On my path to becoming a teacher, many people advised that strong classroom management is the foundation on which everything else is built. As a result, I began to focus on classroom management strategies. I’d come to the conclusion that the key to successful classroom management is keeping the students engaged in a positive setting. A teacher can not expect students to give them the benefit of the doubt, and blindly participate in learning, teachers must first engage the students and convince each of them that this is a beneficial use of their time. Simply put, we need to make students care. What an interesting concept. How can you make a group of strangers CARE about the objectives of another? You reward them of course. It really is one of the oldest strategies, so simple and effective. If you want someone to do something, you give them something. Payment. Well how do you pay 36 students? You pay them with points! Dojo Points to be specific. ClassDojo is a new take on an old strategy, an equally simple yet effective digital tool that has become a fixture in my classroom.
To begin with, it is free. Teachers inevitably spend money out of pocket for the sake of their students. So it is important to recognize and share free resources with one another. All you need for ClassDojo is internet access and a digital device like a laptop or tablet. Basically, it is a digital system for awarding and or deducting points to and from students. The website comes with a tutorial that suggests assigning each student their own avatar to award points to, which would make more sense in an elementary class, where you have the same 36 students all day long. However, as I have several classes each day, that would be a lot to keep track of. My student desk arrangement is 9 groups of 4. So I align by creating 9 avatars in each class, one for each group of 4. The purpose behind this resource is to improve student behavior. Now this requires that teachers first determine and communicate their expectations clearly. Users have the option of creating categories for positive or negative behavior. The site comes with several default categories but teachers are free to create their own. So a common example might be one or more students clearly getting off task. I can click the “Off Task” icon and deduct one Dojo point from that group. This is all made viewable as it is projected on the screen for all teams to see. Essentially it is a giant score board. This is where things get interesting. This resource is unfortunately underrated and underutilized. This, I believe is because it is only limited to creativity of the teacher using it. For instance, when I started using this point system, I thought I would have the groups compete against each other. While this was relatively successful, it gradually became clear that this essence of competition would inevitably lead to prizes of a more tangible nature. So, I rethought my approach, and remembered the superior power of teamwork. I explained to the class that they were now working together for class points that could lead to a class party. The condition, was that points would be solely be awarded to groups where each member completed their work. On days when HW was due, we would go group by group, asking if each member had their work completed. If so, that team earned one point for the whole class (the larger team) If a member of the group had not completed their work, that team simply would not earn a point towards the class party, but they would not be deducted any. I never deduct class points once they have been earned (unless it was revealed that a student did not in fact have their work completed.) Each trimester, I reset the points and we start all over. Which means students have the opportunity to have 3 parties. The catch, is that everyone has to do their work. It is not enough for 3 of every 4 students to participate. So, and here is my favorite part: The students motivate each other. When one group member gets off task, the others remind them that their behavior will affect the rest of the class. This free and simple digital tool has allowed me to teach students to cooperate with others and recognize that their actions can have positive consequences. All that I have said, and I have only covered the part about giving points. This resource also comes with a series of Growth Mindset videos. It also includes free homework assignments that can be printed and or downloaded for future use. Oh, and did I mention that parents can have access to classDojo? A teacher can invite parents to see how their students are doing, what points they have earned or lost. The site can track for patterns of behavior which teachers can address to improve behavior. Honestly, I could go on and on about this digital tool. I think it is a wonderful resource. I know many teachers that use it and agree. Any teacher not using it should give it a try, at the very least to use the digital countdown timer.
1 Comment
I love Class Dojo and agree with you that it is really underused and sometimes even misunderstood. It grieves me greatly when people only use it for punitive purposes which is NOT the mission statement of the company. One of my favorite applications was to involve my students with creating categories to be award, and how many points. I used it as a weekly review of our class behaviors. We would archive or downgrade value of skills we'd mastered and upgrade and increase points for areas that need improvement. For example, if students had really mastered speaking in order (not blurting), we might switch that to being only 1 pt in value, and then look for another area to work on -- Hallway Excellence and give that 5 pt value. This is a little time consuming but I felt really crucial to building a sense of community ownership and self reflection.
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AuthorThe best teachers never cease to be students. Archives
December 2017
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