Summer is a time where a lot of teachers are relaxing and enjoying a break in the school year. Other teachers are switching schools and are scrambling to get their new classrooms together. The checklist of things to get accomplished before beginning at a new school is lengthy. It includes all of the HR requirements, tying loose ends at your old school, moving your things from one classroom to the other, learning any new curriculum for your grade or school, and most importantly, thinking about how to build your new classroom community.

Building a new classroom community isn’t just an item to check off a list. I remember moving from a 5th grade classroom at one school to a 3rd grade classroom in another school. I had everything in place, including my behavioral management systems, and started the school year. I did not consider that I had not built relationships with the students yet and I had no trust built between us. At my first encounter with a behavioral issue, I had little to no incentive for the students to follow through and meet my expectations.

After reflecting on the incident, I began to place certain routines in my day to get to know the students in a way that wasn’t through academic instruction. I started to eat lunch with several students a day. Now, I know this involves giving up my personal lunch time for a few weeks, but the effects were remarkable. I began to build individual relationships with the students. They began to see me as a person as well as their teacher. I even began to share personal stories that related to lessons, which allowed students to learn more about me and feel more comfortable with me as their teacher.

By using this strategy — both in and out of the classroom — I was able to connect with my students right away. There was much more accountability, trust, and understanding built between us. Trust can be hard to come by, especially if you work with at-risk youth in high-needs communities, so make sure to continue to foster this in any classroom you may transition into.

If you use ClassDojo with your students, you’ve probably noticed that most of the behaviors you want to encourage or discourage are already embedded in the program, but did you know you can add your own? How do you decide which behaviors to add? It helps to think about what kind of classroom culture you want to foster. I felt really strongly about encouraging risk-taking in my class, so I added “taking a risk” to the positive behavior options. If you decide to do something like this, make sure you have a discussion with your students about what each of these behaviors looks like and why they are important.

It’s easy to say you want students to exhibit grit and perseverance, but what exactly do those look like? The first criteria for adding a behavior to ClassDojo is measurability. When I decided to add “risk taking” to my list, we had several discussions about what this would look like with my class. The general consensus was that students should receive a point for risk taking if they stuck their neck out, and stepped out of their comfort zone for the sake of learning. This means if someone was called on and was unsure of what to say, if they said something in an attempt to participate rather than exercising their right to pass, they earned a point. This approach opened up a larger dialogue about the importance of taking a risk and not being afraid to fail. It became a part of our classroom culture and we talked about it every day. These are the types of things you should add to your behaviors list to help develop these traits in your students.

You may be tempted to add every desirable human quality imaginable, but I recommend starting slow. Keep it simple. Add one at a time and use it consistently. If you notice you are never using a particular behavior, remove it. The great thing about this feature is that you can adapt it to each individual class. Last year I had a particularly disruptive class, so I put interrupting on my negative point list. In general, I like to use positive encouragement whenever possible, but in moderation, correctional type of feedback is also very useful.

One of the best parts about having a mobile tool to encourage positive behaviors (or a behavioral management system as many teachers call it!) is that I don’t have to carry post-it notes around 24/7. I can use my phone or iPad to use ClassDojo at recess or in the hallways on the way to PE or in the library. To track behavior during these different activities I have created a variety of “classes”, which include reading, writing, math, science, PE, library, music, recess, and hallway.

Each of these classes have a unique set of behaviors. For example, positive PE behaviors include working hard, helping a teammate, playing safely, listening to directions, and trying your best. Positive music behaviors include trying your best, following along in the song, listening to instructions, and working together. Hallway behaviors include keeping your hands to yourself, walking quietly, and staying in line. Behaviors vary for each class, however, behavioral norms stay consistent.

Students will quickly learn what is expected of them during each activity. Although you will need to take time to go over the different expectations for each activity at the beginning of the year, you will save so much time in the long run. Time spent typically correcting behaviors is now spent learning curriculum! The better your students understand what is expected of them during each activity, the more likely they are to develop positive behaviors.

Isn’t it funny how some days you feel like your students are perfect angels and then all of the sudden everything seems to fall apart? A million factors contribute to the classroom atmosphere — from a full moon to spring break starting the following day. It is one of the most important elements of a successful learning environment.

I have found that combining motivation, constant monitoring, and time for movement breaks can result in a managed classroom that can stand up to pretty much anything… even the last week of school! ClassDojo has been my motivational and monitoring savior for the past several years. Several elements of ClassDojo worked wonders to motivate and monitor my students:

1. Motivation: Motivating students can be frustrating, but somehow ClassDojo found the perfect way to instantly encourage students with both impactful feedback and points. Engaging students with ClassDojo was largely due to these factors:

• SOUND EFFECTS: My students squeal with excitement every time they hear the delightful “ding”, resulting when someone receives a positive behavior point. I love that something so simple has such an effect on my students.

