Do you Dojo?

Cause if you don't, you totally should.  Earlier this year I mentioned to the paraprofessional in my room, who hasn't been in kindergarten in awhile, that it's all good until FEBRUARY (que dramatic music here!) seriously though, February is one of my favorite months with all the fun things we have going on & the learning that is happening is at full steam. But the rise in unexpected behaviors-oy! So this week I brought back one of my favorite classroom management tools-ClassDojo. 

ClassDojo is a website/app behavior management classroom tool that can really be used in a variety of ways. In my classroom I'm using it as an extra incentive...a little dangling carrot if you will.  Each student starts the week with 10 points. They can either earn or loose points based on our classroom expected behaviors. Then as long as they have more than zero points (yes the points value can go below zero!) they get an extra reward that Friday. If a student is at zero they then spend that reward time with me. We use that time looking up their data on ClassDojo and focusing on what they can improve on the following week. We do some reteaching of expected behaviors, brain storming possible solutions and setting goals for the following week. 

Each student has an avatar & their point bubble reflects
their positive/negative behavior choices

Sounds intense but my students absolutely LOVE it! Not kidding we have only used it for a little while and it has made a huge difference in our classroom environment and student engagement. The students are rising to the occasion and really showing some great character traits like responsibility, helping each other and respecting our stuff! And the adults in the room are feeling like we are off of repeat mode (walking feet please/hands to self/walking feet please/hands to self....) No, ClassDojo isn't a miracle worker. But it is just the boost that we need to happily transition into March! 

During conferences this last week I had multiple parents ask what this dojo stuff was (probably should've sent a note home explaining that one!) and most said how much they like hearing their child talk about their behaviors from school at home and how it correlates with their ClassDojo points. ClassDojo great talking tool for our families as well! Within Class Dojo you can have parents automatically get daily reports about their child's behavior. I haven't yet used that feature so I'm not exactly sure how it works, but from what I hear it is a fabulous feature! There is a lot you can do with ClassDojo, or you can make it as simple as you'd like! I found a place for it in my classroom and I highly suggest you investigate it further if you are in need of a little something extra for your classroom management strategies! I had created a Google presentation for a workshop I led and I had a few slides on ClassDojo basics. I pulled them out and you can check them out here! Please leave me a comment and let me know if you Dojo!

I like that I can add/remove ClassDojo points from my iPad while working with students
& simultaneously project for them to see. A little visual motivator can go a long way!