I'm slowly getting back into a school routine.  I love linking up with Holly to share what's working in my classroom and at home.

This week I wanted to share how I use my clip chart with Class Dojo.  We use a clip chart school-wide and I had never used one before beginning at this school in January.  Over the summer I had time to think about how I could use this management tool with Class Dojo, which I love.  Here's what I came up with:

In this picture you can see my clip chart.  I have somewhat of a sports theme going in my classroom and I decided to make my clip chart line up with that.  All the kids start at "Game Time" and can move up or down for there (pretty standard clip chart).

At the end of the day, if they end up on MVP, they get to add a sticker to their clip.  I just use these foam stickers that I found in one of my cabinets.

Also at the end of the day, I have my clip chart monitor tell me who clipped up to what level.  Here is where Class Dojo comes in!

I've blogged about Class Dojo a few times which you can read HERE and you can click on the Dojo picture above to go directly to the site.

Getting back to what I do.  When the clip chart monitor reads me the numbers from the clips that have moved up or down, I simply go into Class Dojo and award points.  I've added the behaviors of clip up on the positive side and clip down on the negative sive.  If they get up to MVP, they earn 3 Dojo points, All-Star is worth 2 Dojo points, and Score is worth 1 Dojo point.  If they end the day under Game Time, they lose Dojo points.  Ending on Foul means they lose 1 point, Strikeout loses 2 points, and benched loses 3 points.  My students earn rewards and reward tags for every 10 Dojo points.

So far this system is working great for me and my kiddos.  I'm supporting the school wide behavior plan while also making it my own.  Do you use Class Dojo and/or a clip chart?  How's your behavior management plan working for you?

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Brandi

I love that summer is a time to rejuvenate and reflect.  One of the areas that I'm constantly rethinking is classroom management, so when I saw this linky from Laura at Where the Magic Happens, I knew I needed to sit down and reflect on my plans for this year.

Classroom Management

Having just finished my 10th year of teaching, I realize that classroom management is multi-layered.  It's taken some time to get here, but I feel comfortable in the strategies and approaches I use.

Individual:

My school uses clip charts school wide.  I remade mine to match my sports theme.  

 
 
 
 
 

I like the clip chart because it allows me to focus on positive as well as negative behavior.  As students make good choices, they can clip up.  At the end of the day, I give out (or take away) Class Dojo points based on how they clipped during the day.  My students really respond well to Class Dojo.  I've blogged about it previously HERE.  Students work hard to earn points for different rewards.  I use scratchers, reward coupons, and reward tags as rewards.  I think my students love reward tags the most.  Here are some pictures of them:

Team

In addition to the individual student behavior, I also have my students sitting in groups and use teams to help out with the behavior expectations.  I do not have any specific rewards for the teams, but do allow them to be first when I see them doing well.  I plan to change this up, but I'll talk about that later.

Whole Class

The final layer of my management plan is whole class.  I use brownie points when my class receives a compliment from someone else.  When the brownie tray is filled up we have a little treat as a class.

Next year I want to add jewels to my clip chart.  I saw this on Pinterest:

and linked it back to First Grade Glitter and Giggles.  I love the idea of having a Hall of Fame to retire clips to and that fits perfectly with my sports theme.  The idea behind this is that any time a student reaches the top of the chart, they earn a jewel.  After they earn 5 jewels, they get to retire their clip to the Hall of Fame and start over.  I will probably give them a decorative clip (either spray painted or with Washi tape) for their new clip as an added incentive.  I saw that some people give jewels every time they clip up, but since I'll be giving out Dojo points for each clip up, I decided against that.

Another thing that I would like to add is a better way to reward my teams.  I was stalking reading Jamie's post (Diary of a Not So Wimpy Teacher) on classroom management and knew instantly I needed to have these Team of the Week placemats:

Click on the picture to go to Jamie's post.  Click HERE to pick up her team of the week freebie!

You can check out my reward tags by clicking on the image below.  I plan to add to these this summer because there are so many uses for them.

I'd love to hear about your management plan.  Let me know what you use and be sure to check out the linky party to get some ideas and resources!

