"ha-do rezubian!"

As an incentive system, I had all my students make name cards that function sort of like point cards (think Subway sandwich punchcards). When a student answers a question, volunteers to read something aloud, or basically does anything right at all, I put one of those little star stickers on the back of their card. For every ten stars, they get to choose a prize from my box of American doodads.

I tried to encourage them to decorate the fronts of their cards where their names are written, which a lot of them did. Anpanman, Tamagotchi, and Pokémon doodles are pretty common among all my classes. Many of my students try really hard to save up stars and earn prizes. Then, there's the kids who just wrote their names plainly in pencil on the front of their cards and have somehow managed to avoid earning a single star. When I can, I try to give those kids a little extra attention to see if I can win them over.

One student, who hadn't a single star, was spending most of his time in my class drawing on the backs of my worksheets. I told him that he was really talented, and that I'd like to see more of his work. Apparently, that won him over right away, and he started raising his hand every once in a while. When I got back to the English office after that class was over, I went through the name cards and discovered that he'd taken me up on my request to see more of his artwork. Check out these gems he drew on the back of his and a classmate's cards:

I can't really read this, but it looks like a hentai game.

This one says "hard lesbians!"