Sarcasm and teaching...

"competition" to inspire students
Not sure how many layers of sarcasm are in this little post. I could imagine a teacher delivering this successfully... maybe. I can't help but think that the sarcasm would not be understood by at least some students in any given group, and yes, it still has every bit of all the disadvantages of the Arbitrary and Extrinsic Reward Systems (except without a tangible reward stated).

An excerpt:

Be Obnoxious!

Give yourself a point energetically, obnoxiously and gleefully whenever even one child needs a question repeated, doesn’t have her eyes on the book, interrupts you or talks to a neighbor.

When you give yourself the point (on this VERY public chart) tell everyone

YEA! I get a point because someone talked out of turn! I KNEW I was going to win…


Um, I dunno, but public singling out and humiliation of students goes a little against my grain... but, as I said, I'm not sure where the sarcasm ends here. Maybe the whole post is "just kidding, of course!!"