A Breakdown of Class Dojo
When I first heard of Class Dojo, I have to admit: I did not instinctively love the idea. I’m always skeptical of jumping on the bandwagon of a new trend, and many of my colleagues were doing just that. It seemed gimmicky and manipulative, and I was right. It is.
But then reality hit. I was an inexperienced teacher. I had a difficult class, and it was April in a year round school. I still had five months left with this group. My personal life was not going well, and I was low on patience and love to give. I was not taking care of myself, which is a completely different story. I did feel like I had anyone to go to for help.
So I downloaded the app, and signed myself up.
The beautiful thing about this app is that it pleases the parts of our brains that crave instant gratification. Hearing the ding of a point being given or taken away got an instant positive reaction. It made my life a thousand times easier. They were robots.
This was also a thing that parents got into. They easily got live updates of their kids’ behaviors in class. Up until that point, I had struggled with parent involvement. Kids were telling me that they got grounded at home because their points were in the negatives that day. My kids were as good as they were on that first week of school again.
But I was not being a good teacher. I was training them like puppies; they would perform the trick for the treat, but when I left the house, they tore up everything in the living room. I would come back from days off with many things stolen out of my cabinets. Students stole from other students. Students were fighting. Was this really all happening because I wasn’t there? Or was this happening because when a sub was there, they didn’t have that chime and a little green number to give them value?
I’m not going to lie; using Class Dojo got me out of a pickle when I had no strategies and was in a desperate situation. It helped me keep my sanity. But I wasn’t communicating with my students. Instead of a conversation, I was pulling out my phone. The way I used that app was completely irresponsible.
The next school year came, and I moved to my new school in a new part of the state. I switched from elementary to middle school, my dream job! I’m not going to lie; I have much more support, and work with a much more experienced staff. I now work at a school that has an effective and established RTC program. However, I was still pretty inexperienced last year, and I had over 30 students in every section. My first hour had 34 students including 15 students with IEPs. I had no idea what to do, so I fell back on Dojo points. It got my students in their seats when the bell rang. It got them to participate. It got them to be complacent and mindless. I didn’t really have an established reward system, so every so often I said, “kids with over 20 points can have a piece of candy.” Or I had the tables compete against each other. It was completely external. As the year went on, I actually found it to be more unnecessary. I credit this mostly to my experience, and working in a supportive school environment.
Here's my real issue with this kind of a behavioral system: students who frequently misbehave often have little to no self worth. When they see their name with a number next to it, that number is their worth. That number indicates how much I value them in my classroom. While this was possibly motivating for students who were a little talkative or disruptive, the downside for students who have experienced trauma was large enough to make me stop. They are the students who need my love, forgiveness, and support-- not the constant sight of a red negative number next to their name.
The only parts of the app I use now are the parent messages, the Class Story to post spelling lists and photos, and the group maker, which is actually pretty awesome. It is now January and I haven’t given out one piece of candy for good behavior. No more puppies. Being a realist, I ultimately accredit this to smaller class sizes (down to 28 per section!), a supportive administration and mentor, and just flat out more experience.
I do not in any way want to shame teachers who use this app or who award points. From my own experience, I know that you gotta do what you gotta do to survive. I just want to encourage educators to continue to learn and grow. Read articles and books. Build relationships with your students in real life, not on an app. And at the end of the day, I know we are all doing what is best for our kids in our own way, so love to you all!
But then reality hit. I was an inexperienced teacher. I had a difficult class, and it was April in a year round school. I still had five months left with this group. My personal life was not going well, and I was low on patience and love to give. I was not taking care of myself, which is a completely different story. I did feel like I had anyone to go to for help.
So I downloaded the app, and signed myself up.
The beautiful thing about this app is that it pleases the parts of our brains that crave instant gratification. Hearing the ding of a point being given or taken away got an instant positive reaction. It made my life a thousand times easier. They were robots.
This was also a thing that parents got into. They easily got live updates of their kids’ behaviors in class. Up until that point, I had struggled with parent involvement. Kids were telling me that they got grounded at home because their points were in the negatives that day. My kids were as good as they were on that first week of school again.
But I was not being a good teacher. I was training them like puppies; they would perform the trick for the treat, but when I left the house, they tore up everything in the living room. I would come back from days off with many things stolen out of my cabinets. Students stole from other students. Students were fighting. Was this really all happening because I wasn’t there? Or was this happening because when a sub was there, they didn’t have that chime and a little green number to give them value?
I’m not going to lie; using Class Dojo got me out of a pickle when I had no strategies and was in a desperate situation. It helped me keep my sanity. But I wasn’t communicating with my students. Instead of a conversation, I was pulling out my phone. The way I used that app was completely irresponsible.
The next school year came, and I moved to my new school in a new part of the state. I switched from elementary to middle school, my dream job! I’m not going to lie; I have much more support, and work with a much more experienced staff. I now work at a school that has an effective and established RTC program. However, I was still pretty inexperienced last year, and I had over 30 students in every section. My first hour had 34 students including 15 students with IEPs. I had no idea what to do, so I fell back on Dojo points. It got my students in their seats when the bell rang. It got them to participate. It got them to be complacent and mindless. I didn’t really have an established reward system, so every so often I said, “kids with over 20 points can have a piece of candy.” Or I had the tables compete against each other. It was completely external. As the year went on, I actually found it to be more unnecessary. I credit this mostly to my experience, and working in a supportive school environment.
Here's my real issue with this kind of a behavioral system: students who frequently misbehave often have little to no self worth. When they see their name with a number next to it, that number is their worth. That number indicates how much I value them in my classroom. While this was possibly motivating for students who were a little talkative or disruptive, the downside for students who have experienced trauma was large enough to make me stop. They are the students who need my love, forgiveness, and support-- not the constant sight of a red negative number next to their name.
The only parts of the app I use now are the parent messages, the Class Story to post spelling lists and photos, and the group maker, which is actually pretty awesome. It is now January and I haven’t given out one piece of candy for good behavior. No more puppies. Being a realist, I ultimately accredit this to smaller class sizes (down to 28 per section!), a supportive administration and mentor, and just flat out more experience.
I do not in any way want to shame teachers who use this app or who award points. From my own experience, I know that you gotta do what you gotta do to survive. I just want to encourage educators to continue to learn and grow. Read articles and books. Build relationships with your students in real life, not on an app. And at the end of the day, I know we are all doing what is best for our kids in our own way, so love to you all!
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