Ultimate CI Monthly and Yearly Cash Prizes:
Student of the Month (one in each class – $25)
Drawing of the Month (one in each class – $25)
Drawing of the Year (chosen from the Drawings of the Month – $100)
If the Curator (see “Student Jobs” section) can’t raise the money, I’ll just lower the prizes to $10 and award those cash prizes myself, or skirt around it in some other way.
I am sure many parents would donate. They are desperate for meaningful reform in our schools. What I like about these cash prizes – something I would never have done until now bc I am way too much a leftist Commie hippy – is that when we choose a student or drawing, we can teach a deep lesson to the “elite” kids who think that they have a natural edge on the other kids. When we pick a kid who hasn’t had much success in the school, but who shines bright in our class because they reflect the Star’s light in their strong in-class behavior and focus, we send the message that the mainly white “grammar social club” in the front of the classroom isn’t the only game in town and what we want in our socially just and equitable classroom in terms of observable non-verbal behaviors that reward the students’ focus on meaning, etc.