If at first you don't succeed

♫ Then dust yourself off and try again. 

You can dust it off and try again, try again. 

♫

Last year I went into the school year so confident in my behavior management strategy. But I quickly learned that it did not work for many of my students. Now, remember, I teach at a small school. So if students are getting upset about how my reward system works in music class, I get that feedback from them (every time I see them in the hall or during recess) and from their teachers (who I get to enjoy lunch with just about every day).  One of the advantages of teaching at a small school is that we work together as a team to figure out what is working and what needs improving when it comes to the techniques and strategies we use in school. You can read about the behavior plan I used last year here. (And what I think contributed to the issue here.) This year I'm trying something new.

If you're not familiar with Class Dojo, I really encourage you to check them out! Currently, I'm the only teacher using it at my school, so it took a little bit of time getting my classes set up. Thankfully I did that at the end of summer when I received my class list. If your school is already using it, there are many fun features you can take advantage of. Since it's just me (for now- I'm trying to convince my coworkers to use it!), I just use it as a behavior management system.

What I love about Class Dojo is that I can give (or take away) points to students individually, to the whole class, or to specific tables. It also allows me to take attendance. This is helpful if a student has particularly low points at the end of a term. I can see if it was because they missed a lot of classes or if it was because of poor behavior. And because it keeps track of what students earn or lose points for, I can reference this information when talking to parents during conferences! #win

So first let me show you my point system. There are 6 ways to earn points:

I want to give my students plenty of opportunities to earn points. When I greet a class at the door, I remind them that they can earn a point just for entering the classroom quietly! Students also earn a point for participating throughout the class. When students start to lose focus, I remind them that I am looking to see what table can give me their full attention first. Then that table earns a point for Whole Body Listening. I don't do tables with my kinders, so I just say I'm looking to see what friends can be "criss-cross applesauce, spoons in the bowl and eyes on me!" 😉 Caring for Materials & Teamwork are pretty self-explanatory. Lastly, my favorite way to earn points is Showing Courage. When you show courage in music class, you earn not one, but TWO points! It's a big deal! Showing courage may look like a shy student singing a solo, or singing a song in another language without hesitation.  

📔

I make it very clear to my students that I hate having to take away points. For that reason there are 6 ways to earn points, but only 4 ways to lose points:

One of our class expectations is "Notice Others". This expectation is all about respect, and not meeting this expectation will result in losing points. When first introducing our expectations, we discussed how noticing others means that we are aware of who is talking, and we give them our attention. 

Chatting while someone else is talking- not ok! 

You have something you want to share? Great! I'd love to hear it! But not until you raise a quiet hand and I call on you. 

(Unless it is completely irrelevant to the conversation. Then I don't want to hear it until after class!) 

If you interrupt me or another student, you lose a point. 

Noticing others also means being aware of personal space. Students who are falling out of their chair or randomly breakdancing in the middle of their classmates are being unsafe with their body. They'll lose a point. Lastly, and most importantly, if a student outright disrespects me or another student, they'll lose 2 points. And I'll have a chat with their teacher and possibly their parents...

Thankfully, I give out way more points than I take away. 😄

📔

So now that you see how points are awarded in my class, let's get to the fun part- the rewards! 

 

I broke up rewards into 3 categories: 

Individual Rewards: Students earn points throughout the year, and these points are cumulative.  For example, once a student reaches 10 points and earns a sticker, the points they earn thereafter are added to that 10 to go towards the next reward level and so on. I had to explain this multiple times to my students and assure them that they can take a sticker and still earn a pencil later! 😆 I see every class on Thursdays, so I only give individual student rewards out on Thursdays. Otherwise, it would take up so much of my class time!!

Table Rewards: I have 3 tables in my classroom. If Table 1 is doing a great job at teamwork, I can award that table 1 point. What's cool about this feature, is that even though it will show me that Table 1 has 1 point, each student at that table receives 1 point towards their individual points. Whichever table has the most points at the end of the class gets to decide how we line up and exit! This reward is given at the end of every class, and I'm able to reset the table points for the next time I see that class, without taking away from the students' point total.

Whole Class Rewards: They are only given 3 times a year, towards the end of each term. Class Dojo allows you to see how the class is doing as a whole, for whatever time frame you want to look at. Since we are only in the first month of school, here is a look at September.

I love being able to see this what we're doing well and what we need to work on, without singling out a student. So even if it's just 1 or 2 students who are chatting a lot, I can just remind the class to work on showing respect by not chatting. The students who are the chatty ones, know exactly who they are. The last thing I want to do is embarrass a student by letting the class know that he/she is the one negatively affecting the class score! If the class is at 85% + positive at the end of the term, they get to brainstorm with me to plan a music class! This is the reward that I'm really looking forward to! I can't wait to hear their ideas!


Phew! That was a lot to go through! But I think (hope & pray) this system is going to be a game changer this year. So far all the students seem to be excited about it, and many have already earned their first prize!

♫ ♥ Ashley