School Spirit Token Initiative

Token Initiative – Beginning In an effort to engage students in school and extracurricular activities, and develop and enhance a stronger sense of school spirit, we are starting the Token Initiative. There is a great deal of research surrounding token economy and its effectiveness in garnering a desired target behavior. Many have heard of this system in conjunction with behaviors in the classroom that disrupt the learning environment, or cause problems in other areas of the school. Essentially, if the target behavior is observed, the student receives the agreed upon token. If the secret to student engagement was to get kids to participate in school spirit events, then tokens could be used as the reward for showing up, taking part and being a positive member of school life.

Student Incentive When thinking of ways to create more student engagement at MHS, we believe that the token system has some value. If we could give the students incentive to come to school events by activating their competitive instincts in a “friendly” way, we could create opportunities to interact as a student body, and feel connected to a group of people striving for the same goal; the goal of winning as a group. If we can get them back to the building, after the mandatory 8:10 a.m. – 3:10 p.m., we can begin to gather as a student body, as the Warriors.

Conundrum Our school is small, but we have many sports teams. We have a few clubs, and our student council offers activities to bring the student body together. How can we get students to come and cheer on their teams? How do we get more high school students out to a dance? How do we offer all – nighters when only 10 people sign up? How do we ultimately get our students to feel more pride about our school and more of a sense of belonging? These are some of the problems that MHS has been having. This deflates the students who are trying so hard to have these events; it makes them question their usefulness, and we have lost a few as a result. The student engagement team, made up of some members of our staff, has decided to give the token initiative a chance.

Process The first thing that needs to be done is to decide on the type of token that will be used (see token created at CNBA last year). A small wooden ‘coin’ can be designed with our school crest. A deposit station will need to be built whereby students place their coins when they receive them. The deposit station will be divided into 2 slots that will represent the 2 teams (purple and gold); it will be placed at the entrance to the school so that students can check their progress regularly. Announcements will be made regularly to incite a competitive spirit and get more kids out to events that support MHS. Next, we will need to make the teams.

Process Continued… Names will be randomly selected with a combination of middle and high school students, as well as teachers and Educational Assistants. Once the teams are made, each team will meet and together they can make up a team name, create a flag, and talk strategy about how they will make sure they gather the most tokens for the win.

Process Continued… In an assembly, the rules will be explained and students will be told what they will get tokens for, and what the most tokens at the end of a span of time will get them. This is what they will be told: 1. Any student or staff who participates in an extracurricular or school – related activity in excess of 20 minutes will get one token. 2. Sometimes there will be special events that will gain them more than 1 token; for example, wearing your school clothing to an event. If there is not a staff member with tokens at your event, remind administration that you earned one. Three teachers/staff a day will hand out the “golden tokens”. They will be handed out for good citizenship. 5. The team with the most tokens at the end of a month will win a prize of their choice. They will be given options like a pizza party, or a movie night, etc. And the winning team for the year will receive a larger prize.

Initiate the Activities Once the students understood the system, we will initiate the activities. We can have an activity afternoon using our teams and have a flag ceremony to introduce team names and gain some momentum with the initiative.

Examples of Theme Days (CNBA):

Twin Day

Team Flag Celebration

Beanbag Toss

Celebrating a Banner

Any Questions? Let’s watch school spirit rise!