Rewards and Punishments

We had a conversation after school today about using punishments and rewards in class. The other two fifth grade teachers are having the same problem I am, that the kids are too talkative and take a long time to transition to new activities. One of the teachers was talking about how much easier it is to use rewards, and I had to agree--getting kids to do things is a lot easier if you offer them some incentive to do it. It's also second nature, since that's the way I've been teaching in the past, and it's certainly the way I was taught. So how to break away from that? It's frankly exhausting, in the middle of everything else, to be trying to think of entirely new ways to interact with kids. I heard the quote the other day-- sometimes the easiest thing is the right thing, but most of the time it's not. This isn't easy. I think it's right.