Class Dojo and Our Clip Chart

Mrs. Wills (one of my absolute favorite Kindergarten bloggers) mentioned a great new app/website called Class Dojo in her most recent post.  I commented on her post about how much I loved class dojo and mentioned that I was using it in conjunction with our clip chart that had already been established in the room.  

Then later this evening a fellow teacher asked me to describe in a little more detail how I had made this work.  (Thanks, Jena, for inspiring this post! :)

Rather than respond in the comments section (I'm having some trouble figuring out how to change the font color on the comments on my blog so they are currently very difficult to read) I figured I'd do a quick post about this!  

Like many of you, my kiddos start on green every day (see the image above).  Prior to class dojo, they would move up the chart when caught doing the right thing and down after a warning or two... When we (my  instructional assistant and I) decided to give Class Dojo a try, we realized that we were frequently giving points but clips weren't getting moved as often and we didn't have a clear system for communicating points to parents.  

So we started looking at their point balance at the end of the day and moving clips up or down based on how many points they have.  Every 5 points (good points) equal one move up the chart.  So for example, let's say Susie has 8 points at the end of the day and was already on blue (when we were lining up for lunch she was the only one in 'traveling position' without a reminder so she got to move up for remembering the expectations when no one else was) so she will go home "on purple".   Once I explained that 5 points equals one move up the chart they were much more eager to earn those points!

In my newsletter I explained to parents that we were utilizing the new app and it would factor into their color for the day.  I also asked for updated email addresses so parents could be entered onto the website and a report could be sent to them each week.  

I love that Class Dojo makes it so easy to quickly provide positive reinforcement to several children at once. My instructional assistant keeps her iPhone with her at all times and can give or take points in a matter of seconds.  It eliminates the loss of instructional time associated with having to go over to the clip chart all day long!  By incorporating the two together, it gives me the flexibility to utilize either one at any given time and my students seem to be even more aware of their choices....  

The greatest thing about it is that you can tweak it to meet the needs of your kids!  Maybe some classes need to set the expectation at three points at first, some classes may get so many points in one day that they need to earn eight or ten... it just depends on your kids!   Please don't hesitate to comment if you have any other questions!  Or if you utilize Dojo another way, I'd love to hear about it too!  I love to hear new ideas!