French teacher Mr. Jean Michael Debarros , a Seminole High School French teacher, has recently implemented a new system to encourage his students to earn extra credit and practice their French. This new currency, which only holds value in his classroom, is called “Debarros Dollars.”

The purpose of the dollars is to motivate students to speak French and boost their grade at the same time. Students can earn up to a maximum of 50 Debarros Dollars per quarter.

Junior Sagrario Suarez says, “In class, Debarros had us cut out dollars and we can cash them in for extra credit. It has been helping me because now I speak French more often to boost my grade.”

Students have to show their ability to speak French in class or talk about an experience where they utilized their knowledge on the French language in order to gain some of these valuable dollars. Just for attempting to speak French, students can gain bills. They provide students with a new and creative way to learn a new language.

Debarros says, “I tried this with my daughter, with real money, and it worked very well; her French became a lot better. When students know there is a reward at the end, it works.”  

Debarros also said that he was inspired to do this after reading about a school that paid its students for doing well. However, instead of real money, he used his own currency to incentivize students.

Anonymous says, “I think this is a creative and unique way to get students to learn a new language, and it would be beneficial if all [foreign language courses] did this.”

This may be the beginning of a new tradition in the French classroom that provides long term benefits to all students.