What it is-
Class Dojo is a FREE website that you can sign up for as a teacher. It is geared towards classroom management. You sign each of your students up and assign them an avatar. When students do something good, they get an award, which equates to 1 point. You can give awards for whatever you want, but the categories they have defaulted were cooperation, participation, etc. You can also take away points for misbehaviors and the site tracks each students' net point value.
But that's not the best part about it. You can add it to your smart phone or iPad so that you can add points wirelessly. Super cool! You can display the website on your projector and then update the points on the projector, computer or any handheld device (like a smart phone).
How I'm going to use it it in my classroom-
I just think this is the coolest thing. I can be sitting at my guided reading table doing a lesson with a small group while giving points to students and if I have my smart board displaying the website, students will see that they're getting or losing points. It also has sound notifications that it plays when a student receives a point, but I don't know if I'll keep that enabled or not.
I am going to give each student a generic avatar at the beginning and tell them when they achieve 30 points, they will get to pick their avatar. I also want to print out their chosen avatar and put it on their nametag as an additional reward.
This system will play into my ticket system. At the end of the month, I will distribute 1 ticket for each point each student has retained throughout the month. I will set up 2 or 3 raffles that they can put their tickets in. They'll be able to win books, fun school supplies, etc. And I will pull one ticket out of each raffle. If you want to do this in your own classroom, a roll of tickets at Target is only $6.84.
Have any other teachers used this system in their classroom?
Hi Caitlyn - Kalen from ClassDojo here. Thank you so much for the wonderful blog post - we really appreciate the support and are excited to work with you!
ReplyDeleteIf anyone who comes across this post has any questions about ClassDojo or needs help getting set up, please don't hesitate to reach out at hello@classdojo.com :)
Cheers!
Hi Kalen! Thanks for checking out the blog! My kiddos are just LOVING ClassDojo and I can't wait to write a review in a couple weeks about how it's going. It is the best thing I've used as a classroom management tool in my class!
DeleteI am really looking forward to using ClassDojo in my 3rd grade class. I was thinking of doing the same thing you mentioned...starting with an avatar of my choosing, then letting them design their own as they reach a milestone. I have seen a million clip charts this summer that encourage us to recognize good student behaviors, but the fact that this program shows WHY the kids earned their points, and allows us to communicate that to the parents, is a big motivator for me. I hope you'll consider doing periodic updates about your experience with ClassDojo throughout the year. It would be great to hear how both your students and their parents respond to it. I enjoy reading your blog. Thanks!
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