• AVATARS: Could the ClassDojo monsters get any cuter? Students love choosing their avatars. You can also create your own for a customized effect. My colleague sets point goals for her students (10, 20, 50, etc) and when they reach their goal they get to change their avatars. You should see the excitement over such a simple reward.

• CLASSROOM ECONOMY: In our class, we use ClassDojo as a component of our larger classroom economy system. Students earn (or lose) Dojo points, which are equivalent to “dollars”. They receive paychecks for total points/dollars monthly or bimonthly. Students can cash them in and use them to purchase items at our classroom store.

2. Manage and monitor: When I began teaching, tracking and communicating student behavior was laborious, time consuming, and often far from accurate. Then came ClassDojo! ClassDojo has such an amazing, built-in data management and monitoring system. In my opinion, this is perhaps the best aspect of ClassDojo.

• PARENT PORTAL: With easy parent sign-up, ClassDojo becomes an automatic and effortless parent portal into student behavior within the classroom. Parents can see in real-time how their students are doing, so that nothing is a surprise at parent-teacher night! Also, teachers can instantly message them exciting moments from school or to just clarify a Dojo point that was given.

• TEACHER TRACKING: Best of all, I have instant and accurate access to student behavior data for any period of time I wish to choose. Thanks to ClassDojo this extremely important portion of our job is made so simple!

• STUDENT SUCCESS: It is quite powerful to see students check their points and view their reports. The ownership they feel over monitoring their own personal progress and achieving personal behavior goals is empowering, impressive, and effective.

3. Make Time for Movement: No matter how great your classroom management system is, students need time to give their brains a break and get in some movement. Try some yoga or dance moves in your classroom!

I hope these tips come in handy for you this school year!

We’re delighted to share a new, free iOS and Android app that is the easiest way to instant message with parents: ClassDojo Messenger.

With the new ClassDojo Messenger app, you can:

• Easily engage parents by instantly sending updates home Privately message 1-on-1 with a parent, or Broadcast to an entire class of parents at once!

• Share photos of wonderful moments from the classroom 🙂

• Know who’s read your messages with ‘Read receipts’

• What’s more, it’s private for everyone: you never share personal contact details.

Learn more about this great app and get it today for the new school year!

We hope you love ClassDojo Messenger 🙂

Some teachers are seen as masters of their classroom. Students come in quickly, get to work, engage, and leave the room tidy. Other teachers seem to be losing their mind amidst the chaos. Why the difference?

Classroom management

In the 1994 edition of Educational Leadership Journal, researchers reviewed the last 50 years of education research and collected 28 factors shown to improve student learning. When they ranked the factors across various students, classroom management was named as the top way to improve student learning in the classroom. If principals and curriculum directors want to improve learning, they should help teachers become more effective classroom managers.

You can go from chaos to classroom manager extraordinaire but it depends upon your willingness to learn. Certainly books like Harry Wong’s The First Days of School and Fred Jones’ Tools for Teachers give time tested tips, but here are some things you can do to get started.

Procedures are not the same as rules

Harry Wong has a masterful way of explaining the difference between rules and procedures. You should only have a few rules — no more than five. Rules have to do with how we treat one another.

Procedures have to do with how you do things. When you don’t follow procedures you have consequences because you didn’t follow them. Only when it is becoming a real problem should a procedure be turned into a rule.

What do procedures help you do?

Effective classrooms have procedures for everything: starting class, ending class, asking questions, going to the bathroom, what to do when you’re absent and more. If you don’t have procedures, students will create their own and you might not like what happens.

For example, before I put in a procedure for asking to go the bathroom, I’d look up and a student would be gone. I didn’t know where they were or what they were doing. Now, students ask and I have a sign out clipboard by my door as well as a bathroom pass. Procedures do not mean that you are authoritarian or harsh. Procedures just mean that you have ways that you do things.

Every time the teacher speaks it interrupts the class. You can even have hand signals for questions. For example, students can raise their hand with one finger if they have a question or with three fingers if they need the teacher’s help. While this may sound silly, the more students you have in a class, the harder staying on task and classroom management can become.

These techniques can even help the class get back on task. We have a fourth grade teacher at our school who claps and the students respond with a special sequence of claps in return. The class is immediately quite, in order, and attentive when this happens and they feel more like a team.

Procedures can help you in every way!

When do you teach procedures?

