Classroom Economy + Class Dojo

If you follow my posts, then you know I LOVE Class Dojo. It ahhh-mazing in my opinion. I combine Class Dojo with a classroom economy.

In my classroom everyone has a job. I firmly believe this has made my kids more responsible and accountable. Everyone in my class feels included every day because they know that they have a duty that helps the class run more smoothly. At the beginning of the year we discuss my job as a teacher and what would happen if I did my job correctly or incorrectly. We brainstormed character traits of a hard worker on an anchor chart.

After that was all said and done my kids completed a JOB APPLICATION (woahhh…real world stuff).

The kids choose their top three choices and then write WHY they want their choice. I love the contract part on the back page. We discuss how you are making a commitment to helping our community, so if you do not get the job you were hoping, there is always next six weeks to re-apply.

You print the pages front and back and just slice through the middle to save paper. I do love the trees, but I’m selfish and most do this for the sake of my copy paper stack 😉

If you would like to use this FREEBIE in you classroom. Click { HERE } to download.

I love to keep these applications on file when students slack off (it happens). We discuss the qualities they listed on their application and then brainstorm why they have strayed from their duties.

Like a real job they know they can get FIRED. Yes, I am that mean and have done it before. Just like a real job, if you don’t have great work ethic you get fired.

We compare this to school. If you don’t try in school, how can you expect to get good grades?

**My jobs switch every six weeks, however the last 12 weeks I kept mine the same for the sake of my sanity at the end of the year. The kids were all doing great at their job and I just didn’t want to ruin a good thing.**

You can change your jobs however you feel best meets the needs of your classroom.

Everyone has a job, so how do I reward them?

With THIS:

Classroom Money for a Classroom Economy:

At first I paid my kids EVERY week for their job. Uhm….I’m only one person and that got to be WAY too the consuming. To make it easier on myself, hired two Bankers and THEY paid the kids every TWO weeks.

This was great for may reasons:

**Less to worry about

**I no longer was in charge, but the responsibility rested on my bankers

**Kids had to learn how to SAVE money.

They knew they were only getting paid every two weeks, so if they spent all their money on coupons one week, but they lost their scissors and needed to buy a new one the following week (will explain later in this post) then they were in DEBT. Do you just see the economics lessons OVERFLOWING throughout the year?!

Let’s dig into the fun stuff first…

Kids could cash their money in to the bankers to purchase coupons. These coupons are rewards that they earn and they vary based on the price.

Here is my (totally embarrassed to show you) coupons wall.

It is A WRECK but as I move classrooms this will DEFINITELY be revamped

Notice that the picture on the side say tickets. At the beginning of the year I tried using tickets. I paid my kids $25 a week ($5 per day) and can you IMAGE counting 25 tickets per 20 kids?

A big encouragement for the kids was box tops. I told them that they would get a ticket per box top they bring in. I had a kid bring in 400.

That was the day I started writing checks and that weekend I printed out money.

It is just so much easier to see the dollar amount and it was real world money handling.

I teach my kids responsibility. If they lose their coupons or money, I am not replacing it. I explained to them the way of life. What if I lost my wallet with my card in it? Would our principal come to my room and give me all the money that I lost and replace my cards for me? No…so that is why they must be responsible.

Here’s a close up of the coupons I created and use:

Be sure to pin these images so you can reference them later! 🙂

The third grade and second grade team at my school uses these coupons. They love it! 🙂

Be sure to pin these images so you can reference them later! 🙂

BIG MOTIVATOR:

For my students that seem to MISPLACE EVERYTHING and not turn in their work on time.

They can continue to do that, not a big deal for me—-just means they are not allowed to buy coupons until all of their work is turned in.

WOAH….dangling that coupon like a piece of candy. It totally works. They WANT to be able to sit at the teacher’s desk and write in pen for the day. When they see their peers getting all this good stuff but they aren’t. You’d be surprised at how quickly they turn around.

Once of my coupons I’d like to explain is Super Supplies because it is a BIG hit!

I have three boxes FULL of fun goodies.

If they purchase the coupon, they can use everything in this box for the entire day.

At the beginning this was $40, but EVERYONE was buying it and it was depleting my supplies. So guess what, we had a mini lesson over SUPPLY AND DEMAND. Demand went up so what do you think happened? I raised the price! They were SO MAD, but they understood why and it was hilarious to see their faces when I changed prices on them.

Okay okay okay…how does Class Dojo fit in all of this?

It is a simply amazing program and I can’t boast about it enough. I talk about it to almost everyone. You would think I’m a partner in their company (I wish I was but I’m not 😉 )

When kids earn points for doing positive actions, their points accumulate on the the dashboard.

Here is my home screen with all the student’s names and their points.

My students are not allowed to cash in their points for dollars UNLESS they have over 10 points.

This helps me because in the beginning I literally had kids coming up to me EVERY TIME they got a point to retrieve their dollar.

This is why I allow them to cash in their Dojo points for dollars just ONCE a week as long as its over $10. To eliminate everyone coming up at once, they can do this before school, immediately after they put up their backpack, or when they finish ALL their work.

When the bubbles reset, they go back to zero so now they must work for that 10 points or more to be able to obtain money.

This is great for me because the kids are working for their own individual goals. They technically don’t know who has more points than who because they are cashing them out at different times throughout the week. I now don’t have students upset because someone has more points than the other or one acting prideful because they are on on their individual goals! **WIN WIN**

***Parent Involvement***

Three of my kids did not have internet so every week I printed out a report from them. If it came back signed they received $5.

For my kids WITH internet, Class Dojo has an AMAZING messaging feature which I’m just slightly obsessed with (in a healthy way don’t worry). If a parent commented on their child’s report at least ONCE, that child received $5 to spend at our store.

This is great in the middle of the year if a parent forgets to check their e-mail, I can rest assured that they will because their child will be begging them to check their report so they can get that $5.

At the beginning of the year I just allowed the kid who received the MOST dojo points to be rewarded, but this change seems to work best for me.

I also like to reward kids based on their percentages. I have mini-conferences with my kids so we can discuss their behavior by looking at their data. Oh yeah, Class Dojo generates DATA for you! Read my past blog post for details.

Every few weeks if they are constant 90% or higher OR they show improvement— they receive money from the bank. This is great to not only reward those that are always behaving, but it rewards those that are TRYING to change. I’m all for second chances and this is my favorite way to do it!