Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Behavior Management: Class Dojo update

I know that a lot of you asked me to do an update on how my Class Dojo classroom management system was going. I saw this linky party and thought it would be a great opportunity to give you all an updated review of Class Dojo and how it works in my classroom. To read the original post, click {here}.

ClassDojo is a free website found {here} at www.classdojo.com that you can join as a teacher. You just input all of your students and then each student has an avatar. Then as the teacher you can assign points to teach student or take away points. Every time you give or take away points, you tell the system why. For example, if little Suzy is being super creative, you could give her a point for creativity. If Johnny is talking out of turn, you can take away a point for disruption.

After a month of using ClassDojo, these are some of my favorite things:

1. I can use this app wirelessly on my ipad or iphone. When I am sitting at my guided reading table with a group, I can add or subtract points from certain students. The program makes a sound for a positive point and another sound for a negative point. The negative sound scares the kiddos so much! It snaps them all right back to working. I don't take away points very often, but it has to be done! When I give or take away a point, the student's name, +1 or -1 and the reasoning shows up on the Smart Board if the website is displayed

2. There is now an app for ClassDojo! Before you would add the website to your homepage, basically making a bookmark. Now there is an app for FREE in the app store. Just search "ClassDojo."

3. Did I mention it was free?!! FREE, PEOPLE! You don't even have to print anything. No laminating required. And the kids just l-o-v-e it.

4. For any parent conferences, I can print out a "report" that I run off of ClassDojo that breaks down the points each student receives or loses. It would look like this:

Student Report from ClassDojo
5. You can have multiple classes. This is great for middle school or high school teachers. For me, I teach a different class for math class, so it's great to be able to have a separate "class" with a different roster to implement this classroom management plan.


Example of the main screen on ClassDojo. Just click a student to add or subtract a point from their total!


How I use ClassDojo in the classroom:

  • ClassDojo is displayed on my Smart Board most of the day (as long as we're not doing something else on the Smart Board and then even then it is minimized.
  • Once students get 30 points, they can change their avatar. I even added some cute clipart for the kiddos to use as avatars but the provided monsters and critters for avatars are beyond cute!
  • I keep the sound on. I saw some people turned the sound off, but I like the sound.
  • You can use this program with or without a Smart Board (or any interactive white board). Just display it on a computer screen, ipad or iphone for students to check periodically.
  • At the end of the month, I give students tickets for the amount of points they've maintained and they put these tickets into a raffle. Last year I didn't use Class Dojo, but I did a system where the students with the most points won a prize and then it was the same 3 students over and over again. With the raffle, even if a student only gets 1 point the whole month, they could win a prize!
  • I had a substitute yesterday. I wrote all the students names on the white board and she tallied up points for them and then I added them to the students' totals when I returned because I didn't want to give the sub my password, but that is completely up to you. You could have a generic password so that subs could log in. But overall, it's a super easy system for substitutes to understand. Just a simple point system. Can't get any less complicated than that!
I am seriously IN LOVE with this program. I am so happy that I discovered it through pinterest. It is such an easy way to manage my classroom. Just go try it out on their website now. They have a pretend roster set up so that you can start playing with the site immediately. You won't be disappointed!

8 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting about this site, I think it's great too. I only just started using classdojo.com this year - and my Grade 4's love it! My favourite part is definitely the sounds that accompany the positive and negative awards, because unless the screen is up they don't know who got the points! Everyone adjusts their behaviour just in case :)

    Lauren
    Creative Classroom Chaos

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am going to look into this Class Dojo!It sounds just great!You have so many fantastic ideas on your blog! I taught middle school for a time so I love the "big kids" too! Thanks for stopping by my blog Caitlyn! I'm having a giveaway you may like! I am a new follower!

    Jeannine

    Creative Lesson Cafe

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Caitlyn - Kalen from ClassDojo here. Thank you so much for this great post! You're the best. We'd love to chat with you sometime on Skype or phone about being featured on our new Stories page - http://stories.classdojo.com - we love your idea about the raffle tickets at the end of the month and think our other teachers would really benefit from hearing about it! Let me know if you're interested - kalen@classdojo.com :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Caitlyn. I am a parent of a 4th grade gal in KY. My daughter's teacher began implementing Class DoJo during 3rd quarter. (Luckily I have a smart phone or I would have to find time to hit the public library everyday to stay informed)... I've noticed that no more than 10 points have been
    possible per day, and also that not all days of the week have been utilized. One week only Tuesday and Wednesday were documented, with
    a total point value of around 6. I've tried searching appropriate use of the
    program, but thus far I've had no luck. My kiddo is a consistent honor roll
    student, earned a D in behavior 1st quarter, an A in behavior 2nd quarter,
    and now has a B after implementation of Class DoJo. Any insights?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Caitlyn. I am a parent of a 4th grade gal in KY. My daughter's teacher began implementing Class DoJo during 3rd quarter. (Luckily I have a smart phone or I would have to find time to hit the public library everyday to stay informed)... I've noticed that no more than 10 points have been
    possible per day, and also that not all days of the week have been utilized. One week only Tuesday and Wednesday were documented, with
    a total point value of around 6. I've tried searching appropriate use of the
    program, but thus far I've had no luck. My kiddo is a consistent honor roll
    student, earned a D in behavior 1st quarter, an A in behavior 2nd quarter,
    and now has a B after implementation of Class DoJo. Any insights?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Sarah,
      I'm so sorry about my late reply, but I wanted to respond to some of your questions now. The Class Dojo program is a classroom management system, but the application to the classroom is completely subjective based on each teacher. The way I implement the program in my classroom is completely different to how a teacher down the hall implements it, so it's hard for me to comment on your daughter's teacher and her decisions with Class Dojo. I will say that there were also days where I didn't get to use Class Dojo (especially towards the end of the year when we were so busy) and there were definitely days where each student did not gain or lose a point.
      If I had responded to this in a more timely manner during the school year- I would have recommended that you sit down with your daughter's teacher at a conference to discuss her behavior grades. We don't have behavior grades in my county so I'm absolutely helpless in that department.
      Hope I could help!

      Delete
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  7. Dojo Management Software - Running and managing a martial art school is no walk in the park. Hence, one is always open for additional help whether it is in the form of a person or a Dojo Management Software.

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