ClassDojo is an app designed for teachers, students, and parents to connect with one another during the school day. Today, millions of teacher from over 180 countries are using ClassDojo in their classroom. Teachers can share pictures, videos and messages throughout the day so everyone can work together to bring ideas to the classroom and home. ClassDojo creates a positive culture by giving teachers the ability to encourage students on any skill or value. It also allows for the students to showcase and share their learning by adding photos and videos to their own portfolios. ClassDojo is a safe and free app, that can downloaded on iOS, android, Kindle Fire, and any computer. How Does it Work?
When you sign up, you have the option to sign up as a teacher, student, parent, or school leader. The signing up process is pretty simple, asking for just your name, email and a password. Once you're signed up you have the option to select the school you're working with. From there you will be taken to a dashboard where you can select a new class to get your class started or selected the "demo class" option to practice the site before creating your own class. In order for the class to be created, the teacher must invite the students as well as the teachers. Students can get connected by retrieving a class QR code, a text code, or google sign in. To invite the parents, the teacher can either print off a parent invite with instructions given by the site, or invite by email or phone number. Whichever way the teacher decides to invite the parents, they will also receive a code to get into the classroom.
Each student in the class will have their own character with their name. Each character as well as a "whole class" option will be shown when you first open your classroom on the site. At the top of your page you will see classroom (which is where the students characters are), portfolios, class story, and messages. Portfolios is where the teacher can assign activities for students to do own their own devices, as well as this where the student's work can be added after the teacher has approved it. The students and their parents have access to view their portfolio. The class story option works similar to social media sites, where you can post a message, photos, and files for anyone in the class to see. The messages tab is where any messages from parents to the teacher can be seen and communicated. For each student's character as well as "whole class", the teacher has the option to give positive points or take points away by "needs work". The teacher sees the different options by selecting the character. The teacher can edit the skills to whatever they want to match their class expectations. When you add or take away points, the teacher also has the option to write a post about it or message the students parents on the reason for the point. There is also an option to add your students characters into groups. At the bottom on the class screen there are other resources: toolkit, attendance select multiple, random, timer, and big ideas. Within the toolkit the teacher can access a timer, random shuffle, group maker, noise meter, directions, think pair share, today, and music. The big ideas tab provides ClassDojo created activities addressing social and emotional learning, ways to use ClassDojo, and creativity.
Why Use ClassDojo in the Classroom?
- "I can add and remove points without disturbing the whole class. If a student earns or loses a point, I can just quietly tell him or her why the point was added or removed".
- "I can control behavior with one sound. When I’m meeting with a small group, I turn the volume on my computer up. That way, when I add or subtract points, the class hears a sound and knows I’m watching. One point added or removed gets the class back on task. In the beginning of the year, the kids stop and look for the sound, but they quickly realize they can’t see who earned or lost a point".
- "I can choose the behaviors students have to display to earn and lose points. This year, my school is using 4 rules – be kind, be responsible, be respectful, and be ready to learn. My students earn points when they are displaying those behaviors".
ClassDojo is also useful when it comes to sharing and obtaining data. The site keeps track of behavior points, attendance, and activities. The teacher can also decide to create reports that can be emailed to parents daily or weekly. The report is designed in a donut that shows the percentage of clicked behaviors and underneath a written version of the data for each day. This data can all be accumulated into end-of-year reports. Another teacher, Lisa, stated, "The parents of my students enjoy receiving the reports because it keeps them in the loop". ClassDojo also has a resource called trendspotter which gives teachers trends of their students' behavior. This is great for teachers to use so that way they can see if certain days or certain times of the day, behavior is overall negative, the teacher can assess their classroom management and make changes accordingly. This is also great to take notice too if a student is acting negatively, the teacher may recognize if there are some environmental factors playing a role, and the teacher can then work with the student to create more positivity. ClassDojo has many amount of resources that are beneficial to the teacher's management, the student's success, and the parent's involvement which overall can create a lasting positive classroom environment.
Mims, L. (n.d.). Classroom Behavior? There's an App for That. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/classroom-behavior-classdojo-app-lisa-mims
DuskoTara, T., Hanna, & Dusko, T. (2018, August 12). How to Use Class Dojo for Classroom Management. Retrieved from https://teachwithouttears.com/how-to-use-class-dojo-for-classroom-management/
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