Golden Thank Yous are also for teachers to use in the classroom as their class currency. Print your own and have your students cut them up.
Reward students for good work and good behavior by paying them Golden
Thank Yous. You can also encourage team work by giving everyone in the
class 5 Golden Thank Yous if they accomplish a group goal, like being
quiet in the hallways for the younger kids or group projects for the
older kids. Encourage your students to trade Golden Thank Yous with
their friends in the class when they do nice things for each other. If
a student distinguishes themselves by doing a truly excellent job at
something, give them a big reward and watch the other students try
harder too. If you want to have even more fun, have a class auction
from time to time so that students can win fun prizes that you've
picked out.
Golden Thank Yous are also an economics lesson for
your class. As you introduce more and more Golden Thank Yous into the
classroom, it will take more and more Golden Thank Yous to get the
students equally excited. This effect is called inflation and is an
issue with every currency in the world. In the United States, the money
supply is controlled by the
Federal Reserve which can print US Dollars whenever it wants, just like you can print Golden Thank Yous whenever you want.
If
you want your Golden Thank Yous to be different from the Golden Thank
Yous that kids might be earning at home from their parents, just sign
your bills. Then explain to the class that your class auctions will
only accept bills that you've signed.
Also, designing more
possibilities for what goes on the backs of Golden Thank Yous is as
simple as editing a Microsoft Word document, as described
here.
Have a vocabulary list for your students to learn? Put one word, with
its definition and usage in a sentence, on the back of each bill. More
generally, whatever you are currently teaching your students, there is
usually a fun way to reinforce those ideas by putting them on the backs
of Golden Thank Yous which you can then use in the classroom. You could
even have a class project where each student creates at least 3 backs (as homework) based on
the most interesting ideas they've learned in the class. If you come up with 8
pages of backs for Golden Thank Yous that you are proud to share with
everyone for free, email them to us at
goldenthankyous@gmail.com and we
will consider posting them on this web page for others to enjoy and
learn from as well.
Have any questions or suggestions? Send us an email at
goldenthankyous@gmail.com.
Also, consider ordering copies of
Professor Bray's book (ages 7 to 14 and up), "
Trevor the Time Traveler and the Murkian Threat" for your class to read. In
the story, Trevor and his sister Farrah become secret agents for the
most advanced civilization in the Milky Way Galaxy whose currency
translates into English as a "Golden Thank You." While the book is a lot of fun to read, it is also a vehicle for
Professor Bray
to explain some of the most amazing true science ideas ever discovered,
including brief discussions of Special and General Relativity.
Special offer for teachers: If your class reads "
Trevor the Time Traveler and the Murkian Threat," the author, who is a professor of math and physics at Duke University, will do his best to
schedule a video phone call via
Skype (or just a regular speaker phone call if you prefer) with you and your
class so that students may ask questions about Trevor's and Farrah's adventures, the science
behind their story, and the universe.
Click here to request a date and time on Professor Bray's calendar up to 3 months in advance.
You can also watch one of
Professor Bray's presentations to a large audience of kids in the
"Math and Science" section.
