Teaching with badges and stickers (The Web 2.0 way)

We all remember our first visit to the dentist, some more traumatic than others. However, you may also remember how one little sticker made everything seem much better!

Well its good to see that, despite living in a high-tech world, stickers can still be used to incentivise both students and adults alike!

What’s changed?

The impact of using stickers in the classroom is well documented however, thanks to improvements in technology, the way in which we award and manage rewards in the classroom is now a lot better!

ClassDojo

ClassDojo - classdojo.com - helps teachers improve behavior in their classrooms quickly and easily. It also captures and generates data on behavior that teachers can share with parents and administrators.

Teachers can use ClassDojo to award badges for behaviour and give students real-time feedback while in class. 

ClassDojo provides instant notifications for your students (‘Well done Josh! +1 for teamwork!’). All fully customizable for your classroom. Students can track their behavior from home and Parents / Carers can also view their child's progress via the ClassDojo app via a special invitation code.

Edmodo

Edmodo - edmodo.com - is a FREE 'Social Networking' environment for students, parents and teachers. It provides a safe and easy way for your class to connect and collaborate, share content, and access homework, grades and school notices. In fact, many schools are ditching their VLE's in preference to edmodo.

Teachers and students can post messages, discuss topics, assign and grade work. Edmodo also allows you to share digital content such as links, pictures, videos, documents etc.

A feature of edmodo is the ability to award badges for positive behavior. This feature allows you to incentivize your students and provide recognition for their achievements.

Edmodo also allows you to create your own badges by uploading a 114 x 114 pixel image and, if you need a little inspiration before you start creating your own badges, you can easily view and add other teacher’s badges to your collection.

And, just in case you feel left out, as a teacher you too can earn badges! 

The Edmodo Training Badge - a way of recognizing teachers’ efforts to enhance their knowledge of Edmodo

Classroom Carrots

Classroom Carrots - http://www.classroomcarrots.com - Thanks to @TeacherToolkit for sharing this. (See his original post here)

Classroom Carrots is a free tool to help teachers manage student behavior and improve engagement.

Classroom Carrots is different in that it combines physical stickers, which can be purchased from its parent site (schoolstickers.co.uk), and matches them to virtual stickers which can be recorded online using a free app.

Each student is assigned their very own avatar, a computer-generated virtual identity, and when rewards are given out teachers simply drag and drop the virtual sticker onto the relevant avatar. Immediately the pupil's name and reward flash up on the classroom whiteboard or computer. Pupils are then given the matching physical sticker, and if requested, an email can automatically be sent to parents to keep them informed.

Classroom Carrots allows the teacher to reward individual pupils in real-time and keep track of their behaviour online. Teachers can also engage with parents by using the Reward Book module as well as evaluate performance using the reporting tool.

How it works