Extrinsic vs Intrinsic motivation

In my head I have a debate raging over extrinsic vs intrinsic motivation ... one part of me says that kids should be motivated for themselves - for the pride they get at completing tasks or for doing an assigned job well - but this doesn't work much (except for the occasional kid) - the other part of me says that I should use some kind of system to reward kids for doing what they should be doing!

I currently have a 3 strikes policy in my class - 1-verbal warning; 2-name on board; 3-time out to think and 'find manners' - this works quite well but I really can only monitor this properly when kids are on the mat with me. I have noticed that when kids get to #3 and are asked to leave the room to think about their behaviour and find their manners that they're very good at monitoring themselves with this - some kids walk out the door, pause, and them come back in - that's all they need; others sit down for 2-3 minutes and then come back in; and sometimes it takes 10-15 minutes for them - but they all (even J) come back in and sit quietly down and go back to doing what they should be doing.

We are also working on managing ourselves in different situations - on the mat, during our Wednesday wonderings (group work), during break times, during rotation times. I've been using Plickers (https://www.plickers.com/classes/22558) to have the kids self reflect on their behaviour - because the graphs are anonymous they are quite honest with themselves.

I'm also aware that I don't acknowledge good behaviour enough or consistently.  Some people reward with points for various activities but these are often seating group based which wouldn't work for my classroom. I also don't want to be awarding points for completing homework or doing pretty things - I want to be able to change my 'rewards' so that they meet the needs of my class.

I've noticed that my kids also respond better to online activities that give them rewards - Sumdog gives them points to dress out their character; IXL gives them rewards on a board as well as ribbons as they answer their maths questions; Khan does give rewards but it's not so obvious or immediate - there's nothing real about them but they kids love rewards. 

So ... this week I'm going to introduce Class Dojo - I'm not sure that I really want to be monitoring in a pedantic way but there are several things I like.

I can choose what I'm monitoring - our school values and key competencies for instance - and I can click a randomiser button and check up on that person to see what they're doing. I can also reward the whole class or individuals or several students. It also helps that there's an app for it!

It will be interesting to see whether this helps their motivation this week.

Kids can also log in (with a code) and change their avatars and monitor their own progress.