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Brandi

Today I'm linking up with Holly for

 

One of the things that I tried this year was Class Dojo.  I blogged about it previously {HERE}.  If you're unfamiliar with Class Dojo, it's an online, real-time management tool.  Here's what I loved about it:

• It allowed me to track specific behaviors.  It allows you to put in whatever behaviors---good or bad----that you want to track.  This worked well for my kids that I had on behavior plans.  I could put in their specific goals and track them.
• There are also apps for Android and iPad so I was able to monitor behavior on the go.
• It allows you to email parents a report of their child's behaviors.  My parents loved this.  When their behavior grade went down (we give a letter grade and a behavior award every trimester so I have to have data to support their grade).

Those are just a few of the things that I loved about it.  I set up rewards based on the number of points my kiddos had earned.  For every ten points they got a different reward.  This year I'm going to continue this, but will add in  the awesome rewards coupons from Mel D!  I'm excited to offer more intrinsic rewards that are free!

 

One of my "concerns" is using this in conjunction with WBT's scoreboard.  Any advice on how to make them both work?  I love that the Scoreboard is for the whole class and adds funtricity to the classroom.  But like I said before I need to have data for behavior grades and awards and I love how easy Class Dojo makes it.  Any tips?

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Brandi

Yesterday I blogged about Class Dojo, which I use for individual behavior (CLICK HERE TO READ), so I thought that today I would talk about what I do for whole class behavior.  This year I will be using brownie points.  The idea is pretty simple: kids earn a brownie for great behavior.  I plan to use this when my kids get compliments from other teachers and when they go to their pull-out classes.  I'm blessed to teach at a school where my kids get PE, science lab, music, computers, and foreign language each week; however sometimes my little angels turn into other people when they go into another classroom.  Enter the brownie points!  I will give each pull out teacher a slip for them to rate the class' behavior. 

Click here for an editable version

Click here to download

At the beginning of the year, I will give a brownie if they get a 4 or 5 in all categories.  Later in the year, they will have to have a 5 in all categories.  Once students fill up the pan, we will have a treat...I love excuses to eat sweets!!!  Any students who get listed as star students will also get a Dojo point, while anyone listed as a struggling student will get a Dojo point taken away.  Hopefully this will get them to understand the importance of individual and class behavior.

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Brandi

Last night I was able to finalize some classroom management things.  I have individual, group, and class behavior plans.  For individual behavior, I will be using Class Dojo.  If you're not familiar with Class Dojo it's an online, real-time behavior managament tool. 

To summarize briefly, each student gets an avatar, then you can choose positive and negative behaviors to track.  There's a ding, when you give a student a positive and a dong when you give a negative.  It even allows you to email reports to parents!  I use my iPad as a remote so that I'm not tied to my laptop (you can use your iPhone too).  Even when doing this, it will still ding (or dong) in the class and if it's up on a smartboard/tv/projector, the kids can see who the point went to (even when the avatars weren't on display, my students responded very well to the ding or dong). 
Last year I didn't have any rewards for the points (I started using Class Dojo toward the end of April).  My students were very excited about it and responded very well to it, so I want to make sure that I start using it in September.  I've created a rewards sheet for students to "redeem" their points.  I'm trying to stay away from the prize box.  I do use a Longhorn Loot box (our school does a university theme and I'm the University of Texas--Hook 'Em Horns!) that has rewards like sit at the teacher's desk, DJ for the day, halfsies, etc.

I purchased the Classroom Forms and Substitute Information--Sports Theme by Mrs. Magee from TPT to create the charts (I'm doing a sports theme).  Click below for an editable, generic version you can download (no clip art, single page):

Now the linky!  These have become one of my favorite parts of blogging.  I love having similar ideas in the same place.  I blog stalk so much that I often forget where I see things so this is great!

Our fabulous blogging friends Hadar, April, and Teri are throwing a Summer Bucket List Linky Party!

 I blogged a few days ago about my summer bucket list, but now I'm going to include teaching and personal stuff.

1. De-clutter my classroom

2.  Organize my classroom

3. Create the projects that I've pinned

4. Take Lauryn to Disneyland

5. Take a short vacation to San Diego (Sea World and the Wild Animal Park)

6. Exercise and live for me (spent too much time the last 2 years just surviving.  I'm ready to live!)

7 more school days and I'll really start to tackle these...what's on your bucket list?

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Brandi