Getting Students to Invest in Keeping the Room Clean?

Hello r/education! I could use a soundboard or a discussion with fellow teachers.

I currently teach high school ESOL students at a new-to-me-school. Every day, my students leave my room in a new state of disarray. Small pieces of paper thrown on the floor, a head's worth of loose hair in clumps caught on the legs of the desks, assignments shoved into the small cracks on my bookshelf, broken pencils (my pencils) strewn about, dirt from the bottom of their shoes accumulating underneath their desks, a fine layer of dust covering every surface. I mean, it's just too much to keep up with. Daily I try to pick up by sweeping, putting pencils where they belong, throwing away the forgotten assignments and papers, etc. But honestly, I just can't keep up. With everything else I have to do, I can't keep the room clean on top of it all.

So I have an idea, but it's like half an idea. I want my kids to start cleaning up my room for points. This chore will be five points, another chore might be 10 points. Classes can earn points and the first class to get, say, 50 points will receive some award (pizza or donuts or extra credit or cell phone time or whatever).

So far the list of cleaning tasks I have come up with are:

1. Sweep
2. Pick up trash on floor
3. Sanitize desks/door handles
4. Dust bookshelf or other dusty areas
5. Put pencils on floor back where they belong

In the effort of creating dialogue, what are your thoughts? Should I make it so the classes aren't competing but instead working collectively to reach the reward? How can I structure this so that kids aren't sweeping 5x a day (when it only needs to be swept every day or every other day)? I'm not asking for students to do hard labor, just that they be mindful of their space and my space that I have worked so hard to decorate and put together. Is this something parents would complain about that would land me in hot water? I don't think I'm being outrageous here but I would appreciate some outside perspectives.

Submitted November 01, 2023 at 05:35AM by Veggiemnstr https://ift.tt/bKPCcmp