Come on and take a Free Ride...

This morning, I realized that there was a vital piece of photocopying that I had, as yet, forgotten to do: the now-famous Free Rides.

In the tradition of "good writers borrow, great writers steal," the Free Ride concept is completely stolen from my ninth grade honors English teacher, then-Mr. now-Dr. Brooks. At some point in the future, I'll have to write a paean to how Mr. Brooks is more responsible for my teaching style than any other person, including all my college profs. For now, I'll just say that Mr. Brooks' take-no-prisoners, drill-sergeant strict approach to classroom discipline made such an impression on me that I decided to try some of it and see if it worked.

Mr. Brooks told all of his students not to be late (lateness defined as not being in one's desk and seated by the time the bell stopped ringing), not to ask to leave class to go to one's locker or to the bathroom, and to have one's homework every single day. However, he held out these little passes called Free Rides. Everybody got one. The Free Ride was good for a minor homework assignment like a reading quiz, to get out of class to go to lockers or on potty breaks, to excuse lateness or out-of-uniform-ness, et cetera.

There was a catch.

If you hung onto your Free Ride all the way till the end of the semester and turned it in with your final, you got bonus points on the final. Not very many, but it could mean the difference between a B and an A.

Well. Nobody ever had to run to the potty in Mr. Brooks' class.

And now, nobody ever has to run to the potty in my class. My students treat their Free Rides the way that my classmates and I treated ours: like solid gold.

Who knew that one little slip of paper could eliminate so many classroom management issues? Thanks, Mr. Brooks.