Bikes Are HERE!!!

Big THANKS to Brennan Caverhill for lending us these fantastic Self-Regulation bikes. They just arrived at Holy Spirit and we are excited to set them up after the March Break.

 

Learning Skills

More important than any grade on a report card is the Learning Skills (Responsibility, Organization, Independent Work, Collaboration, Initiative, Self-Regulation).
Unfortunately, these terms are often unclear and very wordy. The language when we talk about these terms is rarely student friendly and often confusing. To start the year, I handed the students a pack of stickies and had the write down all the positive and negative behaviours we might see this year. Then, we proceeded to write the learning skills on the board and sort out all our ideas and misconceptions.
Using my favourite classroom management app, ClassDojo, we have been tracking all our behaviours using positive and negative badges on the online system. Students have learned what it means to show a "Lack of Responsibilty" or be "Unorganized". They can also, show pride when they receive notice how the showed "Initiative" or "Self-Regulation". The goal is for students to be better learners. A grade doesn't tell the full story of a student, but their hard work, approach to learning and responsibility talk ore about where the students are going.

Certified Class Dojo Mentor

I may not have a black belt in karate, but I am a mentor in Class Dojo. For those who may not know about this wonderful classroom management app/web 2.0 site, Class Dojo offers an engaging method to track student behaviour. Students are assigned a small avatar they can edit and teachers are provided a list of behaviours, both positive and negative, that they can use to track students behaviours. Students are awarded points based their actions in class. The behaviours are able to be fully modified to each classes need. An ongoing report is provided to parents that sign up for the free service. Also, teachers are able to message parents directly through the app/website.
My students start the year by defining the Learning Skills (Responsibility, Self-Regulation, Collaboration, Independent Work, etc), they then brainstorm what are positive and negative examples for each of these learning skills. Students and parents are able to keep track of their strengths and areas for improvement.
This is a fantastic website and I am proud to be considered a Dojo Mentor.

Here is a list of resources to help introduce it to your students and parent community.