Class Competition

I tried something like this two years ago and then last year the students asked me why I stopped. I thought it was a failure but they thought it was fun? It involved hundreds of laminated little game pieces, flags on the wall, and leveling up.

I guess I get so stuck on this idea because I'm somewhat of a grades "purist"- I think grades should only be about content, like quizzes and tests. I don't think students should earn grades for being organized or responsible or showing up.

But I do think they should be held accountable in some way. Colleagues of mine get reallllll hung up on daily points and homework grades. My thinking is to make a list/chart and keep data without putting it in the grade book.

I just want to keep my list/chart in the form of a scoreboard for a competition between classes. If you're going to keep data and compare, why not have some fun with it?

Here are my ideas so far for ways to win points every week:

• Class with best attendance percentage
• Class with highest score on Mental Math Mondays
• Class with least amount of borrowed pencils (lol, gotta do something!)
• Class with highest average (Is that a good or bad idea?)

Bonus Opportunities

• When a student asks a really good question (since that's my major focus this year)
• Class that brings the most Kleenex
• Class that gets their Composition Notebooks the quickest
• Class that texts my Remind app the quickest
• Class that dresses up the most during Spirit Week

I want to have a cool scoreboard either on PowerPoint or SMART Notebook so I can update scores and they can see how they compare. I'd like to post it in the classroom but I feel like that would be to tempting for students to mess with.

And of course the point of all of this....what is the prize?

The winning class is going to get an awesome afternoon toward the end of school. My plan is food and drink and go outside and do water stuff...water balloons, giant slip and slide, water guns, etc.

I think it sounds awesome. But first I have to get it approved. 

I would love your input and opinions or if you have an awesome scoreboard thing already created :)

I also need an awesome name for this competition. Ideas so far: Survivor Games, Math Wars, Math Games. 

Should I make a list of ways to earn points for each student? Or make a poster? Or make a giant wheel of points that they spin each time they win for a random amount of points?  I have this awesome magnetic spinner that I can't wait to use!