Behaviour Management Tool: Dojo Points
Dojo Points are a fun and engaging way to support positive behaviours in the classroom. The idea of Dojo Points is that each student has their own profile (which the teacher sets up for a class cohort) with a colourful monster avatar as their picture and the teacher awards points for displaying a range of positive behaviours. The same can be done for negative behaviours where points can be taken away.
The excellent thing about Dojo Points is that the teacher can assign as many types of positive and negative actions each with a different weighting of points. For example, a positive behaviour might be ‘showing respect’ worth 1 point where as another positive behaviour like ‘sharing with others’ might be worth 2 points. It is really up to teacher discretion and the specific behaviour management plan a teacher has in place.
In my class I award different rewards when students reach certain milestones with their Dojo Points. To make it more enticing for the students they receive a special certificate when they reach 25, 50 and 100 Dojo Points.
This year when my class reached 1000 class Dojo points they received a movie afternoon with popcorn. A good idea is negotiate with students what they might like as the prizes at certain points.
It is an excellent reward system to support individual student behaviour and self-monitoring but it also has whole class benefits.
Dojo Points is also a great way to connect with parents and communicate with them through instant messenger. It makes it so much easier to communicate quickly with parents especially if there are changes that occur during the school week.
Dojo Points are a must have for the classroom and for an effective behaviour management plan in the classroom. The best thing about Dojo Points is that students love them!