Increasing Motivation in the Classroom
 "Stop poking Rachel, Larry!". "Larry start writing already!". "You need the toilet again?". Larry is one of those kids who would do anything else, but be in your classroom. In fact, I had a number of these Larries in my classroom. Hearing about the Fred Jones PAT method changed all this though.
The System
It's a system called PAT designed by Fred Jones. The week starts off by me announcing that the class has got 25 free game minutes that we will use at the end of the week. They can gain more time by doing certain tasks. They can also lose time if they dawdle on some tasks. For example, I will award 5 minutes to game time, when everyone did their homework (can you imagine the look the person got who didn't do the homework). I will award a further 2 minutes if everyone is on time in my class. However, I will subtract time when everyone is not in class by the time the bell rings, counting down the seconds. I have had students rushing to class to win more game time pushing the slow guys on.
Danger
For this to work properly and for your students not to get demotivated, it is important that you award more time than you subtract time. I would for example award 2 minutes for everyone being on their next task, but count down in seconds if I am waiting for someone.
Reward Time for both Teacher And Student
At the end of the week they get to play their favourite interactive whiteboard games. The key here is that these games involve the whole class. When students have to battle against each other in teams, the whole classroom becomes much more involved. Your own team will cheer when you get an answer right.
Game Time is Review Time
Even though it's called game time, I was always able to review actual work content. Games like Jeopardy Labs or Flash Millionaire lend themselves perfectly for this type of work.
Resources
Fred Jones PAT System
Smartboard Team Games for the whole classroom