Keeping the lines of communication open between teachers and parents is the key to unlocking a wealth of support and favor that will most certainly increase student success. However, the relationship between teachers and parents is often a tenuous one. How and when should teachers contact parents in regards to student behavior issues?

As a precursor to contacting parents, be sure that you have a set of clear expectations for students posted in your classroom. This gives students a visual reminder of the rules with no question about what is expected. You might also want to send a copy of those rules home at the beginning of the school year for parents to read and discuss with their children. Start on the first day of school! This lays the groundwork for you and your students’ parents to be on the same page.

Next, make parents your partners! Start the year off on a positive note by contacting each parent within the first week or two to praise their child. You may want to try ClassDojo Messaging for this! This will help you build a positive rapport with parents, which they want! Traditionally, parents only receive communication about their children when there is a problem. Parents don’t like negative surprises. Turn the tables and pleasantly surprise them! Build a positive classroom environment and culture of respect by bragging about students to those who love them most. The amount of support and cooperation you will receive following these acts will be astounding!

In the case of a student who is repeatedly making poor choices, he or she should consistently receive the consequences listed in your behavior plan. A grace or warning period is traditionally granted before consequences are given. Every school setting has a different protocol, so it is important to be stay on the same page as other teachers.

Behavior that is consistently impeding the student’s learning and disrupting the learning environment is unacceptable and must be addressed. Behavior that is deliberately aggressive and malicious toward other students cannot be tolerated. Parent communication about the student’s behavior choices is often effective when trying to curb or curtail the behavior. If the unwanted student behavior continues, repeated parent communication or a referral to administration has proven to be effective.

If you’ve already shared positive feedback with parents previously, sharing negative student behavior becomes more impactful and more deeply understood by parents. Start by expressing gently your concerns over the poor choices being made by the student and provide concrete details. This puts you in the role of the supportive teacher who only wants success for the student.

Choosing the best means of communication to a parent is often situational. Phone calls seem to be the time-tested favorite method of contacting parents. Many parents use technology daily and prefer emails. However, some parents do not have a consistently working phone number, or Internet access, so written correspondence would be the most appropriate. Many educators use student agendas or planners as a communication tool with parents. Some teachers even allow parents access to their personal cell phone numbers so that they may communicate by text messaging.

The use of ClassDojo as a means for parent communication is also very effective, if parents have any internet access at home. In fact, if you use ClassDojo as a behavior management tool in your classroom, parents can create an account that allows them to view their child’s behavior progress and receive messages from teachers. ClassDojo’s Messaging feature is extremely effective, convenient, and free. Parents love ClassDojo because they receive instant feedback during the work day, and are more involved in their child’s school life.

There is no handbook on parent communication. However, if parent communication is frequent and positive, it will play a large role in the success of their child in your classroom. Your proactive behavior in the realm of parent communication sets the stage for supportive attitudes and smoother communication throughout the school year.

Ever hear the phrase, “Birds of a feather flock together”? How about, “Like attracts like”? Or…“You reap what you sow”? All of these sayings loosely describe an incredible phenomenon that fortunately is becoming more and more acknowledged in our society: the Law of Attraction. For those of you who have read The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, you probably have a general idea of what the Law of Attraction (LOA) is about. For those of you who haven’t or could just use a refresher, LOA basically affirms that we are all made up of energy fields and we are constantly giving off energy. The type of energy we give off at any given moment simply depends upon our thoughts and beliefs.

The type of energy we give off draws certain experiences into our lives. For example, if we give off positive energy we tend to attract positive experiences. If we give off negative energy, we tend to attract negative experiences. Most people don’t recognize that they hold such power over their own lives and often find themselves stuck in the revolving door of negative experiences. “Why me? Why do I always have the worst possible luck?” — these thoughts contribute to the situation.

Our thoughts about ourselves are just as powerful as our thoughts about others. It’s time we use the LOA to shed positive experiences on our students. “Kids live up to the expectations we have of them.” This sort of belief can result in tremendous growth from your students. The old saying, “You have to see it to believe it,” is more accurately put, “You have to believe it to see it.” Teachers must focus on the strengths instead of the weaknesses of their students. In doing so, students will be better equipped to succeed and teachers will create a better classroom environment for everyone. If you change the way you see things, the things you see will change. After all, it’s the law!

Let’s face it, kids are human, and some of them are more easygoing than others. We’ve all had that one kid in our class who knew exactly how to push our buttons and seemed to make it his or her mission to ruin our day. Sound familiar? If not, you are lucky! I have at least one student every year who pushes all the boundaries and tests my seemingly endless patience.

