Class Dojo

Sarah Kile is our first guest blogger of the year!  She wrote this article on Class Dojo.

Class Dojo is a fairly new app that allows teachers to recognize both positive and negative behaviors in real time during class.  Good behavior, such as working hard, helping others, or participating, earns points and a high-pitched game-show chime for all to hear.  Behavior that “needs work”, like disrupting others, being off task or wasting time, results in a loss of points and a sad, out-of-tune bass sound.  I have been using this app as positive reinforcement.  Every time the high-pitched chime sounds, each student is looking at the board eager to see if it is them that earned points.  I have noticed that the amount of hard work and on task behavior has heightened since using the app.

There’s several great features of this app.  One is obviously acknowledging those students who do the right thing and behave accordingly.  Another fun feature is that the kids can choose their avatar.  They can choose a purple bear with yellow lips and a horn, a one-eyed furry gray creature, a blue fluid octopus, and many more.  This allows them to take ownership of not only their avatar, but also their behavior.

Another great feature is that parents can log into the site at any time during the day and see how their child is behaving at school.  They are able to view what challenges their child is having, as well as what they are consistently doing that is viewed as positive.  When teachers reward points and take away points, there is a comment box where teachers can get more specific in case the parent does log in and looks at their child’s behavior.  It’s a great communication tool and could come in handy during parent/teacher conferences.

So to summarize:

What I LOVE about Class Dojo:

1.  Students pay attention and try to earn points!  They are excited!

2.  Just by rewarding positive points, students exhibiting poor behaviors will usually stop them without me having to recognize the negative behaviors.

3.  I can keep track of a point system electronically!

4.  There is even an app for your iPad or phone so that you can use Class Dojo everywhere!

5.  When you award or take away points, there is a space each day to write a note about the behaviors.  This is great to keep track of behavior management records or parent conferences.

6. It's FREE! www.classdojo.com