LCE student gets autographed baseball from UT Coach

For The Record- Staff Report

Friday, December 09, turned out to be a special day for one third grader at Little Cypress Elementary. Maddox Manuel is a student of Josh Leger, music teacher for LCE. Leger uses a program called “Class Dojo” as one of the tools to encourage positive behavior in his classes.

According to Leger, “Maddox is just an awesome young man.

He is extremely motivated to do the right thing, and Class Dojo is a way for me to reward Maddox, and students like him, who make good choices on a regular basis.

Maddox has earned his dojo points for showing respect, working hard, and always persevering, even when we are exploring some challenging concepts in music class.

What is astounding is that Maddox has accumulated 358 points as of Thursday, December8.

The next highest-ranking student only has 298 points.

Out of around 600 students who come through my music room each week, Maddox has the most points of all of them.

He has literally become a legend among the third graders for accumulating so many points, and even the kindergarteners want to meet the 3rd grader with 358 points!”

Since Maddox is a University of Texas baseball enthusiast – he can discuss all of the players, their records, etc. – Mr. Leger contacted UT Austin Head Baseball Coach David Peirce, who sent an autographed baseball for Maddox. Maddox’s parents, Jessica and Troy Manuel, were on hand to witness Maddox receiving the autographed ball.

Principal Kayla Casey told Maddox how proud she is of him; complimenting him on the good choices that he makes on a daily basis and that those choices are a sign that he is a leader among the other students. She also admitted that she has heard other students talking about the number of points he has accumulated and they were working on trying to surpass what he has accumulated,

Class Dojo is a digital classroom management tool designed to help teachers improve student behavior and communicate more effectively with parents.

Each student gets an avatar, which the child can personalize, and teachers create goals or behaviors to track, such as turning in homework, participating in class, or staying on task.

Teachers can use a smartphone, tablet or computer to give or take away points throughout the school day.

Each student’s points can be displayed via a smart board, and teachers can generate reports to send home to parents.

This past spring, Class Dojo announced that its product was being used by two million teachers and thirty million students across 180 countries, including one out of every three classrooms in the U.S.