Classroom Management App

One of the biggest management challenges for a teacher is behaviour management. Keeping students engaged, focused and respectful is a constant process. However it’s easier said than done. A teacher definitely needs an effective APP to help him/her to management classroom.

The App that I want to implement in my classroom is called Class DOJO.   

 Class DOJO is very helpful for teachers to gather and generate data on the behaviour of students. The behaviour information is shared in real time with the administration and parents in order to update them quickly about the progress and status of a student in class. Class Dojo provides a secure communication method for teachers to send feedback about a student's behaviours. It generates a continuous progress report on how the students are doing. The app is free  of charge and also available on Android and iOS.

Application:

1.After signed up for the app, you need to configure the behaviours and skills you want to manage.  As picture below, there are positive behaviours  you want the children to learn such as helping others, teamwork, working hard and persistence. There are also negative behaviours you want to work with the students to change.

You could give bonus point to each positive skills by clicking on that skill box, and a window with point weight for you to fill in the points that the student eared.

You could add more skills by clicking the "+" tab, then a window would pop up for you to add more skills and give points to that skill a student is earned. The picture below is area that still needs work, so negative points are given to show how much work needs to be done for correcting this behaviour.

After choosing all the skills, you could save it. Then you could share with parents of what's happening in the classroom by inviting them. ClassDojo would help you to generate a invitation letter with a classroom entry code for inviting parents to sign up in the classroom. Students can sign up too!

Now, I come to the surface of my student names. I could see how much points each student get, and I could click on the student's name to add more point to them.

For managing a specific behaviour, for example, team work, I could create teams in the class, for student to experience what teamwork is like.

After I group the students, I would assign them some project to do in teams, such as a math problem solving project, and give points to them according to their team performance. This mechanism could greatly stimulate student's competition. They would be more engaged and focused on the tasks and earning more points.

As a teacher, I could post class story to share moments in the classroom and updates with parents. Picture below is a moment i just shared with parents, it's two groups of students are solving a math problem. Parents could even liked and comment on the activity.

If I want to inform parents about any notice and news about the classroom, I could just send message from Class DOJO instead of calling them or send text message one by one.

It's very accessible, teachers could use a smartphone, tablet or computer to give or take away points through out the school day. 

The problem about this APP is that it's accessible to both parents and students, their points are publicly displayed to an entire classroom. For some students who are sensitive, they might feel uncomfortable and embarrassed about the points they get. So I would try to check with each child, and if they are ok with displaying their point, I would go ahead. If not, I would offer them an anonymous avatar and not displaying points at all.It's very important to use this tool in a careful and sensitive way that encourages social and emotional learning.