IN THE CLASSROOM:Turning scores into savings

Jocelyn Diaz learned about all kinds of numbers this year — including lucky ones.

The Costa Mesa Middle School seventh-grader joined her classmates Friday in math teacher Marcus Franco’s annual “cash grab,” in which students reach blindly into a cardboard box and draw out dollar bills. The students raise the money from family and friends throughout the year, and the week before school ends, they get to reach in and pick a number of bills — with the number of draws depending on their test scores, homework and other factors.

The top two finishers in Franco’s second-period class had 48 and 43 draws, but both of them drew mostly $1 bills. Then Jocelyn, who had a still-impressive 17 tries, poked her hand in the box and snatched the first $100 bill of the period.

“I thought I wasn’t going to get it,” said Jocelyn, 13, who pocketed a total of $126 and planned to spend it on an iPod and clothes.

Franco, who has taught at Costa Mesa Middle School for 11 years, holds the cash grab to give students a special incentive to do well. Each student keeps a “checkbook” in class in which he or she earns pretend dollars for good work — and also pays fines for showing up late, not doing homework or failing to pay attention.

Then, in June, those fake dollars turn into real ones. For every $10,000 that a student earns in the checkbook, he or she gets one draw from the box. The bounty this year included about 2,800 $1 bills, 220 $5 bills, 110 $10 bills, 55 $20 bills and 21 $100 bills, along with one specially-marked $100 bill that was worth $200.

The $8,200 that students raised from the community this year, Franco said, was a stunner.

“Last year, the kids brought in $4,100,” he said. “This year’s group doubled it. They went to family. They went out in pairs door-to-door in their neighborhoods.”

At least one student had it in mind to give his earnings back. Josh Stubblefield, who had 43 draws, netted $109 from the box but didn’t plan to keep it.

“I’m probably going to buy something for my dad on Father’s Day,” Josh, 13, said.