It's been just over a week since the school year ended, and just over 20 years since I graduated with my Master's. Ouch. One of the things I'd like to devote more time to (i.e., ways to procrastinate doing what needs to be done) is publishing and describing some of the materials I've created and use to help make my work life easier. I've had the opportunity to be a CF mentor and new therapist mentor, and it's opened my eyes to some of the hardest things we face in the schools: organization and time management. The districts aren't ever going to hire "enough" speech therapists for our caseloads to be ideal, but there are things we can do to make the best use of our time in and out of sessions to hopefully make our caseloads manageable.
My boyfriend always tells me that he can tell how hard it is for me to go from 'school mode' to 'summer mode'. I always thought he was nuts, but he's right. I've kind of trained myself to be efficient while I'm at work, but I haven't yet figured out how to make that happen when I lose the structure of the school year, so that is pretty tough on me, mentally. If I can find someone who publishes a life guide for the summer, (and figure out a way to get the money to fix the things that need fixing around here), I'll be set.
Anyway, one of the things I'm proudest of this past year is having my highest number of dismissals ever - 20! There are a lot of reasons the number is so high: I started the year with 75 students, many of these students were inherited as 'near the end of therapy /r/ kids', they were kids due for a 3-year reevaluation who had been identified as 'mildly' language impaired in the midst of the pandemic so they were qualified with an error on the side of caution. A few of the kids told me that the reward system we used in Speech really motivated them to get done. They loved the rewards, but the idea of 'super powering' out of Speech made them want to work hard at home, earn the rewards, and then hang their graduation cap on the wall.
I had shared some background on the system I use with a few coworkers, who encouraged me to publish the system on my site. And that's what I've finally managed to do - and I'll be all social-media helpful and post a little more about it here so that if you're intrigued, you can learn a little more before you drop some hard-earned cash.
My Super Power Rewards System takes video game reward structures and turns them into a speech reward system. If you're familiar with games like Fortnite, Rocket League, Apex Legends, etc, you'll recognize some of these terms. Many video games that are free-to-play are moving to a season-based schedule so that they can keep people interested in the game without releasing new versions. Each season, there are different challenges for the player to beat to earn rewards that are special to that season. There are also 'loot drop' rewards that have different rarity levels assigned to them. If you beat all of the challenges for that season, you earn a season reward. If you don't, and that season ends, you're out of luck. I watch my boyfriend play these games a lot, and we play some games with the rarity loot drops. It makes it fun to do the same mission over and over, because you have a chance for some better equipment. And a few years ago, it dawned on me: doing the same thing over and over again to get something better is kind of what I do for a living... so my boyfriend has helped me to evolve some reward systems to include video game lore and structure, because most of the kids we work with have at least some knowledge of, and interest in, games.
This latest system I used during the 2023-2024 school year was fun. We had fun in Speech just by doing work! The first thing I did was create the challenges and seasons. I split the year into 4 seasons, and each season had 4 levels of challenges (Common, Rare, Epic, Legendary). One of those challenges included monthly challenges (so for Season 1, the challenge was to beat the September and October challenges to beat that color challenge). If a student beat all of the season challenges, they got a season reward. Simple enough, right? But how was I going to track it and keep them motivated?
The tracking was easy. I just printed out the challenge sheet for each student and stapled it to their data sheet, and kept tally track on that. I'd highlight the challenge when it was completed. But I wanted them to see it, too. So then I designed Super Power badges. These were hung on the wall with each student picking their own and then I'd write their name on it. When they beat a challenge, they got to put a sticker in that season on their badge. When they beat a monthly challenge, they got a sticker for that, and then when they beat all of the monthly challenges for a color challenge completion, they got TWO stickers. Boy, was that a popular one.