There is definitely a spectrum of bad behaviors and I’ve seen them all. From subtle eye-rolling and forgetting to raise one’s hand, to literal assault and blood-shed. I could write multiple volumes about what works and what doesn’t, but for now I’m going to focus on the low-level, everyday annoyances that can disrupt learning and derail your class on a daily basis.

Just like you have tiers of intervention for academics, think of behavior management as having multiple tiers as well. Tier 1 would be your run-of-the-mill, whole class point system. This is the level that generally keeps things moving along and relies mostly on peer pressure to be successful. Tier 2 is an additional level of behavior support, think star charts for individual students, or weekly communication to parents.

If you feel like you need more behavior support for a particular student, ask yourself a few questions first:

1. Does the disruptive behavior happen at a particular time, or during certain types of activities?

If you can identify what is causing the behavior to happen, you are halfway to solving the problem. If you can determine that a student is bored, struggling, or having a hard time at home, you can try and adjust your teaching or help them in another way. Preventing the behavior from happening is better than constantly doling out consequences.

2. Does the student respond to positive reinforcement?

If so, try to capitalize on this. Give praise every time they do something right, even if it feels excessive. Make sure your positive comments are more frequent than the negative. Using a classroom management tool like ClassDojo is great for this, because you can actually see the breakdown of positive to negative feedback for each student.

3. Is their family supportive of your efforts?

If so, try to communicate with them frequently. The most powerful tool you have to improve student behavior is a good working relationship with their family.

4. Still not improving?

Don’t reinvent the wheel! My first year, I had four different students on four different behavior plans which was almost impossible to maintain. If you need to implement a behavior plan, use your existing structure, and focus on 2-3 behaviors at most. For example, if you use ClassDojo, or another point system, come up with a contract that states how many points for a specific behavior a student must receive each day or week to earn a prize. The prize doesn’t have to be fancy, it should be something that is easy for you to provide on a weekly basis. It also helps immensely if there is a reward at home as well. Your student should help design their behavior plan. Students are much more likely to buy in if they’ve had a voice in its creation.

Like I said before, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to behavior issues, but this is a good place to start!

This is Part 4 of a 4 part series by Emily Dahm. Read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here.

As I prepared for my first year of teaching, I was so excited for the school year to begin. I wrote each of my students a postcard welcoming them to my class. I bought each student a pencil box and used my fancy new label maker to put their name on it. I felt so ready my first day, I had everything scripted, every moment planned. And then my students arrived. Within the first five minutes of my opening circle, one of my third graders had tied his shoes together, another student had locked himself in the bathroom, and two girls were crying. I only had 20 students in my class, but I had completely lost control. Unfortunately, this day set the tone for the year, and I never quite recovered. But I sure learned a lot! Here are my top tips for managing your class:

1. Have a procedure for everything

Before the school year begins, you should have an idea about how you want things to be done in your room. Write everything down, from sharpening pencils, to using the restroom. Within the first few days of school, teach these procedures explicitly, and practice them repeatedly. You can even make it a game! Challenge the class to beat their time lining up quietly, give praise or rewards when they succeed. Make them do it again when they don’t. This can seem tedious and time consuming, but it will make your class run much smoother.

2. Be proactive not reactive

Figure out what your classroom management system will be before the students arrive (like many teachers, I use ClassDojo). Make sure it is something that is easy to stick with. If you have a point system, make sure you know what will happen if your students receive a certain amount of points. Don’t make the prize too difficult to obtain, or students will lose interest. You also need to decide what consequences will occur when a student breaks a rule, or misses an assignment. Try to connect with every student, if a student is particularly difficult, go out of your way to catch them doing things right and praise, praise, praise!

3. Take it off stage

At those inevitable moments when someone misbehaves in front of the whole class, it can be hard not to react immediately. Especially because you don’t want your other students to think that kind of behavior is ok. The best thing you can do in the moment is acknowledge the behavior in a calm voice, and tell the student that you will be discussing the incident at a later time. As soon as you have a chance, take the student aside and discuss a consequence away from your other students. Sometimes this 1:1 conversation is consequence enough.

