Building Relationships with Students Through Badges

Last spring I saw the benefit of including a badge program to motivate and engage learners. I wrapped my head around how to create a more sustainable badge program for my elementary students before school started. Thanks to Slides Mania I found a fabulous passport slide deck I could use to house student badges.

The BIG question was: How can I create a system that is sustainable and manageable and means something to students. I reflected on the badges I had already created, many of which would not work given we were returning to a full day schedule of school. Thinking about some of the things I used to have pre pandemic I began crafting a few badges. An encouragement badge from last spring was used for students who encourage others to try new things. I have a homework badge for students who complete all home assignments by Friday afternoon. A kindness badge was created next. Our school has an estimation station so any student who guesses correctly would receive an estimation badge, which was also used when we pivoted to remote learning last spring. I had created a badge with the school district logo for something during remote learning and changed that to the school spirit badge. Then I added a participation badge and BrainPOP badge.

I took a pause and thought, why am I coming up with ideas when I now have a class of kids who can drive the badge program. I kicked off our badge passport program last week, explaining what badges were and how to earn ones created. Then I told students I was looking for more ways to give out badges and would any students be interested in coming up with ideas and designing badges. I had several willing students. I divided them up by cohort and met with them at lunch. We brainstormed as a group, and then I showed them how to use Google Drawings to create the badges. When they were done, they shared their creations with me. I added a text box with their name, because I felt it important to give the student credit for creating the badge.

Our class now has a specials badge, which our classroom specialists were thrilled to take part in and honor students in our class. We added a listening badge for students who use good listening skills. A facing challenges badge was made to celebrate students who persevere. One student came up with the idea for an effort badge while another wanted to make a goal badge for classmates who reach goals both in and out of school. A guidelines badge was designed for students who followed our class guidelines, and classmate badge was added to our badge program for those students supporting classmates. I loved that our badges focus more on what it means to be a good community member than content.

When students earn badges it provides me an opportunity to email him/her/them and CC parents to celebrate why he/she/they is earning a badge. I just emailed a student to let him know I noticed his increased participation and raising his hand, which was something he wanted to work on. By giving out badges I am also building relationships with students I have yet to physically meet.