Why do teachers use lotteries!?!?

amother

↑ Daphne ↓

Mon, Nov 18 2024, 6:09 pm

Also to add, there is no perfect reward system- each one has drawbacks.
For example, store method where you earn “money” to buy prizes- well what if student loses their money. So put money in envelope on wall. Well what if a kid tampers with it. So let teacher keep it- but where the accountability and responsibility.
Also, sometimes certain kids are more noticeable and so they get the most points, when in reality, some of the quieter, but less seen students are more deserving.
Points can also be too abstract for some kids, some kids want a tangible reminder they’re doing well.
My point is all these incentives programs have flaws and most teachers are trying to do the best job they can and I am surprised that people are so quick to put down the teachers - teachers who are going through the motions of putting in effort and money on behalf of your child.

amother

Nasturtium

Mon, Nov 18 2024, 6:13 pm

My father is a rebbi for younger boys, and they love lotteries (the suspense of guessing who won etc). However, he always always marks down who won and somehow, every person gets a turn before anyone gets twice, and usually the person who won deserved to win especially that day. It works because it's a young grade and it keeps everyone happy.
If this was my kid, I would call up the teacher. No reason to teach kids that working hard does not bring you results.

amother

↑ Linen ↓

Mon, Nov 18 2024, 6:27 pm

amother Nasturtium wrote:

If this was my kid, I would call up the teacher. No reason to teach kids that working hard does not bring you results.

I think, unless you are going to offer to subsidize the teacher's prizes, this isn't going to be an effective (or fair) approach.

I hope this is an eye opening thread for many people, because it is clear that so many take a lot of what teachers provide for granted and don't realize how much of it comes out of their own pocket.

listenhere

Mon, Nov 18 2024, 6:39 pm

I tell my kids that if the reward is a raffle, they need to assume that they won’t win. The odds are against them.

They should pretend there is no reward, and behave and participate like they always need to anyway. It’s a good opportunity to discuss reasons why they’d want to do well themselves.

Then, if they do win, it’s a real bonus.

↑ watergirl

Mon, Nov 18 2024, 6:47 pm

amother Daphne wrote:

So much hating on the teachers! Even name calling (lazy).
I will attempt to defend the teachers. Disclaimer: I am not a teacher.
Teachers work so hard and their salaries do not reflect that. And they have to use their own money to pay for some of their supplies, as well as incentives. A raffle, with tickets that give immediate gratification, are useful in classroom control. Parents are upset that their kids are upset that they didn’t win and want kids to see a tangible benefit to their efforts.
Well here’s what we can be modeling to our kids: not everyone can be a winner, no matter what society tells us. Yes, It’s sad not to win, it’s frustrating to try so hard and not get the prizes. Tell your child you see their effort and acknowledge their feelings. Validate that It’s hard to be happy for a friend who wins- Especially when you feel you deserve it more. Not winning doesn’t diminish the effort. There’s always next time, maybe Hashem will make your ticket be chosen.
And parents, if you feel the prizes are essential, why not purchase the prize yourself or provide your own incentives so your children get a guaranteed reward.

Thank you teachers!

The teachers are not lazy. The classroom management system is.

amother

Indigo

Mon, Nov 18 2024, 6:47 pm

amother Mulberry wrote:

I run a weekly learning program in shul, and I give kids a choice. Raffle tickets to compete for larger $15-20 prizes or a guaranteed small $1 prize. Most kids want the raffle tickets, but one or two choose the small prizes.

Men run weekly learning programs

amother

Red ↓

Mon, Nov 18 2024, 6:54 pm

amother Linen wrote:

I don't love raffles but it's pretty simple as to why some use them: it's much more cost effective to buy one reward than having to buy several individual ones.
Especially considering that most teachers use their own money to buy prizes.

This.

Prizes cost money and kids don't care about small prizes. There's no motivation factor with small prizes. They literally don't care.

I buy prizes for my class, and give out tickets liberally. Yes. Not everyone will win a big prize. I usually do 1 bigger prizes and 3-4 smaller prizes (each of which still costs $1-5).

I also give out praise super liberally, little nachas notes jotted down on sticky notes to go home, smile face stamps, and candy/snacks (a few jelly beans, a pack of sippies, a winkie...) as I teach.

I don't get paid enough to do a classroom sale every month with prizes that your child will actually care to earn. That would mean having a "store" of 30-40 prizes that are "worth" the hundred tickets your child earned. It doesn't add up.

I'll also add that I don't use raffles to control my class. That's ineffective. It's one thing I do a few times a year to make some excitement. Classroom control is won and maintained with interesting lessons, a good presence, and a good, warm dynamic between the kids and teacher.

amother

↑ Linen ↓

Mon, Nov 18 2024, 6:55 pm

watergirl wrote:

The teachers are not lazy. The classroom management system is.

I've worked in a variety of schools and not all are equal when it comes to student behavior, parental support, and administrative back up.
In the school I'm currently at, the paperwork/prep/grading is the easy part, and takes the least amount of my energy. Student behavior management is the hardest. We've had 3 teachers quit so far this year, one in the first couple weeks of school and it's only mid November. (This is pretty typical. The school easily hires new teachers because the salary scale is one of the higher ones from the community schools in the area, but it has a really hard time retaining them.) I promise you, the teachers who are using prize incentives to manage their classrooms are not in any way being lazy, and neither are their systems.

amother

↑ Red

Mon, Nov 18 2024, 6:59 pm

watergirl wrote:

The teachers are not lazy. The classroom management system is.

It's cost effective, not lazy.

Especially because kids have higher expectations these days.