But what about the rewards? This is where it got really fun for me. I bought and painted 12 craft boxes - 3 in each color. The Common boxes are green, Rare boxes are blue, Epic boxes are purple, and Legendary boxes are orange - just like in games. Then I printed and laminated reward cards, one for each box. They had rewards like "line leader back to class" (Common), "small prize box" (Rare), "pick a game next speech class" (Epic), "sit in teacher's chair next speech class" (Legendary). When a student beat a color challenge, I'd grab one of the three boxes of that color and put it in front of them - their random loot drop. They'd get whatever reward was in there. They were SO motivated. I don't know how many times I'd hear "I got Epic, lesssssssgooooooooo!" this past year. And if a student completed all four season challenges, they earned the season reward - which always included a seasonal sticker for their badge, as well as other prizes. The one they loved was the "random loot drop spin." I have a spinner created for this system using a free app (links to my spinner and the app itself are included in the system explanation). They got to spin the wheel, and got another loot drop of whatever the spinner indicated. When a student earned the season reward, it meant they had just beaten one of the challenges, so they had TWO boxes to open now, not one. Several kids beat the legendary challenge and then spun a legendary on the wheel, so they were super excited.
It was a little bumpy to get used to tracking and doing challenges at first, but we pretty much were in the groove by late October when my boyfriend said, "hey, you know, they do limited time events during seasons. Are you going to include those?" Crap. What's that? "Well, it's usually close to the end of a season, I can get double XP to help me get closer to some of the rewards I'm stuck on so I earn them before the season ends."
Hunny, you are a genius. I had a few kids who were kind of close to beating some of the challenges, but weren't going to make it, and I didn't want to fudge their challenge points. If I had a 'double XP' event, more of the kids would beat the challenges and get that season reward to really encourage them to keep going with this system and not beg me for a sticker every session. So we held a special "LTE" - every challenge was worth TWO points! 7 or 8 kids were able to hit that season challenge and boy, were they excited!
We did this all school year, and during their last session, I had taken their badges off the wall. They were so disappointed that I wasn't leaving them up all summer - but we were going to start a new season in the fall. What was I going to do with their badges? Could they take them home? Well, sure!
That last week of school gave me some time to reflect on the system. What did I like? What did I want to tweak? Well, what I liked were a few main things:
*I had fun, and the kids had fun, while just doing work. Yes, it was a lot for me to keep track of challenges, especially the ones that were 'increase accuracy twice on a single objective', but it really made me focus more on progress monitoring and keeping up with my data, and it helped the kids focus on their progress! "Did I go up a level?" "Can I try sentences so I can go up a level?" Wait, really? Sure! The kids were so involved in the system that they didn't ask if we could play a game or get smelly stickers; they wanted challenges.
*My wall was pretty. I have a decent sized room, but it's all cinderblock, and it's kind of empty. The badges filled up a lot of wall space, and as kids added stickers, it got more and more decorative. It was nice to look at.
*I saw cooperation and resiliency. Did NOT expect these at all. I have a few kids who are ultra-competitive, to the point where I used to loathe game days with them, and would think about cheating just so they couldn't be so rude to their peers about winning. These are the same kids who would ask about 'scores' for the day and laugh when peers made mistakes. Or, if something was hard for them, they'd shut down and refuse to keep trying. And the first few times that another kid beat a challenge, I'd hear, "that's not fair, why does he get it and I don't?" So I'd explain, "because he beat those challenges and you didn't. You need 3 more challenge points to get that." And after a few times, the complaining stopped. And some of my kids would even cheer when their buddy got a reward, and celebrate. Maybe that was because some of the rewards were group rewards, or maybe they realized that it didn't prevent them from getting a reward either. Whatever it was, it was cool to see. And as for resiliency....my kids who didn't beat a challenge the first time would get upset, but when they learned they could just try again next session, they were SO motivated. I'd see and hear them psyching themselves up - and hear their peers cheering them on - "you can do it! let's go!"
*I'll spend less on prizes this year. Usually, I drop $100 on prizes in the summer and I'm trying to buy more by Christmas. Not this year. With the loot drop rewards having so many non-tangential rewards (like selecting the order, selecting seats, line leader, game play), the prize boxes and treasure boxes are much rarer rewards. Not everyone beats the season reward, or earns the loot drops that have prize box prizes, but they're still happy with the rewards they get. I was gifted $130 worth of rewards for this system, including stickers and prizes, but I still have three quarters of the stickers and about half of the prizes. I'll surely add some new prizes, but I won't be dropping three figures on rewards, and may actually add some things that might have been cost-prohibitive before (Pokemon cards, I'm looking at you).
If you're intrigued on adding this system to your existing prize rewards, check it out on TPT, or let me know what you think in the comments here!
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