The best teachers spend the first two to three days of school teaching students procedures.

As you start school you teach these procedures by explaining them, practicing them and practicing them again. While you’re teaching content and getting started, make sure to reinforce procedures for how work will be turned in. Students should turn something in, or a few things in, on the first day to get a feel for things. On the second day you should have those items checked, recorded, and graded. Then, practice the procedures for returning work.

Practice practice

As we discussed this in our school’s PLC last week, the first grade teacher says that they even practice getting out their books. They call their math book “big yellow,” so she’d say something like this:

“Now, let’s practice getting ready for a math lesson. First you get out big yellow and look on the board to see what page we’re on. Get out your paper and a pencil and write your name at the top of the paper. After big yellow is open start looking at the book to see what we’re going to be doing.”

What about consequences?

Never interrupt the flow of teaching to discipline a student. My sister, a middle school math teacher, just writes the name on the board. If the student continues or repeats the inappropriate behavior, she will write a check by their name. Students spend time with her after school as their consequence when they had their name on the board.

It is up to you to determine the consequences. Just make sure you are consistent and fair to all students. For example, some of my students have practice after school. Those times of the year students will have to come before school or miss part of break but I make it the same for everyone.

If classroom management is a struggle for you, procedures are just part of the process of getting it together. When your classroom is well run, it will run itself. You and your students can enjoy learning and not worry about the distractions that come from disorganization and chaos. Take time to set up your classroom procedures now and a first day of school script to teach those procedures and you’ll be set to have a great year.

Wang, Margaret, Geneva Haertel, and Herbert Walberg. (December 1993/ January 1994). “What Helps Students Learn?” Educational Leadership, pp. 74-79

An integral piece of my success each year is developing strong communication with parents. There are various methods in which I attempt to keep my students’ parents informed. Parents can visit my classroom page on my school’s website to find out what topics are being covered, what tests are coming up, and what events our classroom might be participating in during any given week. I update my page weekly or even daily if required.

At the beginning of the school year, I emphasize that emails are the quickest form of communication for me. Although I would love to return their phone calls, it can be almost impossible due to the fact that the nearest phone is in the teachers’ lounge. I ensure parents that I can respond to their questions and concerns much quicker by email. However, a shift has occurred in my communication strategy. A new and exciting tool has opened up an even better line of communication: ClassDojo Messenger.

ClassDojo Messenger has become one of the best ways to get instant information to parents and receive instant feedback as well. Although my first time sending messages were due to student misbehavior, I was thrilled with the results as responses began pouring in from the parents of those few students who were involved. I informed the parents of the incident at 8:30am and by 9:15am I had either a response or an indication that my message was read.

Since then I have found a number of ways to use ClassDojo Messenger to assist my communication with parents. I’ve also noticed that the parents are using it more often as well. With the app notifying me that I have a message, I am able to answer those immediate questions at anytime. I wouldn’t normally see those questions on my email until the morning. If it were a question about homework or an event happening the next day, my response would have been too late.

So far, I’ve used ClassDojo Messenger to:

• Remind parents of end of year procedures.

• Provide a Field Trip checklist of things the students need.

• Congratulate a student (via the parent) on his or her test grade.

• Thank the parents for a great year and wish them a relaxing and safe summer.

• Provide a little positive reinforcement for one or two challenges among my students.

I am surely looking forward to expanding the use of ClassDojo Messenger this school year. I also plan to check in on my students during the summer and send some loving messages to my former students. I’m excited to open a greater dialogue with parents through ClassDojo Messenger and see all the benefits associated with increased parent communication.

1. Greet students: Always stand at the the door when students enter the room. Say “hi”, say their names, ask how their soccer game went, give high-fives, etc. Make them feel welcome!

2. Establish classroom norms: Norms should be posted on the wall for all students to see. Norms should be short and sweet – perhaps keep the list to 3! Two examples of “norms” in my classroom:

• “One Mic”: When a classmate raises his or her hand and are called on, they have the mic. Everyone else should be respectful, quiet, and listening.

• “Don’t Yuck My Yum”: When a classmate shares an answer or an idea that might be wrong or that you may disagree with, keep any rude thoughts to yourself. Don’t make others feel bad for sharing their ideas with the class.

3. Organization: Keep your classroom organized! Color coding and labels are great ways to keep materials in their designated locations. Make sure all students know where all supplies are located, where to turn papers in, etc.

4. Positive reinforcement: When students are working hard, demonstrating teamwork, or any other positive behavior, recognize it! Let them know that you notice. I use ClassDojo to award students for great behavior. I also use ClassDojo to communicate with parents. I can quickly and easily send parents messages to share awesome moments in the classroom.