I tell my class every year that when I was in fourth grade our reward for doing birchas Yaakov by heart, once straight thru and once with English translation, was.... A can of 7 up. That's it. And you had to be perfect to get it.

I don't want to out the school I teach at because the prize they get, that they aren't even particularly excited about, would cost over $45 a person retail. (Yes, I assume they get a wholesale discount, although one of the items is personalized.)

A can of soda barely cuts it anymore as a motivator. My own third grader told me today that he gets a soda for every four days of homework completion but it's "not worth it" because I give soda for the shabbos day meal at home. For the whole birchas Yaakov? No way would that fly.

amother

Jade ↓

Mon, Nov 18 2024, 7:06 pm

Raffles are thrilling and fun and can be done tastefully. It's not bad for kids to learn how to lose.

If its a small prize, not the main insentive system, and you aren't having the kids work crazy hard for it, I say go for it!

I remember raffles from when I was a kid, I don't know how teachers pulled it off but we all had a turn to win. I think. It was a long time ago. Maybe it worked because I had a small class.

↑ keym ↓

Mon, Nov 18 2024, 7:33 pm

My problem is when schools do a raffle for a huge accomplishment and 1 or 2 huge prizes
A ticket for every boy who does shnayim mikra vechad targum for the entire sefer braishis and the winner wins a bike. Everyone else gets a soda can.
That is not fair. To push a bunch of 11,12,13 year olds to learn all or most of the Parsha for 12 weeks and they get a soda can and 1 boy gets a bike.

It's one thing if everyone who participated gets a sefer, or a sponsored lunch or something and a few raffles slightly less glamorous.

I actually don't mind frequent small raffles that a child knows happens frequently enough that he'll win eventually. (In my boys school, 5th and 6th grade Rebbeim get donuts when former students, now in 7th or 8th grade put on tefillin. Most Rebbeim will raffle off the donut but then mark off who got already so everyone gets a chance. I'm ok with that )

Im just not ok with encouraging big projects for a raffle.

camp123

Mon, Nov 18 2024, 8:15 pm

amother Red wrote:

This is the problem, we have inflated prizes so much that to be motivating they have to be expensive, hence the raffles. The system is extremely broken bc we have spoiled our kids. I try my best to tell my kids that they are unlikely to win the raffle and I try to explain to them why they should anyway work hard and aim to do well. We need to build the inner motivation for our kids, and stop with all these rewards. When you constantly educate your kids to be greatful for what they have and happy in other people's success the raffles will bother them less.
I do hate the raffles anyway because it's playing with their emotions, the expectation and hope, the thrill and then the disappointment is not healthy imo.

amother

Zinnia

Mon, Nov 18 2024, 8:22 pm

I'm a teacher.
No lotteries.
No prizes either. You do your hw for5 weeks and get a tiny nothing prize. I tell the girls that the reason the prize is so minor because hw should be done regardless, this is just tiny perk.

My classroom is SO FUN!! lots of laughing and learning. You can totally teach without prizes.

amother

Maple

Mon, Nov 18 2024, 10:05 pm

Tindle wrote:

You said it so well - "All that hard work goes in the trash." Exactly.

I hate raffles. I hate them!

I'm thinking about calling his rebbe. Just to tell him what's going on for my son when he comes home and his reaction. I won't be confrontational but maybe ask if there's something else that might work. I really might call him. It's just not ok and not fair.

For some of my classes that really need external motivation (yes, we'd love for everyone to be motivated intrinsically but it doesn't work for everyone.) I do "punch cards" - EVERYONE gets a punch card that they keep with them. They earn punches for different things through out the lesson. Whenever a student gets 10 punches, she chooses a prize. Everyone wins, there's constant positive feedback (collecting punches, even if you didn't finish your card that day) and it's really not a hard system to maintain. At all.

I still don't get why teachers use raffles. I really don't. And I'm anti-raffles too!! Glad to hear that I'm not alone!! (Unfortunately, you're not my son's rebbe. Mad

)

This is a great idea! Unless you're me, who would lose their punch card constantly and hate themselves for it.

amother

↑ Linen ↓

Yesterday at 3:37 am

keym wrote:

I hear what you are saying, but I am sure it comes down to cost. A boy of that age, with that sort of project is simply not going to be motivated by a doughnut or a homework pass or such. The type of prize that would be exciting enough to motivate this kind of work is simply too much to expect a teacher to pay for multiple times.

The solution to this is for parents to donate/subsidize, or get the school to provide (which anyway goes back to the parents as the school budget comes from tuition--are you ok with a tuition increase or parent requirement to participate in a fund for this....).

amother

Clover

Yesterday at 4:51 am

My husband is a Rebbe and he has a class currency system and a prize store on Rosh Chodesh. He also has had a few very generous parents donate money for prizes. They recognize that prize money is coming out of our family's budget, they want their kids to have good prizes, and are willing to help make that happen! It doesn't mean he isn't spending any money on prizes, but he can get much better things.

In one of his classes, the prize is a piece of tape. He got this idea from an incredible rebbe in another city. When kids have great answers or are participating or do HW etc he gives them a piece of colored tape and they all have a ball were they keep their tape and add to it. The kids are so excited to see who has the biggest tape ball at the end of the year. They love it, they feel recognized and motivated, and they're not even getting a prize - it's like the "ticket" itself is the prize.

amother

Babypink

Yesterday at 1:03 pm

In my sons class, they get raffle tickets but were counted as points that they could save up. At the end of the week / month they are able to exchange them for prizes - more tickets would earn better prizes. The boys also use the tickets to trade / sell their drinks cans / candy for tickets!