When Shelby Lattimore saw her students weren’t attending class, she found a fun and unique way, outside of the traditional curriculum, to encourage them not only to show up but to get excited about learning.
Lattimore, a math and science teacher at a Title 1 school in Charlotte, North Carolina, said her system of assigning jobs, giving out “paychecks,” charging things like “rent” or a “fine” and then offering rewards has worked so well that her third graders are now “bought in” to their class economy.
“The reason why I started my class economy is to motivate my students to have better attendance and to come to class and be excited to be here, as well as to keep them accountable for their behavior,” the 25-year-old teacher explained.
Since the fall of 2022, Lattimore, who has been teaching for the last four years, has developed an ongoing program that draws from her own real-life experiences and adapts them to age-appropriate “jobs” and rewards. She said she also takes suggestions from her students and modifies the class economy to align with her students’ progress.