5. Post student work: Any chance you have to put student work up on your walls, do it! Students love looking at each others’ work. They also feel a sense of pride when their work gets posted. Additionally, if students know you might put their work on the walls they will put much more effort into the project because they will want to impress their peers.

6. Always keep your cool: If students are frustrating you or being disrespectful, take a moment to collect yourself and take a deep breath before responding to their behavior. Remember, you’re the adult in this situation.

7. Keep moving: Always be moving around the classroom. Even if students should be looking at the front of the room, you do not have to be standing up there. Walk while you talk. Students might need help but are too shy to ask for it. If you continue to circulate the room you can spot which students might need a little more guidance.

8. Be a role model: Practice patience and kindness. You might be one of the few positive role models in your students’ lives.

9. Relate to students: Allow your students to get to know you. When they share experiences with you, share back. When they feel like they can relate to you they feel more comfortable in your classroom.

10. Take time to laugh: You don’t have to be on topic 100% of the time. Make time to tell funny stories, jokes, and take school a little less seriously every once in a while. 😀

11. Be consistent with consequences: Students should be aware of the consequences for certain behaviors at the beginning of the school year. Be consistent. Although no one likes to be punished, students will feel safer in your classroom if they know you will always give consequences for certain behaviors.

12. Bring it down to eye level: When students are hard at work and you would like to have a chat with them, kneel down to eye-level. Don’t ask them questions from 4 feet above them. Have a real conversation. Students will feel more important!

13. Creative opportunities: No matter what subject you teach, you need to provide opportunities for students to be creative, whether that be through music, drawing, technology, etc. This will allow you to get to know them more and for them to show off their talents!

14. Admit when you’re unsure: No one knows everything, so be honest about it! If your students ask you a question that you’re unsure of, tell them! After I say “I’m not sure”, I always pull out my phone and ask Siri for the answer — students LOVE it.

15. Smile: 🙂

Teachers play a powerful role in a child’s life. Besides parents, teachers have the grand responsibility of inspiring, motivating, teaching, and sharing valuable lessons and knowledge with young learners.

In the classroom setting, teachers set the tone for learning by creating a warm and inviting environment, where they can mentor, nurture, and take account of the needs and well-being of their students.

Come to think about it, teachers have an extremely challenging job. From grading papers to striving to meet the vast criteria of a “written in stone” curriculum, teachers wear several hats. Aside from those demands, educators bear the weight of being responsible for the overall academic achievement of students. With that comes the task of feedback.

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What does feedback do, you may ask. Student feedback is one of the most vital aspects of a student’s academic career, as it ensures they’re on the right trajectory to succeed. It’s a gauge which paints a picture for students, offering insight about their student work portfolio, and where they are, and where they could be. Teacher student feedback, as powerful as it is, can influence students’ overall performance, self-perception, motivation to learn, and academic engagement.

Constructive feedback in education is nothing short of essential to the learning experience, as well as the teacher-student and teacher-parent relationship. It’s not only indicative of how much the educator cares about the learning taking place, it also shows they have a stake in their students’ outcome. Furthermore, constructive feedback gives parents a clear understanding of the educator’s overall goals for a particular subject or unit, and the goals set for their individual child. Parents can then target their attention where necessary and help their child leverage the feedback for success.

While student feedback is meant to be a good thing – a crucial component of helping students improve current skills, develop new ones, and acknowledge progress, it can oftentimes be viewed as judgement or criticism. Moreover, feedback is sometimes offered in a soley negative and corrective way, which can easily convey the wrong message, making it counterproductive and detrimental to learning. If not delivered correctly, feedback can leave students feeling uninspired, angry, and worthless, along with experiencing a slump in classroom performance.

That said, constructive feedback to students must be purposeful to the individual student’s needs and learning journey. It must be clear and direct, as well as encouraging and productive.

There are two main forms of feedback to students, summative and formative. Summative feedback focuses on learning after the fact. It’s an evaluation of learning at the end of a learning cycle. For instance, summative feedback examples for students would include grades at the end of a semester, a unit, or a school year.

On the other hand, formative feedback is designed to guide the learning process. The benefit of this type of feedback is the attention paid to areas of weakness (and strengths), and the encouragement for future improvement. In essence, the feedback is a tool to be used on the student’s next learning opportunity.

For the purpose of this article, we’ll look at formative student feedback. Dealing with multiple students on a daily basis, educators have to be consistent and deliberate in their feedback, as it’s easy to say “good work” and move on to the next student. To avoid such lax feedback let’s examine some techniques regarding how to give constructive feedback to learners.

