Class Dojo

Hello! Michele here from Triple the Love In Grade 1! I am excited to be posting on ITeach First for Techy Tuesday! 

 I’m here to tell you about my experience with Class Dojo. This will be my 3rd year using it in my classroom. A friend of mine who teaches kindergarten asked me about it and said “oh, I’m not that good with the computer! Am I going to be able to do it?” The answer is YES you are! Maybe the hardest part is typing in all your students names! Super easy to learn and use!

If you are not familiar at all with Class Dojo, here is a link to a video with the basics. 

Basically, Class Dojo is a new way to monitor class behavior. No more clip charts. No more tally marks. No more flipping cards. Everything is done electronically through their website. All of the material they offer is FREE for educators!

Ok, so after using Class Dojo for 3 years now, here are some tips:

1 - Those parents that are logged in will see everything and want to know EVERYTHING about why their child lost a point. Think about it. The old way of keeping track was only seen by you. Students moved cards or clips back and forth throughout the day with just the two of you knowing. Parents were only notified of a large in fracture of the rules. 

With Class Dojo, not raising their hand, talking while the teacher is talking, getting out of their seat, (just to name a few - remember you can customize) will be seen by parents where in the past, it wasn’t. Don’t forget, parents will also see the good choices their child makes throughout the day. Class Dojo truly makes children accountable for their choices and decisions AND their parents will know it AND their parents will want to know WHY and HOW and REALLY?

I know a few teachers who have decided to not share the parent feature to avoid the problem of constant messaging with parents about why points were taken away. You have to think about whether or not you are ready to let parents know that “After several requests, Johnny still did not clean up his area”. 

This year, I plan on spending quit a bit of time at Back to School Night explaining how Class Dojo works. 

Be ready to explain your decisions and choices about giving and taking away points in case a parent asks.

2 - Use the attendance feature and take attendance with Class Dojo. This way if you award the entire class for making a smart choice, Johnny who is home sick, won’t be getting a free point. And vice versa, he won’t be losing points and parents won’t be asking why Johnny lost a point if he wasn’t in school that day.

3 - REWARD students at the end of the week with a small prize if they accumulate a desired amount of points. This will encourage those students whose parents might not be logged in to Dojo. Sometimes I hear “my mom doesn’t check it anyway”. And true, she may not but I have your behavior documented to show her at our next meeting. 

4 - Use the data that is collected for you! Use it for report cards. Use it for conferences! It is there! You clicked on a behavior (positive or negative) for a student and the program has it recorded by student by date by time. They do most of the work! Ok, you have to enter it in but it is just a click!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope this post has helped you decide if Class Dojo is right for you! It is Techy Tuesday, but you don’t have to be that “techy” to get this behavior system up and running in your classroom. If you have any questions or need help let me know! 

Cheers friends - until next time!

Michele @