Well, the spring semester is upon us, which means I am starting my very sweet American Revolution history unit.  In addition to the intangible reward of building great citizens who know tons of details about their founding fathers, founding documents, and federal government, this unit provides me with Spring Sanity in the form of my bean challenge.

For those of you who do not take advantage of the hyperlink, the short version is that I hand out beans like currency and then tax the crud out of my students for all sorts of annoying behaviors.  I give the beans value by occasionally letting the students exchange beans for an equivalent number of Skittles or M&Ms.  I have a great time pretending to be the arbitrary and tyrannical King George, the kids have fun trying to hoard their beans, and we all get a great lesson in colonial politics.  What amazes me every time is how much the kids will go along with it.

So far, this year seems to be another success.  We’re only two days into the Great Bean Behavior Reform, but just the mention of beans is enough to straighten up the whole bunch.  So far my Intolerable Acts include:

  • Mess Tax
  • Sitting incorrectly in Chair Tax
  • “I already answered that question” Tax
  • Inappropriate Line Behavior tax
  • Tardy Tax
  • Off-topic Comment Tax
  • Shoelaces Untied Tax

And so I’ll keep adding taxes for another couple of months, until the system becomes so complicated it collapses under its own weight.  This combination of historical reinforcement and behavior management is Yankee Doodle Dandy.