Be positive. Before offering feedback, find something to praise. Build the student’s confidence as a learner by complimenting them on what they are doing well, then focus on improvement areas. Be specific. Avoid phrases like “Not quite there yet” and “You’re doing great” – neither communicates what needs to be improved. Instead, discuss the exact weakness and tactics to change the outcome.

Be immediate. This is one of the most critical examples of student feedback for teachers. The ideal time to provide feedback is during the learning process, which can deepen a student’s understanding, while prohibiting the reinforcement of incorrect ideas.

Now for a few student feedback strategies.

Use technology. ClassDojo is a unique app that’s perfect for communicating with students (and parents), especially when offering feedback. ClassDojo allows educators the ability to do a variety of things on one platform like tracking student progress, sharing feedback, assigning writing prompts, and creating a dialogue between students and parents.

Schedule 1-on-1 conferences. Conferences are an effective way to personalize feedback, instead of relying on written comments.

Demonstrate. Along with giving verbal feedback, modeling or showing examples of what you’re looking for has proven to be a helpful tactic.

We’ve only touched on a few examples of student feedback, but the main takeaway is to remember that feedback must be useful, positive, and suited to the individual student’s learning journey.

What other positive feedback examples for students would you add? What has worked for your students?

I remember one math class in high school that was dreadful. It wasn’t dreadful because the content was boring or the activities were disengaging — though we’ve all been there, too. It was dreadful because the environment was harsh, uncomfortable, and scary.

What could be so scary about a math class, you may ask? Was algebra alarming? Exponents eerie? Integers intimidating? While the purpose of class was to increase my knowledge, I didn’t feel like this was happening, and it had nothing to do with the content.

After becoming an educator myself and reflecting on this class many years later, I now have a better understanding as to why this class left such a negative impression on me. Our teacher — though clearly bright and well intentioned — did not set have clear outlines for lectures and assignments, nor clear and upfront expectations for classroom behaviors.

For example, his questions were unplanned (I suspect) and, therefore, unclear. He would call on us right away after asking an unclear question, and I wouldn’t know how to answer. He would then look disappointed in me and some of the math whizzes would shake their heads and promptly answer correctly. Not only did I not follow the unstructured lesson and questioning, but I felt unsupported by my peers. I felt disrespected and disengaged.

Here are some ways to ensure that you are creating a safe, respectful classroom culture!

1) Start the year with clear procedures and directions

When everyone knows what’s expected at all times, there is less room for misbehavior, ambiguity, and off-topic questions. Drill these practices and procedures, just like you would a fire drill, your first few weeks of school. Start the class the same way every day. Keep an agenda and cross off items as you complete them. Always end with some sort of check. Consistently practicing these procedures and structures creates a culture where students know exactly what’s expected of them at all times. Less ambiguity = less frustration.

2) Everyone participates!

One of the easiest pitfalls teachers can fall into is calling only on students who raise their hands or, on the flip side, calling on students whose hands are not raised as a “gotcha” moment. Both of these strategies are ineffective. Rather, use a system to call on students randomly, so everyone’s always responsible for the answer.

3) Wrong answers are okay, but everyone always finishes with the right answer

If a student gets an answer wrong, you need to walk that fine line between “You tried, that’s the important part” which communicates low expectations and “No. Wrong!” which makes kids feel like its unsafe to try a wrong answer. Use lines like, “It’s on the tip of your tongue, I can tell — someone help him out,” or “That’s wrong, but I’ve heard you say it before. Mark, help him out?” Then always go back to the original student, have him or her repeat the correct answer after hearing another student say it. This will allow them to leave feeling successful, knowing it is okay to try in class, even if they are unsure of the answer.

4) Wait time

If you’re asking a difficult question, give students the appropriate amount of time to think about it before calling on a random student, or let them write or talk with a partner about it. If you build in this wait time, it becomes a part of your class culture and students will feel more comfortable voicing their answers with confidence.

5) Positive responses — from students!

As teachers, we are responsible for providing positive feedback, but let your students do the work! After debriefing partner work, try asking, “Who would like to call out a glow of something their partner did well?” Also, within the last months of the school year, I recently started incorporating snapping when a student would say something poignant — and the rest of the class was allowed to snap as well. One snap for something great, two for a comment that was downright insightful and awesome. They loved the positive encouragement from not just me but their peers, and many of them wrote in their end-of-the-year surveys that they strived to get a right answer so the class or teacher would snap for them.

Would love to hear how other teachers create a safe, respectful classroom culture? Please share your ideas in the comments below!