ARTICLE 2

Article 2

Summary:

            Ms. Merino is a reporter for the Vator News. She interviewed and researched classroom behavior management. Her report stated that 77% of teachers surveyed admitted that their instruction would be more effective if they did not have to spend so much of their time handling behavioral issues. The surveyed parents agreed that their child’s teachers are distracted with behavior management. In another study, 43% of teacher stated that they spend half of their day devoted to behavior management. Ms. Merino wondered if the removal of corporal punishment in schools is the cause of the current behavioral problems. William Glasser stated, “prior to WWII schools did not have specific discipline programs. The school would expel the unruly and flunking students if they seemed unmotivated. The education system today keeps those students in school and teachers have to find ways to keep them quiet.”

            Today, some schools’ discipline plans are the zero tolerance policies. The zero tolerance policies remove students from the school for breaking the school rules. The statistics show that the strict policies don’t help students with behavioral issues. Instead, schools are looking into preventative measures to avoid bad behavior. Students learn in positive learning environments that are safe, secure, and supports caring relationships between the teacher and students. The studies state that creating a positive classroom management is about improving the students’ social skills by developing social-emotional awareness and self-reflection.

            A classroom management solution that the article reviewed is called ClassDojo. ClassDojo rewards good behavior and encourage character building. It is a free service that allows teachers to customize the preferred behaviors and instantly reward students for positive behaviors. When a student engages in positive behavior, the teacher will award the student’s avatar with a point with a online device. The student’s and their avatars are for participation, helping others, creativity, great imagination, hard work, and presenting. Students can lose points for being disruptive, late, not completing homework, interrupting, getting out of their seat, and being disrespectful. Students are able to monitor their own behavior and track their progress. Sam Chaudhary the co-founder and CEO stated, “For too long, we’ve thought of behavior as discipline. You get really bogged down in negativity. ClassDojo allows students to work toward a goal rather than avoiding punishment, and the fact that their progress is put on display for everyone to see makes good behavior something the whole class is involved in, rather than just the responsibility of a few problem students.” ClassDojo also aims to create a sense of community in a classroom. The students will develop a sense of belonging when he or she feels like they are an irreplaceable member of classroom community which they will form an attachment to the class.

            In a survey of teachers using ClassDojo reported 50% to 80% increase in positive classroom behavior and 45% to 90% decrease in negative behaviors. Special education teachers found the resource more productive in positive reinforcement. Instead of using sticker charts to track the students’ behaviors, the special education teachers can use the ClassDojo to monitor behavior progress.

Reflection

            I think the ClassDojo has the potential to be great resource for classroom behavior management. The teacher reviews, the study’s results, and the students’ engagement have persuaded me into thinking the application would be a great tool to be used in the classroom. Unfortunately, I have some concerns about the practicality of the ClassDojo. In order for ClassDojo to work, the classroom would need a tablet or a computer easily accessible to record the students’ behaviors. ClassDojo is unique by allowing the students to monitor his or her progress while evaluating other classmates’ performances. Students without Internet accessibility at home would not be able to monitor their progress. Another concern of using the ClassDojo is the amount of time and effort of the teacher to record all the students’ behaviors. In order for the program to be successful, the teacher must be consistent in recording the students’ behaviors. The time taken away from student learning while constantly recording the students’ performances could be problematic. I believe the program could improve classroom management if the teacher has access to the Internet in the classroom, a device that easily accessible to record, the students accessibility to the Internet inside and outside of school, and more ease recording the students’ behaviors.

http://www.classdojo.com/

Works Cited

Merino, F. (2012, August 20). Resetting education: An app for classroom

management? Retrieved July 28, 2013, from Vator News website: http://vator.tv/news/2012-08-20-resetting-education-an-app-for-classroom-management