Class Dojo- Classroom Management

Being a first year teacher, I have come to realize that management is a vital piece of the classroom.  Without a clear structure and management technique, even the best lessons can turn out to be a nightmare.  The iPad has lent itself to be very helpful to use with classroom management.
Class dojo is a behavior management website.  Teachers sign on and create classes.  They enter in students' first names.  The websites create avatars for them.

During class, the teacher can click on students to give them positive points or negative points.  The website documents and keeps track of students behaviors.  Next to each avatar, is the number of points the student has earned.  Most of the time it has a green number but if the student is getting a lot of negative points, it could have a red negative number.
The teacher can pick the types of behaviors to select for her students.  Some of the ones that I have included are:

• on task
• helping others
• volunteering
• persistence
• working hard

Some of the negative ones are:

• off task
• talking at an inappropriate time
• disrespect
• hands on others
• not being prepared

As class goes on, the teacher can reward points as she sees students doing those behaviors.  This is a great way for teachers to keep track of behaviors.  Class prizes and rewards can be used to motivate students if need be.  In my classroom, if students have at least 75% positive behavior then they get to go outside for a dojo recess reward once a week.  This is motivating the students because they do not get recess in middle school.

The iPad comes into play for this by being a portable way to document behaviors from anywhere.  There is a class dojo app that makes it easy for teachers to add points from anywhere in the classroom.  This gives teachers the chance to monitor behaviors from right next to the student instead of being on the other side of the room.  I have the iPad hooked up to the computer so when the teacher adds a positive point, the whole class hears the ring, when she adds a negative point, the whole class hears the thump.  This reminds students to be do the right thing so they will get positive points added to their avatar.  Being able to walk around and stand next to a student and add points motivates them to continue the desired behavior or stop the undesirable.  It is also helpful to manage behaviors from across the room.  When students hear the sound, they monitor their own behavior to make sure they are doing the right thing.  If the hear a negative sound, all of the students who are doing something that they are not suppose to all look at the teacher.  The teacher will usually be looking at the person that is receiving the negative behavior point.  This will tell them to stop and to get on task.  

Students and parents can track the behavior from home if the have the dojo app or sign on to the website with a parent code that the teacher prints. 

Class dojo and the iPad work together in my classroom to monitor and report behaviors from all over the classroom.  Without the iPad, class dojo would be harder to manage and would be stationary.