This year, I purchased an iPad mini for an outrageously good deal of $199 (thank you Target for lowering the price, and thank you Walmart for price match guarantee.) I do use it at home, but my main purpose was to help out in the classroom.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Class Dojo is this amazing website where you can monitor positive and negative behavior of each individual student. Some teachers choose to display it during the whole day, but I do not want to do that. The whole reason I gave up my clip chart was because of the public shaming it provides, plus it wasn't very effective for the students who truly "used" it. Students can receive an activation code so they can edit their avatar at home---
cute little monster thingys, like this:
and parents can also provide their email so that EVERY FRIDAY they receive a detailed report of their child's dojo activity.
Here's the parent letter template I used to write my letter:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Class-Dojo-Parent-Letter-Editable-1327185
I also added an area on the bottom for students to bring back with their parent's email address on it, so that I can send out the Friday reports.
GIVING/TAKING AWAY POINTS
The cool thing I like is that you can assign certain things as positives and negatives. For example, you could have positives be things like:
- helping others
- on task
- participating
- persistence
- teamwork
- working hard
and negatives (they use the term "needs work") such as:
- bullying
- disrespect
- no homework
- off task
- talking out of turn
- unprepared
They have pre-made ones, but they also have a "create your own" button, which might be good if there's something you really want to highlight that is happening in your class (good OR bad!)
You can give/take away points individually, at random, small groups, or whole class.
REWARDS SYSTEM
There are many ways you can use rewards with this program.
- no rewards, just simple satisfaction :)
- whole class rewards (reach x amount of points, get a prize)
- individual rewards (reach x amount of points, choose a prize)
I've found that I like a mix of material and non-material rewards. There are many ideas on Pinterest, such as dojo dollars, reach x number of points and get this prize, or what I plan on doing:
I'm going to use these coupons I found at Learning with Firsties (dojo themed!) and assign a point value to them. A student can bank in on a certain day of the week at a designated time (undetermined at this time), but once they use their points, I delete them from their avatar. I will be creating a spreadsheet that I will keep by my desk that will easily let me jot down who spent what, and then I will take care of it at the end of the day/during prep. I will hopefully remember to add that to this post later!
I plan on using this idea (note: only links to pin, no website) to record their end-of-the-week total.
WHAT TO DO FOR NEGATIVE BEHAVIOR
There's only so many infractions we can accept before a consequence needs to be given. OR there may be a serious infraction that warrants an immediate response.
This depends on a) school policy and b) teacher preference.
I took away my clip chart because it gave consequences without me having to think of them. I've learned that consequences are dependent on the actions that earned them. For example, if a kid is caught using paper towels to clog the toilets (true story), then have them write an apology letter to the janitor (in this instance, I had wonderful parents who understood the situation, and the student wrote the letter at home on their own time.)
Another thing I've learned is that there is usually (not always) a hidden reason behind something. Not that it's an excuse, but it helps understand kiddos a bit more. Example: if a student hit someone - well, why did he hit someone? He may have been reacting to something the other kiddo did.
I had another student who would talk all the time instead of completing their work. So I put them on the cube plan. For every 15 minutes they worked quietly with minimal talking and staying on task, I gave them a cube. Once they received three cubes, they got 5 minutes to do something they liked. In this student's situation, they loved to draw, so I created an art book for them to draw in when they earned it.
In the case of unfinished work due to behaviors, one teacher had them work on it during snack time, while others are allowed to play games and socialize. If by then they still hadn't completed it, they had to use THEIR recess time to do so.
NOTE on taking away recess: I dislike it. I do. I think children need to be active. But in these lower grades (1-3), it's very difficult to find any of THEIR time to take away to complete the task. I do not want my student to miss out on MY teaching time, because everything is important. Some may argue to send it home, but I've had poor success with that. First graders struggle with the responsibility of taking it home, doing the homework, and bringing it back. They need a parent's help with that.
If you have any helpful hints or tips on how you handle repeated poor choices, feel free to comment below :)
I haven't used this yet, so please do not think these ideas are foolproof. I'm really excited to use this, however, and I will update on how it goes!
Love,
Mrs. Larson
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