auction – Mrvaudrey

April Auction

Let’s be brief.

The Auction takes place about every 6 weeks this year. (Not sure about next year.)

As the weeks have passed, I’ve found ways to quantify what the kids like.

And, due largely to my wife’s enforcement of a budget on my awesome ideas (I love you), I added a column to quantify my own investment.

The “Bang Per Buck” column divides the student cost (Poker Chips) over my cost (dollars). A low ratio means “not worth Mr. Vaudrey’s money”.

And I played the Price Is Right theme, which you can download here for free, along with tens of thousands of other themes.

Here’s this month’s cost breakdown, including currency conversions for my least viewed countries:
the rupee from Mauritius (an island by Madagascar, about 10 times the size of Washington, D.C.)
and Azerbaijan (Maine-sized central European country).

Because… why not?

My wife was thrilled to hear that this auction only cost $11.52 out of pocket.

Many cost boxes are blank because they were stuff I had around the house. The reason that stuff still sold is this: Hype.

Middle schoolers are the puppies of the consumer world; if you get them excited about something, they will pee money all over the carpet.

"Are those Hot Chee-tos!?! OMGOMGOMG!" — “Are those Hot Chee-tos!?! OMGOMGOMG!”

“Grandma’s Specialty Items” were just crap from the Goodwill box at my in-law’s house.

But, with added hype, it was one of the most anticipated items each period. Just put on a dramatic song, reach into the bag and slowly… ever so slowly pull out…

…another bag. (Each class burst out laughing at this point). Straight face again… open the bag… slowly reach in… and pull out…

…another bag. Then peek the corner of the item out of the bag. At this point, they just have to know. What’s in the bag?*

See the look on his face? He just HAS to know!

Another sweet hype-builder (or cost-inflator) was adding buzzwords to the description of the items. I learned that from McDonald’s and the home shopping network. “Deluxe” “featuring” “…but that’s not all” “you also get…”

Finally, the Box of Anything But Booze was just a bunch of Goodwill stuff in an old Bacardi box. The hype went like this:

“Students, there could be anything in there! It could be… a pony? A dictionary? Stickers? It could be anything … anything but booze.”

I put on the dramatic song and dramatically pulled a dollar from my wallet and put that in the box right before bidding.

…oh… shoot, I didn’t include that in my spreadsheet. I gotta go.

*Credit where credit is due: I learned hype from the master, Dave Burgess. Follow him on Twitter and buy his book, Teach Like A Pirate

Class Auction, Take 2

Regular readers will note that it’s been a week for second tries. Both of these items had solid first tries, so the second was bound to be good also.

About six weeks have passed since the last Auction in my class, and today was a minimum day for the end of the Trimester, so it was about time.

I began the day with hype. I teach in the portables, so if I make noise, 200 students can wonder, “What’s going on in Vaudrey’s class?” Dragging a 10-watt guitar amp outside, I plugged in my iPod and danced to some upbeat songs (mostly from Five Iron Frenzy, a late-90’s ska band). Also, I was wearing the cowboy hat, which signifies auction day.

You should probably have this music video playing while you read the rest of the post, if you really want to get the idea.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqqHo8to-6A]

Here’s some data:

Column A, you can see the items up for bid.
Column E is what each of the items cost me out of pocket.
My second and third-biggest readers are Canada and the Phillipines, respectively. Canucks and Pinoys, I included a column for the cost in your local currency, color-coded by your country flag.
Row 16 shows totals. I was floored to see that my fourth period spent 1,000 chips in 40 minutes.

Here are a couple of highlights:

For the Potty Passes, bidding started at 2. Brian, still hyped from the Subway bidding war, immediately blurted out “58! … no, wait!”
Bidding for Nerds (Medium candy) started at 5. The next three bids were 91, 100, and 120. The hot ticket items are never what I expect.
I spent $30 and bought good behavior for 8 weeks. That works out to about $150 for a year. Not so bad. Read the previous post for why I am okay with doing that.
- Also, the RSP teacher pitched in (because she’s great, not because her students contribute to a lot of the distractions), so it only cost $10 this time.

What I Changed For This Auction

Items that didn’t draw any bids last time were removed. The big ticket items returned, and I took a page from Dave Burgess‘ playbook on suspense and mystery with the Box of Mystery and Diapers.

What did you THINK I meant?

Students all received a small slip of paper with a list of auction items on it. On that list, if I had included “Box of a bunch of junk from my Aunt-in-law’s basement that we acquired when she moved”, that might not have been a big seller.

But oh, how mystery tickles the mind and arouses the senses! Suddenly, the kids just had to know…

… what’s in the Mystery Box?

Any of those items individually would have drawn no bids at all. Put them in an old cardboard box, and suddenly it’s gold.

And oh, did I ham it up. “You too, students, can tempt fate with a peek inside the Box of Mystery and Diapers! Could it be… a dictionary? Could it be… an inflatable fish? Could it be… a diaper? Only you, the adventurer of secrecy will peek inside the mouth of the lion, tempt fate, and emerge victorious!”

