always careful with their work. I wasn’t sure how they would react and/or if the stickers would have any impact whatsoever, but they were a tremendous crowd-control device and good-work motivator for all the students. I figured it was a novelty thing and that the effect would wear off, but it never did and is still going strong. I’ve only rejuvenated the sticker selection a couple times, but it is still working like magic. They literally clamor for stickers, as though they have been sticker-deprived.

For those of you pedagogues reading this, I know all about the theory that extrinsic motivators, like stickers, and teacher praise can take away intrinsic motivation, which is why I was somewhat cautious about the use of stickers at first. However, I’ve also never fully bought into that theory. In my own case, I was just as mad for a sticker or a piece of candy as the next person, but I think I was still just as intrinsically motivated to want to do well. The sticker/candy was just the cherry on top, so to speak. I think this may be the case for a lot of students. At any rate, I maintained a standard for getting the sticker and was also careful to make sure that every day wasn’t a sticker day, thus leaving a little more intrigue. Sometimes I would come in and right away the kids would say “Teacher, sticker? Sticker?” To which I would have to reply, “Let’s see how much learning we can do today.” Evasive and mysterious. I completely endorse the use of stickers with the students at my school. In this case, it worked well in motivating the students to be better listeners and take more care with their work.

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Comments

[Courtney]

Dang, how could I have been so daft to forget about the use of stickers! That would have helped....haha

[Tammy]

Can I get one of those offending stickers? That's hilarious!

[lkrhoads]

I should have saved some for people at home- I didn't even think of it! I was so embarassed about passing them out that I threw the rest away. Except for one that I have stuck to my laptop, but I filled in the red shorts with marker to make it decent!