4. Be consistent, follow through

Give praise, follow through on consequences, then follow through, and follow through some more. No matter what you decide to use as a classroom management system, you have to be very consistent. Students will quickly pick up on your failure to follow through and may feel that you are being unfair, or may take advantage. A student teacher once asked me what to do when a student was constantly interrupting her. In my class, interrupting the teacher results in the loss of a ClassDojo point. I asked her if she took a point from him the first time he did it, and she said “no.” Of course he continued to interrupt, there was no consequence! She did say she felt bad taking points away from kids, so it is really important to consider what you feel comfortable with when designing your classroom management system. My feeling is that as long as you give a lot of positive feedback, negative feedback should have the desired effect of correcting the behavior, without damaging your relationship with your students. You can also think about it from the other students’ perspective. By taking away a point from someone who breaks a rule, you are being fair to the students who do not break rules, and protecting their learning.

This is Part 3 of a 4 part series by Emily Dahm. Read Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 4 here.

From a young age, students are taught what a good citizen looks like: obeying laws, helping others, staying informed. Unfortunately, many students (and adults!) think the Internet is a place to let that good citizenship fall apart. You only need to look at the rise of cyberbullying to see this phenomenon first-hand. It’s important for teachers to teach students to be good citizens wherever they go, be it in the physical or digital world.

Consider sharing these guidelines and thoughts about good digital citizenship with your students this coming school year:

Staying Safe

• Never use your full name or give away any personal details online.

• Speak to an adult if any interaction online seems strange or makes you uncomfortable. Remember that it’s easy for someone to use a fake name or pose as someone else online.

Interacting with Others

• Be respectful in online discussions. Allow others the chance to speak and reply to your ideas. Respond thoughtfully to diverse opinions.

• Practice the 5-minute rule. If anything online makes you upset or angry, wait 5 minutes after typing a response before hitting send. Take that time to really think if that response is respectful.

• Before sending a message online or through a text message, ask yourself if you would say that message to a person’s face. If not, think about why you wouldn’t. Maybe the message shouldn’t be sent.

• Use Standard English and grammar in all interactions online.

Presenting Yourself

• Credit the source of all information, photos, and videos you use if you did not create them yourself. Using someone else’s work without giving credit is plagiarism and a form of stealing.

• Understand that nothing on the Internet ever really disappears. Your digital footprint will follow you to college, the workplace, and beyond. Be aware of the image you create.

Would love to hear what other suggestions you have to promote digital citizenship — please share in the comments below!

Can’t we all just get along?

Sometimes a class will just “click” on day one and you won’t have to spend too much time developing a sense of community with your students. This has yet to happen for me or anyone I know. It is easy, especially with all the pressure of new standards, to breeze through or even do away with this important first step of the year. I can’t stress enough how critical it is do something to create cohesion amongst your students from day one. It may just be the most important thing you do. Think back to your learning theory class, remember Maslow’s hierarchy? Feeling safe and included is a necessary foundation for learning.

There are so many great books and programs out there to choose from. I tend to pick and choose from several, but the one I keep coming back to is Tribes. It’s not just a philosophy, it is a treasure trove of useful lesson plans and resources. If you buy just one book about community building, I’d start here.

Embed it into your instruction and daily routine

I like Tribes because the “agreements” apply to every possible situation. Attentive listening, no put-downs, mutual respect, pretty basic stuff. If you review what each of these looks like, sounds like, and feels like regularly, it will be easier to discuss what went wrong when problems arise. At the very least you can do a community circle each day.

Take a look, it’s in a book

When I focus on social and emotional learning in the beginning of the year, I find it helpful to use great literature as a guide. These are some of the books I have used. Sometimes it’s a simple read-aloud, but I also love challenging groups of students to find the hidden lessons in each story. If you have older students, some of these might seem babyish, but I’ve used all of them with fifth graders successfully.

Enemy Pie

This is a great story about befriending those you may consider your enemy, and not judging people before you know them.

Mr. Peabody’s Apples

Yes, I know, Madonna. But it is a great story about how saying negative things about people cannot be undone.

The Sneetches

A classic story about how physical differences don’t really matter.

Have you filled a bucket today?

Great for all ages (even adults). This book teaches kids about how they have the power to make someone feel better or worse.

Simon’s Hook

A great book about dealing with bullies and put downs, helps if you have a tattle-prone bunch.

The wonderful thing about sharing all of these books with your class is that you develop a common language. It can open up a dialogue and help kids solve their own problems. After reading Simon’s Hook, I don’t have to explain to students how to respond if someone is pushing their buttons. I just say, “Oh no! You took the bait, just like Simon!” Sometimes they think I’m ridiculous, but they get the point and they remember some of the strategies Simon used in the book. The more books like this you read, the more characters they can turn to for advice. So, read, read, read! Let me know if you have any other great books to add to the list!

This is Post 2 of a 4 part series by Emily Dahm. Read Part 1 here, Part 3 here, and Part 4 here.

