After reading Chapter 7 and watching both video's I have a better understanding of negative reinforcement, positive reinforcement, queing and other sorts of classroom management techniques that are beneficial and not beneficial to students.
On page 268 in Chapter 7 a paragraph stood out to me. "Another variation is to allow students to earn tokens in the classroom and then exchange them for rewards at home. These plans are very successful when parents are willing to cooperate. Usually a note or report form is sent home daily or twice a week. The note indicates the number of points earned in the preceding time period. The points may be exchanged for minutes of television viewing, access to special toys, or private time with parents."
In the classroom that I work in, we use Dojo points. I briefly discussed this in one of my discussion posts. I find the rewarding technique good for students in the 4th grade. I have also seen the parent contribution and involvement and how great it is to see a behavioral technique taught by technology and encouraging parents and teachers to work together. Recently, we have a student that forgot his homework, we messaged his mom on Dojo and she replied back with a picture of his homework finished but he had just forgotten it. He still technically will receive full credit and in the meantime we are fostering a better relationship with parents and their children. We too are sending Dojo points to students and at the end of the day parents can view their child's rewards and or disciplines and we are a message away to discuss as well. It has also eliminated a lot of "calling home" due to the fact that parents are just a click away. Positive reinforcements go along way and it's nice to see the top students who work hard and productively get a pizza party or donuts at the end of the month for great behavior. Those students are proud and set an example. I think Dojo is great and students love it too!
I have never heard of Dojo points but I agree with you that the system really seems to improve teacher student and parent teacher relationships. This seems to be a great motivator and tool to have in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteArisa, Having Dojo as a resource sounds like the perfect tool for teacher/student/parent collaboration in today's world. Calling home has always been a hassle because our parents are working and it may cause another stress in his or her life. I remember in high school, the principal called my mom at work (I was innocent!) and she goes "So is Joey in trouble or not?" and he goes "No. I just wanted to inform you that he was in my office today." and she goes "So if he isn't in trouble, then why are you bothering me at work?" Dojo seems to offer a more pleasant experience.
ReplyDeleteAs Holly and Joe have said, Dojo seems awesome! Very good way to create a positive relationship not only with the student but the parent as well. A reward system may still be useful in the 4th grade however later on it becomes a double edged sword in my opinion. Rewards have to be given out carefully otherwise students will start to under perform when they realize they don't get a reward for what they are doing in the classroom.
ReplyDelete