Hello everyone,
It has been a LONG while!
Since my last post I gave birth to the most wonderful and handsome baby boy and started working at a new school, but still teaching Kindergarten. I have felt a bit overwhelmed as I am first time Mom working at a new school, but some how I am surviving! I think that the best job I have is being a Mommy! :)
This school year has been such a whirlwind as I am adjusting (still) from coming from a very small Catholic school with one teacher per grade, to a huge Catholic school with two teachers per grade. However my favorite thing at this school is that I love is having a partner teacher to collaborate with.
In the beginning of the school year all of the teachers attended a training called Love and Logic. I absolutely loved this training! Love and Logic is based on a positive discipline approach where teachers speak to children calmly, give them choices, and students assume responsibility and ownership for their actions. However of course now and then teachers will have their frustrating moments and not use Love and Logic in the moment, but I am glad to have this as a strategy to use in the classroom and help me to better speak with students when they make poor choices. {I will also for sure be using these techniques as my baby boy gets older!}
As a result of this training I really began to re-think the clip chart...I was so stressed because school was right around the corner and I did not know what I was going to do! As I began to think I remembered using a behavior management system of Class Dojo when I used to work with 5th intervention students. However the first thing that came to mind was how in the world can I use this in a Kindergarten classroom?!
I randomly assigned my students a monster.
I then added positive and negative options for points that students can earn/loose throughout the day. I tried to base these options on my classroom rules.
The main thing that had me switch from the clip chart to this was the "walk of shame." I did not want my students to think negatively of themselves as they walked to move their clips down as everyone in the classroom watched. So the key thing that I do is I never let the students see how many points they have. At the end of the day is when I tell the students how many points they have one-on-one. I tell my students that the points they earn is between me and them, so other students don't need to know their business.
I have students earn certain prizes as they reach a certain amount of points. And each month I reset the points. I created an anchor chart under my classroom rules that are displayed in my classroom.
This behavior system has worked really well in my classroom! I love how I can give student points on my computer, iPad or iPhone. Another great feature is I can connect with parents and they can instantly see how their child is doing throughout the day on their devices. I can also instant message them, send them pictures, etc. There is also a "Class Story" feature where I can post pictures or videos about what we are doing in the classroom. Also recently they came out with a video series that motivates students and they look forward to seeing it each week. All in all Class Dojo is a wonderful behavior management tool that can be used in any classroom.
Where did you get your rules posters?
ReplyDeleteHi Linda!
DeleteI got my classroom rules for free on Teachers Pay Teachers. They are Whole Brain Teaching rules, however a couple of them I edited and made it my own.
Hello. It’s Kerri again. Where did you get the monster posters that are interspersed with your rules & rewards chart? Thanks.
DeleteIt’s Kerri again. My first question disappeared when I posted my 2nd question. In case you did not see it, I tried using Class Dojo in the past but quit using it midyear because I struggled with the process of awarding positive & negative points. It interrupted my teaching flow of lessons & caused me to be off schedule. I’d often times try to award at the end of the day, but then it was hard to remember everything that happened during the day! How do you do it & avoid this problem? And suggestions would greatly be appreciated. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi Kerri! The monster posters are from the website Go Noddle. It’s a wonderful website that has lots of brain breaks for your students. Your class or you chooses a monster and when it maxes out you get a certificate, which is what I printed. There are days when I don’t give Dojo points, because I honestly forget. But what I do that is helpful is sometimes I will write on my whiteboard numbers of students who I will give points to or write it on a sticky to add to later. Sometimes I will have my teacher assistant for the month remind me to do the points too, which is also nice! I usually also use this for more of a positive reinforcement since my school has a folder that represents more of negative behaviors, so this is a great balance. But to be honest you do have to remember to give points, and if you don’t, oh well! There are days that I didn’t and it’s okay!
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