Is behaviorism useful to the classroom and how?

 I ask this question because there are so many websites out there that contain different information on each philosophy and then proceed to either agree or disagree with them. I was slightly confused by all these different perspectives because as I was researching I felt a behaviorist philosophy would work for me in my future classroom. Using a behaviorist philosophy you are basing the lessons off of previous work and how the student did on it. Along with this you also use a rewarding system where if they do well they receive a special type of reward. I really like this idea because it gives students incentive to work hard for something. I can connect with this philosophy from when I was in school. One way is during third grade my teacher had a large tube that had popcorn kernels in it. Next to this tube there was a jar that also contained more kernels. Each time the class was to be rewarded for something my teacher would give us a scoop of popcorn or multiple depending on the reward. If the class was not acting up to par she would remove kernels from the tube. Once the kernels hit a certain point of the tube, we were to have a popcorn party. This type of reward system allowed us to learn that in order to receive a good reward we must act in a specific way during school and also always be prepared. By the taking away of kernels it showed the loss of something as a punishment and we must now strive to get it back. I can see myself using some sort of reward system similar to that so that my students are consistently striving to get rewarded.
I think that this type of philosophy is definitely help in the classroom in so many ways. It helps students to learn the concept of a reward system and what their boundaries are within the classroom. This type of philosophy also will help them with the understanding of what is expected of them on a daily basis in the classroom. Using the popcorn as an example again, if all the students had brought in the previous night's homework finished then they would be rewarded if not they did not receive any popcorn. This is such an easy assignment for the children to get a reward and not realizing that this type of exercise actually makes them do their work.
This article I found was interesting to me because it uses Pavlov's dog as the example. The students within my classroom will be a replica to Pavlov's dog, they will be waiting everyday to find out whether or not they will be given a reward. I liked this article because it also goes beyond the school outlook and into the everyday world. It shows that people who have been accustomed to the behaviorist theory during their life are not always rewarded as they assume. The article uses the example of receiving a fine from a police officer for speeding but not receiving a reward when you do something good while driving. This is true the theory is not always practiced out in society but I think for the classroom benefit it works well.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2017184/behaviorism_uses_in_the_classroom.html?cat=4