[TeacherDude24]

I am interested in doing some sort of classroom economy in middle school. I need it to be easy to manage and have them do most of the work. I don't want to deal with actual money, so they will have to just do debits and credits. It's the keeping track of the debits and credits that is going to be hard to manage. Any ideas?

[cardinallady]

I plan to use a classroom economy in my 7th grade classes next year. I have the same issue that you do. I'm considering selecting a responsible student in each class period to be the banker/accountant as their job. They can help me keep up with this.

I'm interested to hear other ideas.

[MiddlingAZ]

I want to hear more about this!

[cincyteacher]

I don't use classroom economy but a good place to get some good details would be beth newinghams webpage. she teaches third grade but the concept is still the same. And all of her students do all of the work.

http://hill.troy.k12.mi.us/staff/bnewingham/myweb3/

[Lstrm]

Have you ever heard of Mini-Society or Mini-Economy? These started out as hands-on ways to teach economy to elementary students but have spread to middle and high school. I took a couple of classes before using this as a teaching tool with kids, but it's great. It was especially fun when several of us had our classes doing it at once because our classes were so small. You can start out using this as your economy and then have it culminate in a market day. Along the way, many of the social studies strands will be taught naturally.

Here are a couple of sites with information:

http://cob.jmu.edu/econed/minisociety.htm

http://www.vcee.org/programs-awards/view/3

[7/8 teacher]

The other middle school teacher last year used a token economy system, but it became hard for her to manage. She had Mrs. W bucks that she gave out for good behavior and grades. The other middle school teacher and I want to try a system this year. We have discussed having responsible students help keep track to make it eaiser on us.

[Lstrm]

That is the way that Mini-Society is set up. The class decides on the jobs that need to be done as the teacher will do nada. These students are paid for doing their jobs. Keeping track of who turned in homework is a paid job. The bookkeeper is a job. The person who dispenses the money is a job. The person whose design is picked for the money is a job. All the teacher does is facilitate meetings on how things are going, making economic connections to the real world.

[cooknlearn]

These can vary from school to school, student to student, and can work if implemented properly. I have used various rewards in the past, such as homework passes for those who turn in their homework on time and issued during mid-term and at the end of the 9 weeks. However, after my last school year 2010-2011, I decided to come up with a system of my own. I am using dollars that I will design and the students will be responsible for keeping up with them. I will print them on certain cardstock paper and laminate so that I can reuse them each year. What I'm proposing is to come up with a list of items that are to be used in my store and not so costly for me, such as Kool-Aid packets (kids like to put these in bottle water, paper, pens, pencils, blank cd's vs mixed rap cd's, stickers, memo pads/stationary sometimes you can find really cheap at Michael's. $10 - pencil, $25 - Mechanical pencils or 5 sheets of notebook, $30-pen $50 15-minutes computer time at the end of class $100 Homework Pass. Debits and Credits sounds like a lot of extra work. My way, they earn them/they keep up with bucks, and purchase when the store is open. Middle school token economies will be a lot different than elementary schools. I'm going to pose a fine if they break any rules such as writing/passing notes in class, talking to peers, or talking without raising hand in my classroom. I'm posing the fine in my classroom because I've decided to give at my discretion, that if they've done a good thing outside of my classroom like good citizenship or handled a situation properly walked away from a fight, etc. I will give surprise bucks for that which allows them to earn all day. For my classroom rules that I specify NO WARNING, like being in seat when tardy bell rings and they aren't no buck earned, but school consequences set in like, sitting at the quiet table for lunch. I'm still working on the plan and $ amount for prizes, but if your school has Title I funds, the school can purchase bulk items or the PTA. The idea for me is the inclusion students need to be able to earn and purchase bucks; therfore, I can't set all prizes too high. You could also include some of these items on your Wish List at the beginning of the school year, and put the cost of the items on the parents or community donations.

[upnorth]

I used a modified form of Beth's economy (found on Scholastic's website) for three years in my third grade classroom. It was a smashing success. I'm moving back to middle school this year and want to include some type of economy there as well. There are some factors that will inhibit the type of economy I used in third grade. I wrote checks and had a student manned bank once a week. This was time consuming and won't work with the time I have with my 7th graders. The store that I did once a month was also time consuming. I'm thinking it out this summer. I'll be watching your other responses for more ideas.

[caball15]

I plan to do some type of token system in my Math 7 classroom. I plan on giving students tickets. It is the students responsibility to keep the tickets safe. Students will earn tickets for doing their homework, good behavior, and volunteering. Other small thinks students do might earn them tickets. With these tickets students will be able to buy different school supplies like pencils, notebooks, and even binders. I teach in a low income community and my students are always asking for school supplies. I plan on also having other small items for their purchase. But the other thinks I was thinking of doing is having a raffle or auction for bigger prizes like movies tickets or gift cards at the end of each quarter.

So that it is not a lot of work on me and do so time consuming since we only get 50 mins for class I plan on having students help with the work. When students come in to my classroom they must line up outside my door so that I can check their homework. I stamp that students homework as they come in. While students are doing their warm-up I will have a student go around a pass out tickets to the students who have the stamp. And as for buy supplies I will only sell during class if student absolutely need the supply at that moment. Other than that I plan on giving 15-20 mins maybe every two weeks for a store.

[amilya213]

I agree with upnorth. I am not sure how I am going to implement this but I loev the idea. I was thinking about maybe having a catalog (one sheet with a list of items) and having hte students fill out an order form - something real simple - as their exit slip for the end of the day on the last day of the month. Then I could have it all out and ready when the student comes back to school the following day - on their desk. Or I could have someone do this job for me - the "store clerk" could be in charge of distributing these items although I'm sure that would take some time too.

[amilya213]

If you look at the scholasitc website and view the video it makes more sense to have a small book with debits and credits instead of handing out tickets. Then no one needs to design money either. or waste the paper /lamination. instead of using a tally mark (which students could replicate) i use a stamp from boslands/acmoore that im pretty sure the students wouldn't find. then if the student is misbehaving i can use good 'ol silent consequences by coming over and stamping the "debit" side.