68/365 - Bribery and Pie...

Today was the first day of summer school. 

I think it was quite successful. The kids had a good time (there were prizes and snacks - who could complain?) and told me they were excited to come tomorrow. Hopefully we'll get a lot accomplished in the next month. 

As a teacher, I believe in bribes. I openly admit it. I teach six year olds, let's be realistic. Bribes get results. Some teachers may call it "encouragement" or a "reward" or "incentive", but plain and simple it's a bribe. It basically boils down to... you do what I want/need + no complaining = I will give you something you want. I'm sure my philosophy would hold true if I had my own children.

Case in point...

I had a particular student all year this year. He's below grade level and is struggling with reading. He hated reading and always fought me on it. Always. He fought his mom and dad  at home too. Knowing that "summer school" would be a punishment, his mom convinced him that summer school was really a reading camp. Brilliant! I also had a little encouragement (aka bribery) up my sleeve. I struck a deal with my student. If he would come to summer school/camp everyday and NEVER complained or threw a fit about anything we did there, he would have a special prize at the end of the entire summer school/camp.

Here's his prize...

Yep. Bribery at its finest! Now, my little student doesn't know what it is. He has only seen this... 

and I threw in an Alvin and the Chipmunks CD. Yep. Needless to say he was HIGHLY motivated this morning. I've never seen him work so hard - which resulted in him feeling good about himself. If it takes a silly $50.00 stereo to do that, I'm happy to oblige. I'm keeping it in the empty classroom next to me. That way, when he gets frustrated he can walk in and look at his wrapped prize and decide if throwing a fit is worth losing the box. I think I may have discovered something that has struck a chord with him.

Now onto the pie!!

OH

MY

GOSH!

I made this pie last night and the only way to describe it is... MY NEW FAVORITE!! Ken's descriptive word for it was DECADENT. I'm sticking with DIVINE! It's called Chocolate Chip Cookie Pie and you can find the recipe and directions HERE.

I loved the recipe!! Super easy and super delicious!

Here's our finished pie just out of the oven.

Ummmm... HELLO! 

That is what greets you.

We added ice cream and butterscotch caramel sauce.

We didn't add the nuts to our pie so I upped the chocolate chips to 1 1/2 cups. But I got thinking... for someone who won't eat chocolate (like my dad) you could replace the chocolate chips for butterscotch chips. I also think it would be yummy to mix half chocolate chips and half peanut butter chips. Anyway, whatever you do, make one!! It was divine! 

(then go jog to Ohio and back to burn it off)