A UNIQUE CLASSROOM ECONOMY

Classroom Management techniques with financial strategies

CLASSROOM JOBS, RENT & PENALTIES

Classrooms can be very busy places and teachers have to find ways of organising and managing them. One way that teachers can do this is by creating a classroom economy. Yes, a classroom economy - well a mini classroom economy. This happens by creating a unique ecosystem in your classroom that runs on a financial system you create for your classroom.

In this financial system, you create your own money for your students, a bank, classroom jobs, rental systems, a market place, etc.

How it works

So here is how it works. Your students get a basic amount of ‘money ’ from you, each term. Then, they have to find ways of increasing this money, as they spend it, or ways of not reducing their cash. In order to increase their money, they need to take up jobs which you create in the classroom for which they are paid weekly, after showing proof of having done the job well. So for example you hire a student to clean the board at the end of each school day and pay them with your classroom currency every week.

Classroom rentals

You will also need to put up systems in place that demand their money, for example they need to ‘rent’ the facilities in the classroom like their own desks and chairs, weekly. This generally stimulates a responsibility to earn money so that they do not lose their classroom furniture or other incentives.

A market place

There is also the incentive to spend their money at your market place where they can get rewards or privileges which you create for the class. Then of course, there are fines for not keeping to class rules, not doing homework on time, etc. This should not however replace other punitive measures in the classroom but can be an additional measure.

The Bank of ‘Your Classroom’

The classroom bank should have a banker who keeps records of everyone’s money so that they can save or withdraw it. This economic system is used for classroom and behaviour management and at the same teaches students about financial management.

If you can achieve this in your classroom you can consider building a larger economy by printing more ‘money’ and integrating the whole Year group into the same economy. At a higher scale, the whole school can have a behaviour management system that works through a unique economy.

A TEACHER’S PERSONAL ECONOMY

It’s no news that there is a new trend across the world of hyper inflation and teachers need to find new ways of making ends meet. This means that you need new strategy to maintain your local economy (your lifestyle). What can be done to ensure that you survive this challenging period?

Transport

Instead of driving your car to work everyday, if you have one, why don’t you start a car share with colleagues? This means a group of colleagues use the same car to come to school each day, thereby reducing the cost to each individual - of course this means the cost of running that car is shared and it could be limited to a period of time before switching to another car.

If you do not have a car, you need to explore your current transport options and see if you are better served sharing a commercial cab. again, costs can be shared by yourself and your colleagues. if this is still not an option, try exploring the current means of public transport you take, to see if you can cut costs by taking a different route or by adding a short walk to school with your current transport route.

Energy

Whether, you use gas, kerosene or petrol to generate power or for cooking, you may need to review energy costs. This is also applicable for your electricity bills. Can you identify new ways to cut costs?

In a facebook post, someone was discussing how he decided that everyone in his household should now take cold water baths to save the cost of boiling hot water. This may not be suited to your lifestyle but what can you cut that was amounting to a waste of energy?

We can save energy by making sure we switch off all energy consuming devices when we leave a room, go to bed a little earlier, reduce the flames under our pots once the food begins to boil; cook less frequently and thaw food using sunlight. In fact I was told by a friend of how food can be warmed by leaving it in a car under the sun until you are ready to eat it. This may seem extreme, but it is currently a method in use, near you. For those fuelling generators, you might want to turn them off sooner than later or delay switching them on by an hour or two.

Feeding

Making changes to feeding habits can also lower costs. For example, taking lunch with you to school, from home instead of buying it at work. Ensuring that you do not waste foods by using poor preservation methods or wastage, from having more than what you need at one time (when you do not have a means to preserve it).

One can generally cut costs of food by finding alternative brands for expensive items. One can also choose alternative foods. As a general rule, popular food brands are more expensive than unknown brands. If you shop in a modern supermarket always remember, that the more expensive brands are at eye level, while the cheaper ones are below, requiring you to bend or stoop to view them.

Eating fresh foods bought directly from the market may be cheaper than eating factory produced foods; cutting out sweet drinks from your diet will also reduce your costs. Now is the time to consider visiting the abattoir to buy meat directly than buying them in the market or a shop. Visit local markets to also cut your costs and consider buying foods that you can afford.

Eating healthy

Carbohydrates tend to be more common around us and may be cheaper than proteins which are necessary to your diet. Remember eggs may be a cheaper protein, more suitable for certain meals. Groundnuts are also a great source of protein which can be gotten cheaply in comparison to others. Use the food pyramid to guide your diet choices.

While you plan to review your budget and by extension your diet, remember that the more colourful a meal is, the healthier it is.

Health Care

Many years ago, I was visiting Lagos, when was admitted to a friend’s private hospital (I was ill with Malaria). That day, I learned for myself that a hotel room can be cheaper than a hospital bed, so I learned more about taking care of my health.

Use public hospitals, especially for major procedures

If you live in a city where many government hospitals are available, use them. Many of the medical doctors and consultants of high merit in private hospitals, tend to work in government hospitals and carry out private practice elsewhere. There are also best practices in use in government hospitals and an unknown private hospital may be cutting corners and may not refer you to another hospital because they want to make more money off you.

Find out what the best times to visit a general or teaching hospital owned by government, and attend at that time. It may be quite early in the morning for some hospitals or at anytime for others. It’s a lot cheaper to use a public hospital/medical centre, especially for surgeries and dental treatments.

I once had surgery in a public hospital in Abuja it was at least 10 times cheaper than the cost of the same surgery in an average Nigerian private hospital and the routines were international standard. The toilets could have been better managed, but I got excellent care in a pristine surgery so clean and cool, even I was shocked. I remember there were four medical personnel including at least two medical consultants and an anaesthetist. I prefer public hospitals because of the number of experts available in them.

A & E

Also, remember that at odd hours, when ill you should head for ‘accidents and emergencies’ (A&E). For those with serious illness that need surgery, it is sometimes the fastest way to get a surgery instead of waiting for months on a surgical queue so if the doctors offer to keep you for a few days to find a slot for surgery, you may consider not declining their offer. Nevertheless, do not use A&E when it’s not urgent because other people need it.

Keep a first aid kit at home for small emergencies and take good care of your health by eating well and/or taking food supplements when necessary.

I hope you have a great week. Please share this blog with other teachers.