The Easiest Way to Implement a Classroom Economy

As my life continues to get crazier, I am constantly looking for ways to simplify and improve the things that I do. This year, for example, I decided to merge Class Dojo with my classroom economy, and so far, it's going very well! Here are some of the tweaks I made to make this merger work.

My Classroom Economy

I've been using a classroom economy since I started teaching, and every year, I make a few tweaks. The basic idea is that every student applies for a class job at the beginning of each term (our terms are 6 weeks long). I've previously posted about my classroom jobs here. I display the jobs in my classroom so that we're constantly reminded who is responsible for what. This year, I've used a pocket chart for my classroom jobs (sorry for the blurry photo).

I used to give students $100/week as their salary, or about $20 per day. They'd have weekly and monthly expenses, and then they could use any remaining money to purchase items in our class store. The complete program is detailed in my Classroom Economy Megapack on TpT.

I love the system, but I felt like I wasn't as consistent as I wanted to be in tracking student behaviors to give fines or bonuses, and there were many Friday afternoons when I was so involved in whatever we were working on that day, that I just didn't leave enough time for them to shop. 

Meanwhile, I was dabbling with Class Dojo, and I wanted to figure out a way to tie that in as well. If you're not already familiar, Class Dojo is an online behavior management system that allows you to give and take away points from students. You can create your own categories for points, and you can access the class info from any device -- laptop, computer, iPad, iPhone, etc. I liked that portability because I always have one of those devices in my hands, and I could give or take away points without really interrupting what I was doing. 

The solution came for me this year when Class Dojo allowed for the creation of weighted point values! Before, you could only give or take away a single point at a time. Now you can create points on a scale of 1-5 and weight particular behaviors accordingly. This is done in the set-up for behaviors. 

1. Go to Edit Class on your class screen and select "Edit students and behaviors."

2. Select "Behaviors" and either click on one of the exiting behaviors, or the plus symbol to customize the behaviors.

3. Change the icon (optional), name or rename the behavior, and then click the box to access a pull down menu of point values to weight that item.

And that's it! You can weight both the positive and negative behaviors according to your needs. Here are the settings I have now for my classroom economy.

I basically divided the $100 weekly salary by 10, and scaled everything else back the same way. Students now get 2 points daily for their salary (10 points per week) and bonuses for different behaviors. The only other positive behavior that I've weighted more currently is helping others because I'm really trying to encourage that in my classroom. I'm also going to add a +4 for a class compliment because I like when they do a good job with other adults in the building.

For negative behaviors, I deduct more points for breaking rules outside of my classroom and for disrespecting people or materials. I also now deduct their taxes and rent through Class Dojo, and when they shop, I deduct their points in here. I price everything in multiples of 2, but then I found that I wanted a -5 shopping once they had enough points for some of the larger ticket items in our class store. I dislike that it shows up in the "Needs Work" tab, but I don't think it's a problem overall. The parents know what is happening from the descriptors, and we just talk about it in class from the stance of making or spending money. It's the easiest way to deduct some points without resetting the points entirely.

Since transitioning to this modified system 7 weeks ago, my classroom economy has become more accurate and effective in a fraction of the instructional time. Class Dojo has replaced the clip chart that I used to use, and it helps with some of the accounting. I'm still using the bulk of the resources from my Classroom Economy Megapack, however.

If you're interested in trying out Class Dojo with the rest of my Classroom Economy Megapack, I'll be offering the product on sale at half price through Tuesday. It is one of my best sellers, and if you're looking to change up your classroom management routines or enhance your existing classroom economy, I don't think you'll be disappointed. I've also discounted the rest of my TpT store 20% to celebrate my return to blogging after a busy start to the school year. Those sale prices will go now through Tuesday, so check them out!

Join the Mailing List! 

