CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT TOOLS

Classroom management and student behavior are topics of discussion--and dissension--at my school every year. At the end of last year I decided to join the committee responsible for addressing school wide initiatives for improving and maintain good behavior. Currently, we have a card system in place; students that exhibit negative behaviors after an initial warning are told to set their green cards to red. Behaviors that persist or are more serious infractions are set to red. The most negative behaviors like fighting are addressed with a orange card, and student's parents are contacted. Beyond the orange, rarely do the consequences for the different colors correspond between individual classrooms: some really use their behavior boards and some, well, don't. To make matters worse,the boards themselves are hard to use. The colored paper is hard to slip in and out of pockets, and students who move through a lot of colors can be easily identified by the creased, wrinkled wads the papers form into as the year progresses. Fortunately, technological tools exist that can create a cohesion amongst teachers while providing fast, effective feedback on behavior to students and their family without having to kill trees.

Class Dojo is a site I'd already heard about at my school but had not put into practice myself. A colleague of mine in the fifth grade (who also loves to try new tools of technology) spoke highly of it last year and suggested I give it a try. Getting set up with Class Dojo (just go to classdojo.com to get started) was extremely easy; a sample class was already set up so that I could immediately begin using it as though I were in class with my students.

Class Dojo is perfect for teachers that have tablets with them. This allows them to tap their screens and provide input on a student the moment a behavior occurs. Each time behavior is noted and recorded, Class Dojo will automatically keep track of the number of positive and negative marks, keeping a net number next to the student to note their overall behavior during the lesson. Once marking is complete, a report is quickly generated, showing the behavior scores for individual students as well as the entire class. This information can be shared with parents, students, or held and used by the teacher for planning future assignments, seating arrangements, and other student considerations.

Class Dojo can be incorporated into existing behavior plans, too. For my own classroom, I would use class dojo along with my card system. Instead of changing the cards throughout the day, I would use Class Dojo to keep track of all student bahaviors throughout the lessons, showing students their results so that they can keep track and monitor themselves, too. Then, at the end of the day, students' net scores would be shared, and depending on their number, students would set their color and reflect on what they did to land there. Using the reports on Class Dojo, the student could work with the teacher to learn when specific problems and successes took place and make a plan to for improvement or maintenance the following day. Just like with their academics, if the the students don't know what their behavior is and what is supposed to be, they'll never know what to do to improve or stay the course.

Class Dojo is free to use. Additional information can be found at: https://www.classdojo.com/about/

ISTE Standards for Students

(Click on the link above for descriptions of the following standards this tool can address.)

       Communication and collaboration (a, b,)

       Research and information fluency (d)

       Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making (b, c)

       Digital citizenship (a, b, c, d)

       Technology operations and concepts (a, b)

ISTE Standards for Teachers

(Click on the link above for descriptions of the following standards this tool can address.)

       Facilitate and Inspire student learning and creativity (a, b, c,d)

       Design and develop digital age learning experiences and assessments (a, c)

       Model digital age work and learning (b, c, d)

       Promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility (a, b, c)

       Engage in professional growth and leadership (a, b)

Sources:

 https://www.classdojo.com/about/