There is no “right” way to implement ClassDojo in your classroom. The ways to utilize ClassDojo are as varied as the number of teachers using It all over the world. So how does one begin?

Start by familiarizing yourself with ClassDojo. Take the tour, and explore the website to discover uncharted territory. Enter your students’ names. Peruse the behaviors listed and decide whether or not you will add to what already exists to personalize your behavior plan for your classroom. Create and customize new behaviors as needed.

Introduce ClassDojo to your class by first building interest and ownership in the program. You might ask questions like, “Who likes monsters? What would you think if we used a behavior plan in which YOU were represented by a MONSTER? How would you like to be able to design your OWN monster?” Student buy-in will be astronomical — guaranteed!

Show students the student video. This will get them fired up and excited about using ClassDojo. Be ready with copies of the parent letter immediately following the video, encouraging students to share it with their families. Offer an incentive for students to bring it back signed, saying their parents will participate. Take a look at ClassDojo Messaging, too! This will open up a whole new medium with which you can communicate effectively with parents. Parents with wireless mobile devices love ClassDojo because they have access to instant feedback about their child’s behavior progress.

At the beginning of each day you can “check reports” and view graphs to analyze student behavior data as a class. This aligns with the Common Core graphing and data analysis standards and it helps students take ownership and control of their own behavior and learning. Commend students for the positive behaviors shown on the graph, and discuss ways to improve the negative behaviors. Set a goal for the percentage of positive points to be reached at the end of the day. Offer students a reward for reaching that goal.

Download the ClassDojo app on your mobile device and use it as you are teaching, circulating, and monitoring the classroom. Be sure that the sound is turned up enough for students to hear when you give a positive or negative point. This is highly effective! If you have ClassDojo projected on your ActivBoard or SMART Board, students love to see who received a positive (or negative) point when it pops up on the screen. Be consistent with your expectations for behavior and the assigning of points. This will ensure that your classroom management is uniform, and that student behavior remains as stable as possible.

From experience, hearing the positive or negative point sounds are even more effective if students cannot see who is being awarded points. Hearing sound immediately causes students to self-check and monitor their own behavior. This is called the “Dojo Effect”. They will literally sit up straighter and focus on the task at hand when they hear the sound. Students think, “Was that me? Am I doing what I am supposed to be doing?” You might even create a bogus student in your class to award positive and negative points to just for strategic implementation of the “Dojo Effect.”

End each day just as you began, by reviewing and analyzing the behavior graph available in ClassDojo reports. Discuss what you are doing well and what behaviors you need to focus on improving in the future. Cement the effectiveness of ClassDojo by rewarding students for reaching their positive point percentage goal. Small individual candies like Skittles or M&M’s work well.

There is no “yellow brick road” leading to the one, true way to use ClassDojo effectively in the classroom. Explore, experiment, and discover the possibilities with your students and ClassDojo. Never will students be so excited about and take such ownership in a behavior plan as they will with ClassDojo!

Let’s just get right into it! Here are three quick steps to set up your first classroom 🙂

1. Take Stock

If you are starting out your teaching career at a public school, in a classroom previously used by another teacher, you will probably be left with the dregs of furniture and junk. If that is not the case, you are lucky! I made the mistake of keeping all the items left by the previous tenant of my classroom and I never touched any of it. With the exception of books in decent condition, my advice is to throw it ALL away! It is best to start fresh. The first thing to do after a good cleaning is think about your teaching style. This should determine the layout of your room. I prefer my students to be seated in cooperative groups. Four is ideal, but I’ve always had to do groups of six due to large class size. Depending on your grade level, you should also have a rug area. I recommend a group meeting area for all ages — if you have the space. I gather my fifth graders on our rug everyday for meetings and mini-lessons. I make it a point never to teach while they are all at their tables, too many distractions. You may not have a lot of space or choice in how you set up your tables, but you will most likely have a lot of empty walls. Do not feel obligated to cover every inch with decorations and posters, blank space is good for learning!

2. Design with a Purpose

“Oh Ms. ______ is such a good teacher! I learned so much from her campfire themed classroom!” said no student ever. Do a google search for classroom decorations, and you will be amazed at the elaborate designs out there. If some teachers spent as much time and money designing and planning lessons as they do decorating their classrooms, there would be no achievement gap. Okay, so I might be oversimplifying, but all of the research out there states that children need blank space, areas for their eyes to rest. I love the article, “The Culture of Cute,” which describes how over-decorating has really become an epidemic in schools. And for what purpose? It certainly doesn’t help the students learn.