Did you know that I have a mailing list so that you'll never have to miss a post? Use the link at the top right of this page (under Never Miss a Post) to subscribe to my mailing list. You'll get my posts delivered to your inbox, and you'll also get access to some extra resources that I'll be offering to my mailing list only. Given that my PhD work has really cut in to my blogging time this past year, the mailing list is the best way to make sure you see my new content. I promise not to spam you or share your contact information ever. 

Have a great week!

Busy Weekend & Bathroom Break Freebie

I feel like my two days with students last week were really just a warm-up to what comes next. Monday will start our first real week of the new term, and that's when I'm planning to implement some new strategies and policies in the classroom. I'm thinking about revamping a lot of what I do in my reading and writing block (more on that later), but I'm also going to be cracking down more on students who abuse privileges. For example, we have several scheduled bathroom breaks throughout the day: before school (we start at 7:45), between reading & math at 9:30, before recess at 11:40, after lunch at 12:30, and if needed, right before dismissal at 2:30. Despite these opportunities, I still have students who ask to go multiple times throughout the day. They always insist that it's an "emergency," and while I'm highly skeptical that we share the same definition of that term, I've seen too many accidents among fourth graders over the last couple years to question it. Surely, though, the students are taking advantage of my relaxed policy, and some of them are missing out on valuable instructional time because of it.

I recently saw Stephanie's post over at Teaching in Room 6 about Managing the Bathroom, and it was a real flash of genius. I, too, have a classroom economy in place, and the idea of selling the students additional bathroom passes seemed like a brilliant idea. I know many of my students will buy them just in case, and it will definitely curtail some of my frequent bathroom/water fountain visitors. (If students have a genuine medical issue, this policy won't apply to them.)

I introduced the item before opening my class store yesterday, and not surprisingly, it was met with some controversy. My frequent bathroom-goers were outraged that I would make them buy a pass, but many of my other students spoke up in defense of the policy. In the end, the nay-sayers gave in, and several orders for bathroom passes were placed once the students started shopping.

I wasn't quite on my game enough to make and order the bathroom passes through VistaPrint like Stephanie did, so I made my own this morning, and I'm sharing them as a freebie. Click the image below (or click here) to get the passes from my Google Drive.

In other developments, I think the rest of this weekend is going to be spent getting organized for this term. I'm starting several new units, and I really want to map it all out and plan as much as I can so that I'm not rushing around doing everything at the last minute. I also have lots of thank you cards to write because my class spoiled me tremendously before the break.

What new policies or routines are you excited about implementing this year?

Management Monday: The Origins of Eberopolis

When I did my student teaching several years ago, I worked for a full year in a second grade classroom that used a classroom economy. My mentor teacher's last name was Valentine, and when we merged our two names together, we created "Ebertine Village." This is how we referred to our class throughout the rest of the year.

When I broke off into my own classroom, I didn't have another person to teach with. It was just me all by my lonesome, so I needed to create a new name for my learning community. Eber is a short last name, so I didn't want to add "Village" or something like that onto the end as a second word. Instead, I had much grander ambitions of world domination. Hence, Eberopolis was born.

Since that year, I've taken the Eberopolis theme and ran with it in my classroom. As I described with my class jobs post last week, I try to match my job descriptions with real world jobs. All of my students earn salaries for completing those jobs, and they pay rent and taxes in my class. They also earn bonuses or pay fines according to the choices they make. Here's a poster that describes the "Financial Rights and Responsibilities in Eberopolis."

At the end of the week, we figure out how much money they have, and they can choose to either save or spend their money in our class store.

My system has evolved a lot in the last 5 years, and I've finally taken the time to put it all together in a format that can be shared with others. It took me over a week of tinkering and writing, but my Classroom Economy Megapack is now available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. It contains several pages of detailed text about our classroom routines, set up procedures, and tips and tricks I've learned throughout the way. There are several classroom printables, posters, rewards certificates, and student and teacher-forms in the packet as well. It was quite the labor of love, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. It's over 60 pages in all.

