Class Dojo is a web 2.0 tool that stumbled upon recently and wish I had found earlier, as I would have definitely used in as a 3rd grade teacher. Once you create an account, you may add your students. From there you (or they) may select avatar/monster characters. The site is excellent for classroom management. It allows you to reward students by adding positive praise when they exhibit behaviors you would like to reinforce. This also works for documenting negative behaviors, such as calling out, disrespect, lack of effort, etc. It is a simple tool that looks to be helpful in keeping track of student behavior in class. It could also be shared with parents, as you may print out "report cards" that keep track of how they have been performing.
One of the teachers at my school uses this tool. He carries his iPhone with him everywhere and uses the class dojo with his 7th grade students during lessons and activities that require students to work in groups. In other words, it is not used everyday. Students at my school respond well to it and because it is still novel and they want their dojo/avatar to be positive. I believe it is a great tool for students to use to help them monitor their on-task behavior and the dojo holds them accountable. In other words, this web 2.0 tool helps students self-monitor and successfully regulate their behavior. Additionally, the classroom teacher is telling them that he wants high-quality work and that requires their focus and effort!
ReplyDeleteAshely this sounds very intriguing. I can see Natalie's point that students respond well because it is a novel program, but I wonder how long students and parents will stay interested. I suppose it also depends on how often the teacher uses Class Dojo to observe student behavior. If it's regularly updated, I'm sure parents would appreciate the realtime data and it would definitely be useful during parent teacher conferences.
ReplyDeleteAshley, this seems like a really interesting tool. I agree with Liz that it's a great way to communicate with parents about student behavior. It's also good data for students that you are concerned about. Is there anyway to personalize the behaviors for specific students, or is the whole class working on the same thing? If you could personalize it, I could see it being helpful with goal-setting, which is pretty big in my school.
ReplyDeleteLiz, that's a great point. I used it for one class last year and ofcourse, the only see me once a week. However, the class remained interested with it throughout the remaining two quarters I used it. I did not share it with parents and set up student accounts. I just used it in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteMandy, you could personalize individual students. This would be helpful if trying to keep track of data or goal setting as you mentioned.
Even if you don't set up parent/student accounts, you can still share the data with parents by either printing reports or just sharing at conferences.
This is my favorite web 2.0 tool! I too wished I had found out about it sooner. My students responded well to it. They especially loved being able to create their own avatars.
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