Ask Polly Bath: Using Rewards in Hopes of Good Behavior?
Date: October 1st, 2025
Polly answers the question: “Should students who misbehave frequently get rewarded to be good?”
Curriculum, School Store, & Behavior
Date: July 23rd, 2025
Here’s how one teacher I met connected intrinsic rewards with curriculum, school values, the school store, and behavior. Brilliant!
Ask Polly Bath: Rewards as Motivation?
Date: December 15th, 2024
Polly answers the question: “I’m under a lot of pressure to use rewards in my second grade class to get kids to behave, but I saw a video of you on social media saying that can be a bad idea. But what can I do instead?”
Ask Polly Bath: Rewarded for Bad Behavior?
Date: June 16th, 2024
Polly answers the question: “One of my students was yelling, kicking chairs, and tearing down our bulletin boards so I had him escorted to the office. But when I walked by the office a while later I saw the child eating cookies! I’ll be honest, I WASN’T happy!! Why is this ok?”
When a Reward System Breaks Down
Date: September 20th, 2023
When it comes to a reward system, don’t over-reward and don’t have a kid on one if they’re able to manipulate the system.
Ask Polly: Motivating Students
Date: November 19th, 2022
Polly answers the question: “My 6th graders are completely apathetic in class. How can I motivate them?”
Screen Time as a Behavior Reward?
Date: July 3rd, 2022
‘Screen time’ as a reward does not teach social skills. Which means you could be making social skills worse by using screen time as a reward.
Do Your Behavior Rewards FAIL?
Date: August 29th, 2021
As a behavior expert who consults all over the country, I can tell you, systems that OVER-REWARD behaviors do not get the results they hoped for! Here’s why…
Motivating the Remote Learner (confession at the end!)
Date: August 15th, 2020
During this time of virtual learning, one of the biggest behavior problems we face is HOW to MOTIVATE our students! Here are my thoughts and some research, too. [Zimmerman, B. J. (2002). Becoming a self-regulated learner: An overview. Theory Into Practice, 41(2), 64-70.]
Sugar-Coated Control?
Date: June 3rd, 2020
Are rewards backfiring on you? (Thanks to Rheta DeVries for “sugar-coated control.”)
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