The sounds of silence/early Christmas miracle?

 This past week my lovely first graders weren't exactly lovely. They weren't following directions, they weren't working quietly, some students were being really mean, and I even had a student cheat! WHAT?! So by Friday I had had it. I remembered a post I had seen on Mrs. Bainbridge's Class about Class Dojo. It's a free online classroom management system. Over my conference period I took the tour and signed up my whole class. Then I put the app on my phone. Each student is given a cute monster avatar with their name underneath. You can give out points to students for positive behaviors, or take points away for negative behaviors. One great feature is you can choose all your own positives and negatives based on your class needs.


When you give students points or take points away students see who got the points and why. I had this projected as my students worked on their social studies and I was conferencing with students. BEST PART: You can use your smartphone as a remote! I had my phone at my small group table and would assign points to students or take points away. On the app there is a "Select Random" too. My kids would hear a "DING" and look up at the screen and whisper, "Sarah got a point for working quietly!" And then half the class was working while holding up our quiet sign. Then "HONK" and someone whispered, "Oh! Morgan got a point taken away because she's not following directions!"

IT.WAS.AWESOME.

The teacher next door came in to ask a question. She said it was creepy-quiet in class and what was I doing to make that happen? After our crazy week the silence was just wonderful- a miracle even!

I loved it! And we're going to use it all week. I'm still using my classroom behavior management system for the moment, but I can see this being a great tool when I'm working with small group and my kids are going to work stations. You can send home a behavior report for each student so that may come in handy too! Click on the logo to sign up your class.


8 comments:

  1. That sound awesome. I have a behavior plan that is just not working for me. I'm going to have to check this out. Thanks.

    First Grade Delight

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  2. I can totally relate to the "not exactly lovely" behaviors in my class this year! Thanks for sharing this. I will definitely check this out. Oh, and thanks for the blog on fire award! I promise that I will post a proper thanks as soon as I am finished with this blame Capston project for my very last Master's class. WooooHooo!

    Jena
    1st Grade with Miss Snowden

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  3. My kids weren't lovely this week either... sigh. I saw this idea on Mrs. Bainbridge's blog and after I read your post I thought it might work for our math stations!! I feel like I keep interrupting my teaching to yell out, "Bobby, why are you not at your own station???" So I am going to give it a shot! Thanks :)

    Marvelous Multiagers!

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  4. Love this... I set up my classes and am anxious to try it. Thanks for the post!

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  5. I saw this on Bainbridge's post but didn't do anything about it. Now I think I have to!!!!! Thank you! (my class is USUALLY wonderful but we've had a couple of moments and I NEED something.)
    A Teeny Tiny Teacher

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  6. Thanks for your post. You encouraged me to finally implement it. I've been signed up since September but just "never go around to it." Now I have! You can read my post about it here:

    http://mrshopefirstgrade.blogspot.com/2011/11/classdojo-saved-my-sanity.html

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  7. WOW. I am just seeing this post. I can't wait until Monday to try it out. This is also perfect for the RTI process(I'm in Texas too)

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  8. Thanks for sharing! I stumbled upon Class Dojo this summer and blogged about it here. Even though you posted this earlier this summer, I hope you'll consider linking up and sharing your post some more! :)
    Bee

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