Given how much work went into making and testing it, I'm going to be selling it for $10. But from now through Friday at noon (EST), I'll be selling it for 20% off. That's right -- over 60 pages of class economy goodness for $8.00. There's a 10 page preview over at TpT. So if you're thinking about setting up a classroom economy this year, please consider checking it out.

Tomorrow, I'll be back with another Google Sites tutorial.
See you next time!

Management Monday: Classroom Jobs

Ok, yes...I do realize that I was MIA for about a month and a half. I got swept up in the whirlwind of testing, end-of-year festivities, packing up my classroom for the summer, overhauling my family's diet to accommodate my baby's newly discovered food allergies, and then overcoming bronchitis, a sinus infection, and a family-wide bout of stomach flu.

So, no. I didn't have as much time to blog as I would have liked, but I'm back now. And wow -- do I have lots to catch up on!

I love summer vacations. They give me just the break that I need to recharge and get excited about the new school year. They're a time when I can pull my non-teaching life together (doctor's appointments, housecleaning, miscellaneous projects put on the backburner for forever...you know the routine), but it's also a time when I can reflect about what I want to change for the upcoming school year.

One of the biggest things that I want to change is how I do my classroom jobs.

If I've learned anything in the last year of becoming a working mom, it's that I need to streamline processes and delegate more. I think my classroom jobs are an area where I could definitely stand to improve on both of those concepts.

This is what my job board has looked like in the past. I've had the following jobs:
Ambassador - line leader
Caterer - handles all things related to our lunch count
Computer tech - assists with technology; makes sure everything is plugged in/shut down at end of the day
Class Lieutenant - monitors class at bathroom breaks or if I need to step out into the hall
Clerk - collects and organizes papers
Courier - delivers messages to office
Date Keeper - helps with class calendar
Distributors - (2 students) pass out materials
Librarian - keeps class library organized
Lumberjack - sharpens all pencils before or after school
Manager - turns out lights and closes door behind us when we leave
Microbiologist - dispenses hand sanitizer at lunch
Sanitation Engineers - (2 students) wash tables in classroom and at lunch
Secretary - records assignments for absent students
Street Sweep - handles any spills/messes on the floor
Temp - takes over the job of any student who is absent
Valet - holds doors for the class
That's 17 total jobs covering about 19 students. Any student who doesn't have a job goes into the "Soon to be hired" pool. Then every Monday, we would rotate jobs.

Here's what I dislike about my current system:
1. Not enough jobs. Last year, I had 26 students, and I expect to have about that many this year. I'd like to create a system where everyone has a job all the time.
2. Too much job switching. While it only took me a couple minutes to rotate the cards on Monday mornings, I can't begin to count the number of times I'd forget to do it. Monday mornings are just too hectic for me. Then, even when I did remember to switch the jobs, I'd lose track of who had each job. So when we'd get to the cafeteria and need to wash down our tables at the end of lunch, I wouldn't know which students were responsible (and they'd forget to check, too).
3. Too little specialization. Given that students rotate through each of the jobs, there would inevitably be weeks where one of my little troublemakers would land themselves an important job like "Class Lieutenant." Or my "Lumberjack" would be a student who was chronically tardy, so she couldn't do her job during a non-instructional time.

What I plan to do differently next year:
1. Add more jobs. I have some ideas for some new jobs that I can fold into the mix. I'm planning to redesign my job board anyway, so now is a good time to add.
2. Change jobs every 6 weeks. We have 6 week terms at my school, and that seems like a good amount of time for students to spend on a job. They'll get to experience enough different jobs throughout the year so they can mix things up, but they'll also be on a job long enough that there shouldn't be any question of whose responsibility it is.
3. Create a job application. I'll have students choose their top 5 jobs and explain why they're qualified to do those jobs. That will give me some feedback about their preferences to help me assign the jobs, and it will also give them some authentic writing experience.

My jobs will integrate with my class economy, and I'm planning to share more about that in future posts. In the meantime, what are some of the class jobs that you use in your classroom? Please share in the comment section!