A strong sense of community is the best way to reduce disruptive behavior and help students feel they belong. This guide will help you move beyond traditional K-6 methods to create a high school program focused on community participation, team competition, and instant recognition. By the end of this article, you will know how to set up meaningful incentives that drive involvement in school life.
Permission Level Required: Owner | Manager | Teacher and Staff (if granted permission)
In this article:
Define your Program Objectives: Identify specific behaviors and goals to improve your school culture.
Drive Community Participation: Use team-based competition and events to foster a sense of belonging.
Reward Individual Actions: Recognize specific positive behaviors using the Praise feature.
Manage Rewards and Redemptions: Set up incentives that students can buy with their earned points.
Define your Program Objectives
Before you build your program, you need to identify the "why" behind your points system to ensure it meets your school's unique needs.
High school programs work best when they focus on school-wide participation rather than just classroom management. You can use Minga to target specific areas like attendance, school spirit, or campus safety.
3 Steps to Running a Successful Program:
3 Steps to Running a Successful Program:
Identify your primary goal by selecting behaviors you want to incentivize, such as encouraging awesome behaviors or reducing tardiness.
Determine your tracking metrics to monitor progress toward these goals over time.
Choose your incentive structure by deciding if you will focus on individual success, team success, or a blend of both.
Drive Community Participation
High school students are motivated by peer recognition and instant gratification. You can create a more equitable program by focusing on shared experiences and team competition rather than just individual teacher expectations.
Step-by-step Guide to Driving Community Participation
Step-by-step Guide to Driving Community Participation
Create Teams based on grades, classes, or houses to encourage friendly competition.
Turn on the Public Leaderboard by selecting the Leaderboard tab in Points Manager and ensuring it is visible to the student body.
Host Community Events such as theme days or pep rallies that are available to all students.
Record Participation by having staff act as Event Managers to check students into events.
Students automatically earn points upon check-in, providing Instant Gratification.
Pro Tip: Aim to give out 90% of your school's points through event and community participation to keep the focus on belonging.
Reward Individual Actions
While community is the focus, you can still recognize students for going "above and beyond" through individual Praise behaviors.
Step-by-step Guide to Rewarding Individuals
Step-by-step Guide to Rewarding Individuals
Navigate to the Behavior Manager section within My Tools.
Select Praise from the behavior types.
Search for a student's Name from the user list.
Assign the Praise behavior and add a custom note to recognize their specific helpful action.
Click Submit to instantly award points and notify the student.
Manage Rewards and Redemptions
You can encourage continued engagement by allowing students to spend their points on meaningful rewards.
Step-by-step Guide to Managing Rewards and Redemptions
Step-by-step Guide to Managing Rewards and Redemptions
Go to the Points tab and click on the Rewards sub-menu.
Add items to your store, such as School Beanies, T-shirts, or Candy.
Set the point value for each item (e.g., 100 points for Cool Shoes).
When a student wants to buy an item, they click the Redeem button next to the reward in their app.
Additional Features or Settings
Public Recognition: Celebrate winning teams on the Minga Main Feed at the end of every month or semester.
Non-Monetary Incentives: Use rewards like "Pizza & Ice Cream at lunch" which are often more motivating for high schoolers than small monetary prizes.
Export Data: Click the Export button in Points> Reports to download point reports for further analysis.
FAQs
FAQs
What are the best motivators for high school students?
The top motivators for high school students and adults are peer recognition and instant gratification.
How many points should be given for individual behavior?
We recommend that individual behavior points make up only about 10% of the total points given out at school so the focus remains on community participation.
How do students know when they earn points?
Students receive an instant celebration in the Minga app, such as a confetti animation, whenever they are awarded points.
What are some of the reasons why our school should implement a Points and Rewards system?
Every school will have different priorities when incentivizing behavior at school, but here are some common "whys":
• Encouraging awesome behaviors
• Improving event attendance
• Increasing school participation
• Reducing tardiness
• Reducing vandalism
• Reducing bullying
Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting
Students can't see the leaderboard: Ensure that the "Public Leaderboard" setting is toggled to 'on' within your Points Manager settings.
Points aren't updating: Check that Event Managers are properly checking students into events, as points are awarded upon check-in.
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