Over the summer, Haley gave us a sheet of cool web tools, and one of them was classdojo.com. This website is awesome! The first reason I love it is because it literally took a total of 10 minutes for me to get all four of my classes set up, including registering and entering all of my students' names. The creators of this website must have focused on user/teacher friendliness because I've rarely had this easy of an experience getting signed up and set up. Secondly, it allows me to EASILY monitor class participation, partner work and independent activities occurring while I'm in a small group, and transition times like switching classes and packing up. Students in all of my classes know I'm always watching and I can give or take away a point from anywhere in the room! I typically use my SMART Slate when I'm walking around the room or working with a group at my small group table. The Slate is a portable device that uses bluetooth to sync to my SMARTBoard. It allows me write, modify, open new documents, or in this case, monitor behavior in my class by simply moving the pen around on the blank "slate". Here is a picture of the SMART Slate.
I've been using Classdojo for the past several weeks, and the students love it! (Primarily because they have the choice of assigning themselves funky avatars...then they all laugh at each other's icon...silly kids.) I use it first thing in the morning to take attendance with my homeroom and every other class. (Attendance screen pictured below.) The students love getting to use the SMARTBoard to click on their name, and it allows me, a very visual person, to quickly check and take attendance.
Then during class, I award or take away points from students. Another cool feature about classdojo is you can modify the positive/negative awards to create a custom library of choices. For example, our students have a behavior calendar that travels with them to all classes. On the calendar are certain codes we write, such as NFD (not following directions), or NP (not prepared). These are not standard options for the rewards on classdojo, but I can easily add new options so points are added for the appropriate reward/consequence that is on the students behavior calendar.
Yet another helpful feature are the behavior reports you can print out to give to parents or keep on file. Reports are quickly generated and available for teachers to print as a hard copy, or email the report to the parents. All of the points, both positive and negative, are shown on the report. Besides the student behavior calendars, I'm thinking about printing the reports to use during parent teacher conferences to discuss class participation.
Last, but not least....yes, "there is an app for that". Class dojo is also available as an app for your iPad or iPhone, which has come in handy when the wireless is down at school. I just whip out my phone (sorry computer services) and resume adding or taking away points without missing a beat.
No comments:
Post a Comment