Students at Madison Elementary School have a new classroom buddy this year that helps them stay on track and rewards points for good behavior. ClassDojo, billed as a “real time behavioral management and skill tracking tool,” is helping teachers manage the classroom at the touch of a button. Each student selects a colorful, cartoon avatar that keeps track of points earned for good behavior as well as points lost for breaking the rules.

Mike Dyal, a fourth-grade teacher at Madison Elementary, introduced the technology to his classroom last year. This free software program allows him the ability to award students with good behavior points as well as subtracting points when they misbehave or do not follow class protocols. 

The program gives teachers the ability to input any set of classroom behaviors they want to track and to award points accordingly. “I can see what times students have the most successes or problems. I track all homework and many behaviors,” said Dyal. In addition, teachers have the ability to send parents, who have downloaded the smartphone app and subscribed, text messages about assignments and behaviors. Parents can respond to the messages. This allows for ongoing communications between teacher and parent.

ClassDojo includes a report generating function that gives teachers the ability to send home weekly summary reports for each student. “I send a report home to parents at the end of each week,” said Dyal. This provides parents with a progress report on how their student is doing in class, so when they come in for a conference, they will know if their child has handed in their homework or completed in-class assignments.”

Dyal looked into the program after receiving an email about the technology. “The one thing that really turned me on to this program is the positives that students get from it. The card system was always used for negative behavior. They do something wrong, you flip a card. Kids love getting positive praise,” he added. 

The program includes two distinct sounds. One signals the reward of a positive point, and the other sound indicates the loss of points. Dyal said his students love to hear the positive points sound and have even turned earning them into a friendly competition. Points can also be earned for class participation, turning in homework assignments, following directions and more.

Teachers have the ability to set classroom point goals for the week. Dyal’s class goal is for each student to achieve at least an 80% positive points threshold earning for the week. If a student reaches the target, then they are rewarded with an additional 30 minutes of recess time. Each teacher has the ability to set their own targets and rewards.

Parents are on board with this program. “I have heard nothing but positive feedback from parents about this,” said Dyal. "They can track their child’s progress from a smartphone or computer and like having the ability to contact the teacher for homework help or questions about class assignments."

Principal Tricia Faulkner liked the program so much that she mandated that every classroom use the technology this year. “Everyone has to at least use the positive component,” said Faulkner.  

Parents and educators interested in the program can visit the website at: https://classdojo.com.