Class Dojo and LiveSchool

Here are two great programs with apps that make classroom points easy to use. When I transitioned from Preschool teacher to Middle School teacher I struggled with how to track student behaviors. Obviously a hopping frog chart and stickers won't work for 8th grade. Half way though the year I threw that nonsense thinking right out the window.

My 8th graders would stand on their heads for stickers and stamps, just like my elementary kiddos. All students like to know when they are doing well. Two great programs to use that allow for parent communication and digital tracking are Class Dojo and LiveSchool. Both are usable on phones, tablets, and your desktop.

Class Dojo has a friendly appearance with monster avatars to represent students. The website has a ton of teacher support with rationals and explanations for parents and administrators. My 6th graders love the monster theme and really buy in when they can change their own monster. As students collect points their positive and negative percentages show up in a pie chart. This is amazing for me since it doesn't matter how crazy or stingy I get with points, the percentage given is what matters. With 6 classes a day, and slight adult ADD, this helps me avoid having unbalanced rewards in my classes. You can also reward by points (an option I save for my struggling students).
Tips: Be careful with the buttons. Once you've given or taken a point you can't erase that data. The desktop website allows for a lot more versatility than the tablet and mobile versions.

LiveSchool has a much more business like appearance and still works for students who are "too cool for that baby stuff." One of my colleagues teaches 8th grade and her classes compete against each other for total points. LiveSchool also allows for more than one teacher to access a class so co-teachers and aids can award points as well. Class points are printed out in a check form. The LiveSchool website also provides video tutorials.
Tips: Know who your administrator is. If you want to sign up connecting to your school community your administrator will need to approve you. However, you can always fly solo and not identify your school.

How to Implement it:
There are as many ways as types of teachers. My method was:

Day 1:  Show students what Class Dojo looks like with a sample class and let them here the sounds positive and negative points make. Tell them what kinds of rewards they will get for good points (or percentages if your using that method, which I did). Let them suggest ideas. Talk about consequences (in my class the order is: 1 warning, then lost dojo point, then call home, then referral, and so on) Post rewards and consequences in writing on your wall at end the of the day.

Day 2: Show them their class and what they can earn positive points for and what points are taken away for. I left these at no more than 6 (4 would be better, but we had six classroom rules). For my "good" classes the positive could be general, but my class in most need everything was very specific. Such as "raising your hand" "saying unkind words" etc. Tell the kids it starts tomorrow and spend the rest of the day saying things like "That's a great question. That's the kind of thing that would earn you a positive dojo point" and "That's not the best choice. That's the kind of action where dojo points are lost." (Or the first week if that works best for you)

Day 3 (or day 1 of the new week): Begin giving positive points and warnings with "Remember, we stay at our seats during quizzes. Next time you'll loose a class dojo point. I know you can end your day with positive points." While smiling, hopefully kindly and not with gritted teeth. The key to warnings is that you should try to make them reminders or encouragement, not punitive. Take points away after one or two warnings depending on your class and teaching style.

On a designated day of the week (for my classes, Monday), I print off each kid's report by clicking print all and hand them out. The kids earn rewards based on their percentages. I display a print out of the rewards through my projector (its also posted on the wall) and  have them write on the report the reward they want. Reports are turned in on the way out the door. This way I can easily check what they asked for is what they earned with very little fuss. Rewards are handed out the next day.

Tips:
Add in attendance as a positive point. This way if you can think of nothing else to give a class, you can give them this. Works great when you forget to add points during class, trying to encourage attendance, or just encourage that one kid.

Feel free to change up you positive points periodically, but only your negative when you find you haven't used them in a LONG while. Be very careful changing the negative.

Keep the list of behaviors small. It will help you keep up with the app in the long run.

Make one reward a "Prize Bag" item. Then enter all the kids who earned/requested that in a online name drawing tool like Random Name Picker. Write the names generated on your white board and have kids come to you before or after school to pull a prize from the bag. This way it won't disrupt your class and you wont spend hours putting slips of paper in a cup.