Tried It Tuesday (Class Dojo)!!

Time to share more "Tried It" ideas from your classroom or home!

What is Tried It Tuesday?  Read more about it here.
I have been waiting to share about this new strategy for a few weeks since I wanted to give it some time to see how it worked with my class.

<center> <a href="http://fourthgradeflipper.blogspot.com/"><img src=" http://i593.photobucket.com/albums/tt15/04fallingstar/3AM%20Blog%20Design/3am_triedittuesday_3_zpsd7a240d4.png" width=225 height=225 border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a></center> Awesome linky button above designed by the talented Michelle at The 3am Teacher! My Tried It: Class Dojo!

I started using Class Dojo right after spring break on April 8th.

My students were (and still are!) super excited about this program.

Many of them made their "own avatar" at home:

I decided to use Class Dojo as my behavior incentive system in lieu of my star system the rest of the year.  The change is just what the students needed.  

To summarize Class Dojo, students "earn" points for positive behaviors and "lose" points for negative behaviors throughout the day.  The teacher can customize these behaviors.  When a teacher wants to recognize a positive or negative behavior, they can click on the students name and check the behavior.  I keep Class Dojo projected on my SMART board and positive behaviors get a "ding" and negative get a "low oops sound".  It projects the behavior and student's name large on the screen like this (don't mind my retouching out the last names).

I wanted my students to be able to trade their Dojo points in for prizes and had the class brainstorm the prizes.  This has worked great!  Here is the chart we came up with:

After three weeks, each of my two classes (homeroom and ELA) are approaching 300 points total.  They have trade in day every 2-3 weeks and will be able to enjoy a "class reward" when they reach 500 points if at least 75% vote to use points for the class reward vs. individual rewards.  It will be interesting to see what they choose once the class actually has 500 points or more.  So far, no one has traded individual points in on our Dojo trade in day last Friday.  They all have an idea of what they are saving for though!

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 (even though I haven't invited parents to the site yet!).

6. It's FREE!

Problems I have experienced:

1.  Sometimes the site acts up.  When I start my class, no names appear and I keep on having to refresh.  Parts of the screen may freeze as well.  When a whole class is watching and waiting, this can be very frustrating.

2.  I wish there was a way to take some points away for trade in day.  Teachers can clear all the points but I only want to clear some of them.  If a student has 31 points and they want to trade in for a prize worth 20 points, I want to be able to show that and give them 11 points left.  My solution was to add a "negative behavior" called "trade in points" and I will just click that number of points for trade in until they are at the right count again.  You can only add or subtract one point at a time from each student, although you can award multiple students a point at the same time.   

3.  I need to keep up with awarding points each day to keep the student's excitement and involvement.  Some days this has been difficult and uses more class time than I would like.  

I find there is so much more value in awarding the points during class so that the students can watch:)                                                                     

If you would like to try this FREE behavior management system, please use my referral link.  

I don't think I get any recognition for it but it does have a good summary of the program.

Check out my guest post on Crofts' Classroom tomorrow!  
Also, I am working on planning a giveaway for (almost!) 500 Followers!   I hope you will check back this weekend!   Thank you so much for following and all your support!!