3. Resist the Urge to Over-Decorate

I’ll admit, I am a decorator. I love walking into teacher supply stores and finding that they have an entire aisle devoted to cute owl decorations. I allow myself one or two items, but that’s it! An owl sticker here or there, or even some owl pencils are not going to break the bank, and they will not distract from student learning. Decorating my classroom in floor to ceiling owls is not only expensive, it’s pointless. When you inevitably end up at the teacher supply store, or on TeachersPayTeachers.com, ask yourself, “What is the educational value of this item?” If the item’s sole purpose is to make your room “cute”, put it down, walk away, don’t look back. I also advise against buying pre-made “instructional” posters. You may find a poster that perfectly illustrates the water cycle, but your students won’t get much out of staring at it all year. It’s best to let them make their own. If you must have it, only take it out when you are teaching that particular unit, otherwise, it will just become a part of the landscape and the students won’t pay any attention to it. All you really need in terms of decor is space to display student work, which is decoration enough. A little fadeless paper and some tasteful borders should suffice! Remember, your classroom is a place for learning, it’s not your birthday party, it does not need a “theme”!

Now that your classroom is squared away, I’ll be sharing more ideas and suggestions as you venture on your path of becoming a teacher this year! Stay tuned!

This is part 1 of a 4 part series by Emily Dahm. Read Part 2 here, Part 3 here, and Part 4 here.

ClassDojo has worked wonders for me in terms of keeping track of student behaviors. Parents created accounts to be updated on student activity, students have never been more excited to use a behavior-management system, and I have felt more aware of student behaviors in the classroom. Originally, I had my classroom aligned by periods of the day and by behavioral expectations. This allowed me to use data from ClassDojo to complete the behavior section of report cards. However, many teachers agree that the behavioral section of report cards is the easiest to get through because we are so in-tune with student behavior.

During the second semester of the school-year, I began to use ClassDojo to record more than just student behaviors. I began to monitor students during Reader’s Workshop once a week. I added behaviors into my “Reader’s Workshop” class that included reading, writing, distracted, and talking. This allowed me to see more than just their emotional behaviors; it allowed me to monitor their participation in a much closer way. I began to use the same system for Writer’s Workshop and for math time. The behaviors differed slightly, but it was a great way to monitor students’ progress during these activities.

Checking in with students during these activities was quick and and easy. I could check in without disrupting students simply by observing their behaviors. I was able to keep a running record of their work habits during these activities. This record was something that I could use when writing report cards because it was data-driven and spanned an entire semester of learning. Using ClassDojo for report cards was extremely helpful for me, my students, and for informing parents of what is going on in the classroom in a various number of realms.

Have you ever thought about using ClassDojo for data tracking needs besides behavior? As educators, we are continually collecting data on our students. No matter what grade-level you teach or how many classes you have any given day, ClassDojo can assist in collecting, storing, and producing customized data without the need for a spreadsheet or paper. You just need to think outside the box!

In my own little fifth-grade world, I use ClassDojo to gather a multitude of data. ClassDojo allows me to create as many classes and behaviors as I’d like, so I can keep track of so many different types of data points. For example, I track our students’ work habits. I track whether students complete an assignment for ELA, math, science, and social studies. If a student does not complete the assignment, he or she receives a negative point for the specific subject area. Students can also receive a negative point if they are unprepared for class. This really comes in handy when quantifying subjective data such as “work habits”, which appears as a grade on students’ quarterly report cards. At the end of each quarter I enter the date range of the quarter within the “Customized Report” and instantly have a number of missed assignments for each of my 97 students. This number is then translated into an O, S, or N based on a grading scale pre-determined by our administrators. The data truly makes my job of submitting these types of grades much easier.

Another great use of my ClassDojo account has been tracking my Junior Beta members’ service hours and meeting attendance. Just as I do with work habits, I create categories for meetings and projects we are completing. Members receive points for attending monthly meetings and completing service projects. This replaces hunting for sign-in sheets or begging for Beta folders to monitor student participation. By the end of the year I have collected a useful report of students’ individual hours and have guaranteed proof of hours earned. Once again, this omits the loss of documents and playing the guessing game on which member may have gained his or her hours in order to receive an award at the end of each year.

The amount of data that can be collected through ClassDojo is endless. I have already started a list of spreadsheets I will be converting to ClassDojo next school year. This list includes the large amount of signed paperwork students must submit each year prior to school starting, fees collected, forms returned, etc.

It’s time to think outside the “paper” box you collect each year and save yourself a lot of work!