Class Dojo {super fab classroom management}

I just may have the solution to your EOY craziness!!!  And it's free...you're going to love me for sharing.  :)

ClassDojo is my new favorite thing!  It's a website that tracks your students' choices.  Each student gets a little avatar next to their name and they can earn points for doing something great {being on task, helping a friend, participating} or lose points for making a not so great choice {being off task, not doing homework, showing disrespect}.

I keep mine pulled up on the SmartBoard where my students can see their points and be part of helping me track them.  It's easy enough to use that all I have to do is say "Great job Pinkalicious, you get a point for working so hard" and she just walks up to the screen, clicks her name & clicks "Hard Work."  Then her point total on the class screen goes up by a point!  {students with points are shown in green and students in the negative are shown in red}

From the home screen you can also take attendance, set a timer, choose a student at random {which is fun because it flashes through all of their names until it lands on one} or award points to multiple students at once.  You can also customize the behaviors to add things like "Walking quietly in line" or "Shouting out."  {Bonus: if you have iPad with internet you can take your dojo wherever you go!!}

We look at our whole class percentage each Friday to see how we're doing and set a goal for the next week.  With this report, I'd praise them for their on task-behavior and probably suggest some strategies for remembering to bring back homework.  I also like to compare the percentage to the week before.  If it goes up, we all get a little prize.

You can set a bigger goal for some of your fun EOY activities!  Maybe in order for your class to earn a special theme day they have to have 90% positive or higher as a group for a whole week?  Maybe some of your friends need a goal of having 80% positive or higher as individuals to participate in a field trip or school assembly?  There are so many possibilities.

Since Class Dojo is a website, parents and students can access it at home.  They each receive a special log-in code so they only have access to their account and it'll let parents see exactly what their child is receiving points for as well as which areas need growth.

If your parents don't have internet access, you can print each child's report to send home.  This is great if you have a student on a behavior plan because it keeps the data for you!!  {ie. how often they are off task}  Then you can work on strategies specific to the area they need to improve and track if the percentage increases or decreases each week.

For example, Diego here is fabulous at helping others but that could have a factor in his off task percentage being so high.  I would probably try to isolate him during work time and let his reward for on-task behavior be to go and help his friends or be a teacher helper...building on his overwhelming strength.

On the other hand, Barbie is doing a fab job in class but is having a hard time remembering to do her homework.  Since she's such a hard worker at school, I would probably make a phone call home to see if anything is going on that's keeping from doing her work - or if mom and dad even know that she's bringing work home!

I highly suggest that you check out ClassDojo.com and play around with the demo class.  It's fun.  It's free and it just might that change in classroom management that you need to get your kids motivated to make good choices again.  I have a feeling I'll be using it much earlier in the school year next year!!!