ClassDojo Launch

26th October

Dear Colleagues,

The purpose of the email this week is to introduce a new behaviour management system (replacing the pink merit cards) that we are launching at Traill.  It is called ClassDojo.  You can find out more at ClassDojo.com by watching the following teacher focused short video:

Your Heads of Faculty will lead a meeting about ClassDojo this Monday, but if you are keen to get started right away and to start rewarding positive behaviours in your classroom then get signed up and get started.  To sign up just follow the instructions below.

Click on the following link: https://www.classdojo.com/en-gb/teacher-signup/?redirect=true and fill in your details on the form below.  Use your SCHOOL EMAIL please and sign up to Traill International School.

If you have already signed up by responding to the invites sent earlier, that is brilliant.

On your home screen you will see invites to the secondary year groups that you teach.  You can click on these year groups and start to reward individual students for their behaviour in class or outside of class if you download the app to your smartphone or tablet.  YOU DO NOT NEED TO SET UP CLASSES.  Each subject teacher will set up groups to separate your class and I will explain this next week during our INSET.  If you want to find out how to do this before then come and see me and I will show you how it is done.

Rewards and the behaviours

To ensure consistency for points the following behaviours have been added each with an explanation of when to award a point:

Punctuality: Both tutors and class teachers can award students a point for being on time.  Hopefully this will encourage our late comers to hurry their parents along in a morning and ensure books and equipment are collected during morning, break and lunch!

Uniform & Kit: This refers to presentation, appearance, black shoes and most importantly, for Mr Lee, students bringing the correct kit to P.E.

Speaking English: Students have the temptation to slip back into their mother tongue so you can reward those students who resist the temptation and communicate in English as per the school policy.  Obviously in French, Mandarin, Japanese or Thai this may not be relevant but if they are speaking in the correct language you could award a participation or effort point depending on the context.

Homework: If students submit their homework on time and it is completed to the satisfactory standard you can award a point.

Good Question: To encourage students to ask more questions you can award a point to encourage them to think independently and challenge what is being said.

Participation: If a student is working well in your subject you can award a participation point, or if they volunteer to answer a question, working well in a team or as a pair then you can give them a participation point.  This can include being focused on the task.

Effort:  If a student is putting in 100% to a task and may not be getting the correct answers you can reward them for effort.  It may also be comparative to a previous lesson and you recognise they are working much harder and want to reward that.  This could also be extended to homework when students have clearly worked to the best of their ability.

Listening to instructions: This is particularly important in science practical, P.E. and more complex group work and tasks.  If you notice that some students are paying particular attention remember to reward them after you have delivered your instructions.

Proactive Learner: This is when a student takes the initiative, goes beyond expectations with homework or research in class, helps others in the class or during a group task or any other instance when students get on with it rather than waiting for your help.

Performance: If a student scores well on a test, beats a personal best, meets a target set from previous work this could be used to reward them.

When giving a point please try to pick the behaviour that best reflects the achievement of the student.  There may be some instances when 2 points may be relevant, for example if a student completes a homework and this homework then exceeds the previous target set.  Please feel free to reward 2 points.  The above are intended as guidelines so there is some level of consistency across the school when we are rewarding students.

The accumulated points will be added on to the House System to encourage all students to buy into the system and feel that they can really help their house to the trophy at the end of the year.

Please let me know if you have any problems or concerns about using ClassDojo.  Thank you for your help in making ClassDojo a success and encouraging our students to push themselves further.  Have a great week.