I have used Class Dojo and Learning Earnings. I set up each of my classes on Class Dojo and could assign the behaviors I wanted to look for. In my SpellRead groups, I used "activity checking", "good point and sweep" etc. as positive behaviors. I liked it because I could target the behaviors I wanted in each class. I would pull it up on my desktop where the kids could see. At the end of the week I would turn their class dojo points into learning earning bucks, which they could spend on Friday. I became frustrated with Learning Earnings because it took FOREVER for things to load and it often froze. It seemed like it was taking up a huge chunk of instructional time, which I didn't like. I did, however, like the fact that I didn't have to provide my own rewards.
I haven't used Learning Earnings personally, but have suggested it to a couple of my teachers because it allows you to provide incentives without having to purchase anything on your own (like you mentioned). However, they've never said anything (to me at least) about it taking forever to load or freezing. Did that happen consistently for you??? Did you ever find a way to make it work better??? (Maybe the people I've suggested it to haven't tried it yet, so that's why they haven't said anything, haha!)
I have not used behavior incentives in several years. But when I did I used charts/graphs and stickers. At the end of the chart was a reward like McDonalds or a token that was traded in for prizes. I had the students place their own stickers on their charts/graphs for good behavior. If they did not get a sticker they would know their behavior was lacking in some way. I have not heard of either of the two listed above. They sound interesting, I will have to check on it. I teach middle school so some of the behavior incentives seem childish to the students and it makes the behavior worse because they feel they are being "treated like a baby."
I had never heard of Class Dojo until this blog. Then this morning at our monthly staff meeting our assistant principal presented it to us. I am in the process of setting it up for my classes but specifically for 2 of my 8th graders. I am excited to see how it works!
I set up and tried Class Dojo today with my seminar students. I will have to use it for a week or two before I form a final opinion. Several of the students have a difficult time staying on task and I thought this might be a good way to "catch them being good" (positive reinforcement) and boost their confidence levels, rather than me repeatedly reminding them to be productive (not so positive reinforcement). They were not crazy about the program, but by the end of the week I will have a better idea of how successful it has been.
I ‘Googled’ behavior management apps for iPad and found a website with interesting ones! “8 Good iPad Apps for Classroom Management” (except they only listed seven apps!) by Instructional Design & Technology recommends: 1. ClassDoJo - It captures and generates data on behavior that teachers can share with parents and administrators. 2. Socrative brings smart clickers, student response and ease of use to a whole new level. Interact with student data to further student understanding in the moment, and review the reports to prepare for future classes. It will aggregate and grade pre-made activities. 3. Screen Time - allows time limits to be set on the amount of time children use an iPhone or iPad. Set a time length, press start and pass it to children. After the time expires, a series of notifications will prevent children from using the device until the correct passcode is entered (seems like a good thing to me!). 4. Traffic Light - Watch or control your own set of lights. 5. Nearpod - The platform enables teachers to use their iPads to manage content on students' iPads, iPhones or iPods. It combines presentation, collaboration, and real-time assessment tools into one integrated solution. 6. Too Noisy - is a fun app that children might enjoy and respond to. "Too Noisy" displays graphically the background noise level in a room.
I like using a visual timer with some of my students to help them with their on-task behaviors or when a student needs a cool down time I can set that up on my screen on the iPad or on the white board and they can see how much time they have without a word being spoken. I have also used it for charting and rewarding on-task behavior too. Class Dojo several of the teachers I work with this year have tried it but it becomes very time consuming and after a while with the little ones the novelty was gone and they were not motivated by it.
With the class dojo one teacher used it that when she gave the class points our one student was able to not only get his points on screen but he needed that tangible object so he could put a sticker on his chart to help motivate him.
Learning Earnings has been good for those students who really need a tangible reward rather than a little extra attention and praise, if tied with an immediate reward, like a sticker or check mark, as well.
