ClassDojo

A lot of teachers struggle with classroom management. If you teach, you know that managing your student's behaviors can be like walking a tightrope! There are lots of management ideas out there (some of which I listed in this post and this post), and it's wonderful to be aware of all of them, just so you know what your options are.
Anyway, I was blog-hopping, and I happened to come across this post from Miss B, Busy Bee about ClassDojo. The behavior-managing website looked so amazing that I decided to try it for myself. After I signed up, I realized it was really something that needed to be shared with other educators, so... here's my blog post about it! 
It is completely free because it's in its beta stage, but I read that there is limited sign-up available during the beta stage, so you might want to jump over there now and sign up!

The website is called ClassDojo. Like I said, it's a behavior management tool. I think this could be used for elementary or secondary students, which I know is pretty rare.
Besides it being free, here are some other perks to ClassDojo:

1. ability to add multiple classes (with individual students in each one)
2. ability to add a list of positive behaviors and negative behaviors to track
3. ability to project the running tallys of behaviors on a whiteboard/smartboard so that students can see results in real time
4. ability to record data from any computer in the room (including smartphones or tablets!)
5. ability to create a color-coded graph of the overall day for the class in one click
6. ability to create a color-coded graph of the overall day for one student in one click
7. ability to print/e-mail said graph to anyone who needs it (parents? principal?)
8. ability to view each behavior throughout the day for each individual student. Can also comment on the day to clarify each behavior further, if needed. 
9. ability to change the avatar picture next to student names (would be especially great for subs, if you allowed them to use ClassDojo while in your room -- no need for a manual seating chart or worrying about whether or not kids will try to switch seats!). This is a free feature if you recommend ClassDojo to someone else (I e-mailed a suggestion to a beloved colleague of mine), or you can pay $3 for this feature. You could upload students' actual pictures OR you could sort them into groups based on your school's yearly theme. For instance, I know a school that separates students into 2 major groups. Their theme for this year is "Under the Sea," and they have named their students Starfish and Stingrays. You could upload a starfish graph for each student in that group and so on. The possibilities are really endless...
10. ability to vote for new features! (From what I can tell, ClassDojo really pays attention to the voting and puts a lot of suggestions into action! I can get on board with that customer service!)

This behavior management system seems fairly simplistic to me, and I love that you can print/e-mail the class graph or an individual student's daily behavior, if needed! I cannot wait to try out this website.

Here are a few screenshots, in case you're curious. ClassDojo sets up a demo class for you so you can get used to the set up. I used the demo class to take my screenshots so I could keep student information private. :)

A class view of my pre-loaded Demo class, complete with instructions.

Overall performance of the class in a graph. Red = negative behavior. Green = positive behavior. I just clicked randomly on my Demo class.

Megan had a hard day in Mrs. K's class today! lol. But this is her personal graph. Notice at the bottom that I have the ability to make it visible to a parent or other teachers, and that I can comment on her behavior to clarify, if needed!

What do you think about ClassDojo? Will you use it, or do you already have a stellar management system in place? Share your thoughts in the comment section!