ClassDojo

This fall, I will be a first year teacher...again. Up until now, with the exception of some students I only saw for math, I have taught 7th and 8th grade students exclusively.  I love 8th graders, I love 7th graders too. They get my humor, I get their humor, I understand their developmental capabilities as well as their mercurial, hormone-influenced temperaments. This fall, I will be moving down to the 6th grade, with a 6th grade special education caseload in addition to my specialized math classes. This is to be a one year gig: I will be looping back to the 7th grade after next year. 

After learning of this grade change, I started having nightmares about classrooms full of toddlers and misbehaving babies. It took me a night or two of these dreams to realize that I was a little stressed about my grade change and how developmentally different 6th graders are from their upper-middle school counterparts. While this doesn't sound like such a big change, it really is. 11 year olds versus 13 and 14 year olds. Incoming elementary students versus students ready for high school. I am used to getting students who have already been "broken in" with regards to the middle school environment. This fall, it is my job to get these students comfortable with that big step from elementary to middle school.

So...I have spent my summer trying to get myself and my classroom prepared for this big change.

Enter ClassDojo

First item on list:  find a workable method of enforcing, tracking and rewarding classroom behavior for my incoming students. Check! 

ClassDojo is an on-line behavior management tool for the classroom. According to its website, it improves "student behavior and engagement by awarding and recording real-time feedback". This is a FREE web tool. ClassDojo allows teachers to track both negative and positive behavior with a click, and provides feedback to students immediately. Instead of a check on the white board, ClassDojo allows you to itemize positive and negative behavior attributes, and print behavior report cards to promote student accountability. 

With ClassDojo, teachers can set up individual classes and enter their student rosters to track behavior on a student by student basis. Attributes can be customized within each class by the teacher, and are entered and tracked by date. To encourage student investment in this process, each student can select a cartoon "avatar" and be assigned a "secret code" to view their behavior over time. 

I set up my account and class lists in less than 15 minutes. Deciding on my positive and negative attribute trackers took more time as I personalized them according to class type. With a click, my class lists and attributes were saved and the Dojo was ready to go. 

Here is an example of some class avatars and class attributes:

To track behavior, open a class list, click on a student and click on the behavior attribute.

Students can gauge their behavior by their avatar:

I give the Dojo two very enthusiastic "thumbs up" for simplicity and ease. I will be using this daily in all my classes. Just a note: ClassDojo is free to teachers while it is in its Beta stage...so get in on the goodness while it lasts!