This morning, I re-read the previous post about the auction, so I was picky about noise they made between each item. I wrote up a List of Today’s Auction Items with Descriptions, and announced them while the showcase song from Price is Right was playing. It was magical.

The chatter between items was helped by my descriptions; students wanted to hear them, so all I had to do was start speaking, stop, and look at the offender. The rest of the class jumped on the chatterbox like he was an autographed OneDirection poster.

And, in case you’re curious, here are the downloads for the coupons I used:
Potty Passes
Coupon – Leave 2 minutes early
Coupon – Positive Phone Call
Coupon – Share Subway with a friend
List of Today’s Auction Items

As with many class activities, the hard work before kickoff made the classtime itself really stinkin fun. I love my job. I get to listen to music from High School and lecture students (with a smile) about the evils of caffeine and processed sugar, all while wearing a cowboy hat.

March 2, 2013

In one of my favorite TV shows, Dr. Gaius Baltar is called in to help with questioning a prisoner. He says, “You’ve tried the stick; it’s time to try the carrot.”

That was me two months ago.

But, you know… without the creepy smirk.

Not just sick of detentions, tardies, phone calls, and discipline, I was sick of the time and energy I was giving to the students who earned it the least.

Outside the frame, 29 obedient students are NOT getting the teacher’s attention.

It took my wife to point it out. The conversation went like this:

Vaudrey: I have six students that are consistent behavior problems. If each one gets a warning, a conference outside, and a detention, that’s 18 things.
Hot Wife: Why just send them out right away?
Vaudrey: Well, that’s not fair to those kids. I have to go through my steps.
Hot Wife: Well, it’s not exactly fair to the rest of your students that their education is interrupted by distractors. Also, those rotten kids are getting all of your attention.

So I went to observe another teacher in the district who has SDC students for math support all day. These are students who ALL struggle with math, and a myriad of behavior issues come with it.

She awards her students with poker chips when they are on task.

Let’s just stop there–that’s the change that I made.

Yes, I know that Alfie Kohn wouldn’t be a big fan of a rewards-based system for discipline. Sorry, Alfie–this worked.

A roll of tickets is cheaper for me than poker chips, so I went with that. I prepped each class on how the tickets would be awarded and jumped in.

The bell rings, I do a round of tickets for those already on the warm-up.
I play the Notes Song, I do a round of tickets right when it ends to students already noting.
During classwork, I do a round of tickets to those focused.

I started noticing signs of on-task-ness that I hadn’t before: A pencil in hand is the best example.

Fast forward four weeks to today, a minimum day before winter break. Auction Day.

I printed a list of auction items, brought in a cowboy hat (don’t all auctioneers wear those?), and displayed the items attractively on the wall.

I laid down a fairness rule: One item per student.

Then we went to town. This was the highlight:

Ryan (yes, that Ryan) proclaiming, “I’m finna git that Gatorade!” Then, after a student bid four tickets, Ryan screamed, “Thirty-nine!” Then he drank the entire 32 ounces in about 3 minutes. Pointing to his distended stomach, he boasts, “Look! I’m all pregnant!”

Improvements for the next Auction (which will probably be in six weeks):

Use Poker Chips instead.
- Which means: Buy individual student bags and one bin per period for those bags to be stored.
- Assign a Banker to collect and pass out the bags at the beginning and end of class.
Multiple auction items per student? Maybe.
No poker chips changing hands during the auction. Savvy students who wanted two items gave their tickets to another student and said, “Get those glowsticks for me!”
Kick out students that disrupt. I wanted so badly for this to be fun for everyone that I just spoke louder and louder. I know–I realize how silly it is. But it’s the day before winter break; they were probably going to be difficult anyway.
Some kind of activity to keep those busy who already bought an item. (See previous bullet)

In case anyone is interested, here are the coupons I used.

Pick Your Seat Pass
Potty Passes
Coupon – Eat In Class
Coupon – Excuse a Detention
Coupon – Pick Your Group
Phone Call Pass
Homework Pass

And, because data matters, here’s the cost dispersion:

Item	Pd. 1	Pd. 3	Pd. 4
Coupon – Pick your Seat	17	3
32 oz Gatorade	23	16	39
Two (2) Homework Passes	20	2	8
Coupon – Positive Phone Call from Mr. Vaudrey	16	1
$5 Gift card to Starbucks	34	24	40
Glowsticks	10	1	64
X-presso Monster Energy Drink	36	23	5
Coupon b Eat In Class	15	13	1
Three fancy mechanical pencils	18	19	38
Coupon b Excuse a Detention	9		10
Reesebs or Skittles Candy Cane	9	20	65
Vitamin Water-flavored Lip Balm (like chapstick)	6	17	3
Coupon b Pick Your Group	1		6
Flaminb Hot Chee-tos	25	24	70
Three Bathroom Passes	1	3
Surprise Item: Ring Pop!	16	23	7

Happy Holidays.

Tag: auction

April Auction

Class Auction, Take 2

What I Changed For This Auction

The Auction