I have sticker charts in my room. Students are responsible for putting up the stickers. There is certain criteria that has to be met before putting up a sticker such as can't be tardy, works hard ect. When they fill up their charts I have a list of prizes they can choose from as a reward.
I don't have a behavior student so I haven't really needed to focus on Incentives... I attended a workshop on Learning Earnings. I do have a student who has needed lots of encouragement and is "close" to being a behavior student. This young male responds well to male teachers and our principal has been good to challenge him with buying him lunch every 2 weeks if he focuses on doing his work and acting respectfully to the para's and teachers. I've seen a real breakthrough with this student in the last two weeks as he is finally experiencing some success with grades!! He is very proud of that - and that has been it's own motivator for him.
My behavior students have technology as their incentives for getting work done and earning their points on their daily behavior sheets. They earn 5 minutes of iPad time for meeting their individual goals. I have tried to use the app screen time, but it didn't work very well for what we were wanting. It seemed like a good idea to me...and it still might be...I just need to be able to play around with it a little. Teachers in my building have talked about using Class DoJo, but I haven't ever used it personally. My pull-out classes aren't big enough that I would need to use something like this. I have heard Mike talk about it and do a presentation about it. It really looked like a good idea.
When creating behavior charts, I just talk with the students and ask them what they’d be willing to work for. The incentives used most often have been 5-10 minutes of free time on the computer or iPad (I also had 2 Kindergarteners who chose stickers and a piece of candy). So far, these plans have been fairly simple to set up/carry out, and when done properly, we’ve been able to see night/day differences in most of the kiddos. However, when turning this over to classroom teachers, we’ve run into some problems with inconsistency in how the behavior plans are carried out (i.e. students don’t get the rewards they’ve earned, points aren’t awarded according to the established criteria, etc.), which really messes with the effectiveness of the whole thing.
I have used Class Dojo and Learning Earnings. I set up each of my classes on Class Dojo and could assign the behaviors I wanted to look for. In my SpellRead groups, I used "activity checking", "good point and sweep" etc. as positive behaviors. I liked it because I could target the behaviors I wanted in each class. I would pull it up on my desktop where the kids could see. At the end of the week I would turn their class dojo points into learning earning bucks, which they could spend on Friday.
ReplyDeleteI became frustrated with Learning Earnings because it took FOREVER for things to load and it often froze. It seemed like it was taking up a huge chunk of instructional time, which I didn't like. I did, however, like the fact that I didn't have to provide my own rewards.
I haven't used Learning Earnings personally, but have suggested it to a couple of my teachers because it allows you to provide incentives without having to purchase anything on your own (like you mentioned). However, they've never said anything (to me at least) about it taking forever to load or freezing. Did that happen consistently for you??? Did you ever find a way to make it work better??? (Maybe the people I've suggested it to haven't tried it yet, so that's why they haven't said anything, haha!)
DeleteI have not used behavior incentives in several years. But when I did I used charts/graphs and stickers. At the end of the chart was a reward like McDonalds or a token that was traded in for prizes. I had the students place their own stickers on their charts/graphs for good behavior. If they did not get a sticker they would know their behavior was lacking in some way. I have not heard of either of the two listed above. They sound interesting, I will have to check on it. I teach middle school so some of the behavior incentives seem childish to the students and it makes the behavior worse because they feel they are being "treated like a baby."
ReplyDeleteI had never heard of Class Dojo until this blog. Then this morning at our monthly staff meeting our assistant principal presented it to us. I am in the process of setting it up for my classes but specifically for 2 of my 8th graders. I am excited to see how it works!
ReplyDeleteFortunately, I haven’t needed a behavior app for a while. When I do, I’ll look seriously at Class Dojo. I like the principal of it!
DeleteI set up and tried Class Dojo today with my seminar students. I will have to use it for a week or two before I form a final opinion. Several of the students have a difficult time staying on task and I thought this might be a good way to "catch them being good" (positive reinforcement) and boost their confidence levels, rather than me repeatedly reminding them to be productive (not so positive reinforcement). They were not crazy about the program, but by the end of the week I will have a better idea of how successful it has been.
