3 Favorite Things: Classroom Management Tools

We're so happy to participate in the Teaching Trio's Favorite Things Linky this month!   For this month, I'm sharing my 3 favorite classroom management tools:  Class Dojo, Stick Pick, and Team Shake.

 

 

 

 

#1 - Class Dojo

Class Dojo is BY FAR my favorite classroom management tool to date!!  Using it encourages participation, teamwork, attendance, behavior, and so much more in your students!  It also keeps track of the data for you, and you can set it up to where parents can access their child's Class Dojo account, so they get information about their child in real time.  The best part about it is that it's absolutely FREE!  And, it can be accessed using ANY DEVICE with Internet access; available on the web and with the free Class Dojo app (available for Apple & Android devices).  Check out this video for a walk-through of this AMAZING tool!

 

 

 

 

 

 

#2 - Team Shake

Team Shake is an amazing app that allows you to fairly and equitably select members for groups/teams for games, class activities, seating arrangements, etc.  You can input data for each individual student that includes gender, ability level (weakest to strongest), and whether or not they should be placed in the same group as another student.  

 

Once you've inputted all names & data, select the number of groups you want or the number of students you want in each group, then give your device a shake.  Your students are automatically placed in equitable groups based on the data you inputted.  This is PERFECT if you want to make sure you have high, medium, and low students in each group.  This is a paid app, but it only costs $0.99, so it's well worth the price; available on Apple and Android devices.  Check out this video for a quick tour of this wonderful app!

 

 

 

 

 

#3 - Stick Pick

The Stick Pick app is a very handy tool for teachers to use when questioning students, especially for those teachers with a wide range of students, who need help asking questions on multiple ability levels.  Teachers place student names on virtual Popsicle sticks, and then select a "Question Stem Mode" for each student based on Bloom's, Bloom's Revised, or ESL; this sets the default degree of difficulty level for the question stems for each individual student. 

 

Once all names are added and you're ready to go, you simply draw a stick from your virtual bucket, and you're provided 12+ question starters that are tied to that learner's ability level.  After you ask the question, you can select the "assess" button, and choose whether or not they answered the question correctly and give your opinion on their answer based on a rating scale (0=no response, 1=shows no understanding, 2=partial understanding, 3=adequate understanding, 4=clear & accurate, and 5=insightful & confident).  This app is definitely the pricier of the tools, but it is well worth the $3.99 (Apple) / $2.99 (Android) price if it helps you ask higher order thinking questions and keep track of student data at the same time; available on Apple and Android devices.  Check out this video for a quick tutorial for teachers!

 

 

Classroom management tools are so important because they help you TEACH BETTER.  How can you teach effectively if you cannot manage your class well?  Do you have any other classroom management tools you'd recommend?  We'd love to hear from you!

 

Want to win a FREE Team Shake or Stick Pick app from Watson Works?  Enter our raffle below; winners announced Monday, October 12, 2015!  And you can enter each day! :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

  

~Heather

Watson Works, LLC