I'm not sure where I first heard about ClassDojo, but I never took the time to do more than glance at it. I knew it was a website for tracking behavior, but didn't give it a chance until I heard an interview with the creators on the EdGamer Podcast. Liam and Sam (the co-creators) did an excellent job of explaining why they started ClassDojo that I realized I had to give it a try.
So what exactly is ClassDojo, a fun, easy, mobile way to track an entire classroom worth of behavior! The website is still in beta and free for teachers (and intends to stay free!) so first head on over and create an account. Setting up a class is simple too, just type in your students names and you're set. They have already pre-loaded 6 positive and 6 negative behaviors to track. You are free to customize, add or delete these behaviors as you like! Another fun aspect is each student is assigned a fun avatar that you can change or they can customize (more on that in another post!).
Once the class is set up it's time to start. Click on Start Class and you can start taking data. Click on a student and then click on the behavior they exhibit. A running total of points is kept by each student, and their's a pop-up at the bottom that shows what they did and gives a small audio cue. You can even choose to show notifications for both positive and negative, or you can turn off one or the other. Same with the audio notification it can be set to only go off with positive notifications! The last setting is to have combined points or you can separate the positive from the negative points, giving each student 2 numbers to watch.
The interface is designed to be displayed to the entire class while it's being used, so it works great with a SMARTBoard or Projector during class times. The beauty is that you can then use a mobile device to assign points from anywhere in the classroom or school even. Multiple devices can be logged in at one time and can all be giving points during a lesson! You can even see the points on the mobile device if you want to show it to a student. Just point you iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone, Android phone or tablet to http://mobile.classdojo.com to sign into your account and get started!
When you are finished with a class and click end class you are presented with a graph that gives you the overall positive percentage. While showing you the positive and negative points you awarded. You can view this as a classroom or by individual student. You can email yourself a copy of the report (PDF download is coming soon) and you can email each individual student report to yourself or parent by typing in their email address.
I have quite a bit more to say about ClassDojo.com, but think I'm going to save that for another post. Please give it a try and let me know how it goes in your classroom!
Patrick
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