ReplyDeleteI ‘Googled’ behavior management apps for iPad and found a website with interesting ones! “8 Good iPad Apps for Classroom Management” (except they only listed seven apps!) by Instructional Design & Technology recommends:
ReplyDelete1. ClassDoJo - It captures and generates data on behavior that teachers can share with parents and administrators.
2. Socrative brings smart clickers, student response and ease of use to a whole new level. Interact with student data to further student understanding in the moment, and review the reports to prepare for future classes. It will aggregate and grade pre-made activities.
3. Screen Time - allows time limits to be set on the amount of time children use an iPhone or iPad. Set a time length, press start and pass it to children. After the time expires, a series of notifications will prevent children from using the device until the correct passcode is entered (seems like a good thing to me!).
4. Traffic Light - Watch or control your own set of lights.
5. Nearpod - The platform enables teachers to use their iPads to manage content on students' iPads, iPhones or iPods. It combines presentation, collaboration, and real-time assessment tools into one integrated solution.
6. Too Noisy - is a fun app that children might enjoy and respond to. "Too Noisy" displays graphically the background noise level in a room.
Jerrie, thanks for doing this research. Of all of these would your preference still be Class Dojo for high school students?
DeleteThese all look like great ideas Jerrie! Thanks for sharing! :)
DeleteI like using a visual timer with some of my students to help them with their on-task behaviors or when a student needs a cool down time I can set that up on my screen on the iPad or on the white board and they can see how much time they have without a word being spoken. I have also used it for charting and rewarding on-task behavior too. Class Dojo several of the teachers I work with this year have tried it but it becomes very time consuming and after a while with the little ones the novelty was gone and they were not motivated by it.
ReplyDeleteWith the class dojo one teacher used it that when she gave the class points our one student was able to not only get his points on screen but he needed that tangible object so he could put a sticker on his chart to help motivate him.
Learning Earnings has been good for those students who really need a tangible reward rather than a little extra attention and praise, if tied with an immediate reward, like a sticker or check mark, as well.
ReplyDeleteI have sticker charts in my room. Students are responsible for putting up the stickers. There is certain criteria that has to be met before putting up a sticker such as can't be tardy, works hard ect. When they fill up their charts I have a list of prizes they can choose from as a reward.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a behavior student so I haven't really needed to focus on Incentives... I attended a workshop on Learning Earnings. I do have a student who has needed lots of encouragement and is "close" to being a behavior student. This young male responds well to male teachers and our principal has been good to challenge him with buying him lunch every 2 weeks if he focuses on doing his work and acting respectfully to the para's and teachers. I've seen a real breakthrough with this student in the last two weeks as he is finally experiencing some success with grades!! He is very proud of that - and that has been it's own motivator for him.
ReplyDeleteMy behavior students have technology as their incentives for getting work done and earning their points on their daily behavior sheets. They earn 5 minutes of iPad time for meeting their individual goals. I have tried to use the app screen time, but it didn't work very well for what we were wanting. It seemed like a good idea to me...and it still might be...I just need to be able to play around with it a little. Teachers in my building have talked about using Class DoJo, but I haven't ever used it personally. My pull-out classes aren't big enough that I would need to use something like this. I have heard Mike talk about it and do a presentation about it. It really looked like a good idea.
ReplyDeleteWhen creating behavior charts, I just talk with the students and ask them what they’d be willing to work for. The incentives used most often have been 5-10 minutes of free time on the computer or iPad (I also had 2 Kindergarteners who chose stickers and a piece of candy). So far, these plans have been fairly simple to set up/carry out, and when done properly, we’ve been able to see night/day differences in most of the kiddos. However, when turning this over to classroom teachers, we’ve run into some problems with inconsistency in how the behavior plans are carried out (i.e. students don’t get the rewards they’ve earned, points aren’t awarded according to the established criteria, etc.), which really messes with the effectiveness of the whole thing.
ReplyDelete