I have been struggling to keep track of behaviour in my class over the school year. I have looked for an app that would let me log who is doing what and how frequently but have not found anything that fits the bill. The only one that comes close has a limited number of features. Does anyone else struggle in this area and, if so, can they recommend alternatives?

What you said

gregperry

I think it depends on what the tracking tool is for. There are two reasons, broadly, why you might use one. First, they can be employed as a behaviour modification tool - a gold star for good behaviour and a negative mark for bad. The second reason is for monitoring students within a class or school to help you decide where to utilise limited time and resources. Without some sort of tracking, we can’t be sure that the right students will get the right support. We also want to identify them quickly. Like any data management system, though, it is only as good as the data that’s entered into it. So, planning needs to be put into how and when paper recordings should be fed into something else.

jackmackenzie

Programs aren’t really necessary but, if you really want to use some software, do you have SIMS or ePortal? This can help with communication with other staff and parents.

The expert view

May I suggest a notebook and pen? Writing things down seems to be the simplest way to manage these kinds of things, and you very rarely encounter problems logging on or accidentally deleting data. Online tools and apps are all very well, but they are a bit fiddly to use and I’m not sure how much they actually add to behaviour management.

Tom Bennett is author of The Behaviour Guru and Not Quite a Teacher. Read more from Tom on his TES Connect blog (bit.lytombennett) or follow him on Twitter at @tesBehaviour. His latest book, Teacher Proof, is out now, published by Routledge

Post your questions at www.tesconnect.combehaviour.