Creative Classroom Management

Lately I've come across a couple sites that teachers can use to keep track of/manage student behavior.  They're interesting ways to keep students on task and to report to parents about student behavior without completing any extra paperwork!

The first site is called Class Dojo.  Using Class Dojo, teachers can set up their classrooms (you can have multiple classrooms in case you teach more than one group of students) and award students points for positive or negative behaviors.  It comes with many different behaviors already, but it also leaves room for you to edit behaviors so you can keep track of the specific things you want your students doing.  The program is web-based so you don't have to download it, and if you'd like students to see how they are doing, you can keep it projected on a screen.  If you don't want to project it or cannot report back to your computer frequently, there is an app for the iPad/iPhone and there are also directions on how to use it with your Android device.  The best part about using Class Dojo is that you can print out students' daily or weekly results if you'd like to send them home.  You can also give parents AND students their own login information so they can check behavior from home.  It's a great way to keep parents informed about how their students are doing without creating piles of paperwork! Below is a video from the site that can be used to introduce the program to your class.  It makes it sound very benign and friendly.  Videos for teachers can be viewed here.  



Another program that teachers can use to manage classroom behavior is Class Charts.  Class Charts works much like Class Dojo does; there is a screen that shows the names of all students in your current class.  You can assign each student points for positive behaviors or remove points for negative behaviors.  Class Charts has a few additional features that include keeping track of reading levels, put them in groups, and a few other management tools.  Like Class Dojo, Class Charts has parent logins so parents can check up on their students' behaviors, but it does not have a student login portal.  

Both sites seem like good resources for a teacher who would like an simple way to keep track of student behavior.  It's up to the teacher to choose which one they would prefer (I cannot even tell which one I like better, although I'm leaning towards Class Dojo--I like the student avatars better).  

Which one do you think you'd prefer?  Do you know of any other programs like these?