Class Dojo is a free web, iOS, and android app that is designed to help with classroom management, student engagement, and community building. It's an excellent tool to keep track of student behavior, attendance, and to connect with parents. Plus, it's incredibly simple and easy to use! So...Let's check it out!
Before we dig into the review, here's a short introductory video from the Class Dojo team to better show you what the app is all about.
As mentioned, Class Dojo is an awesome way to track student behavior, take attendance, encourage collaboration, involve parents, and a whole lot more. Plus, they've recently added messaging features and their new Class Story, which makes it easy and safe for parents to share photos and updates from the classroom with parents.
So with that in mind, let's take a stroll through the actual app. After you sign in to Class Dojo, you'll be presented with a sample class to help learn the basics of the program. You can start by clicking on any student in your class to award them positive or negative points based on their behavior.
Click on a student to award him or her behavior points.
Positive Feedback
Negative Feedback
And don't worry, if you're not a fan of the awards available, you can easily add your own under the settings menu. This is also where you can edit student information and change the setup of your class:
The Class Settings Menu
If you click on the "Edit Students and Behaviors" button, you'll be able to change or add students, modify the behavior awards, and change the basic info of the class. Plus, if you've already set up one class the way you like, you can import that information into all your other classes:
Update and change the behavior awards
Now that you've got your behavior awards set up they way you want, let's take a look at some of the other great features of Class Dojo. First up, you've got a timer! No more scouring the web for a cheesy flash timer, they've got one built in!
The Built-in Timer Feature
Plus, if you're in need of a random student volunteer, you can click the "Random" button and the program will choose one for you.
And to make attendance-taking easier, Class Dojo has that feature as well. Just click on "attendance", select the students who are absent, hit save, and you're done!
Take attendance too!
And if you're not in love with these monster avatars, when you create your own class you have the option to upload your own images or icons for each student as well.
Upload your own avatars if you don't like the ones provided
So those are all the in-class features that Class Dojo offers, but there are some wonderful out-of-class features that really make the app outstanding. First up, Class Dojo records and graphs all of your behavior information for your students. This way, you can get a quick snapshot of exactly how well each student is doing:
Donut Graph of student behavior
TrendSpotter Graph of student behavior
On top of that, you can also link parent accounts directly into your class, this way parents will have a continuous update on their student's behavior. It's an incredibly easy way to keep parents in the loop and a huge time-saver for educators as well.
Link parent accounts so they can monitor their student's behavior
Finally, if there are other teachers in your school using Class Dojo, you can quickly link to your school with the "Join Your School" button. This way, you can connect and share information with the other teachers in your building.
Join your school and connect with the rest of your campus
Plus, if you have an iPad, iPhone, or Android tablet, you can get the mobile Class Dojo app so you can manage behavior from around the classroom without being tied to your computer all the time.
Manage behavior on-the-go with the mobile app
Finally, as I mentioned way back at the beginning, Class Dojo has just released their "Class Story" feature which is designed to give teachers the space to easily and share classroom updates with parents.
When parents login to the app, they'll be immediately presented with a news feed from their child's classroom, complete with photos and updates from the teacher. This way, the teacher can share important and enjoyable moments, without having to worry about them being made public on a class website or blog. In addition to already being able to message parents directly, Class Story is an excellent addition to what was already a robust app.
When parents login to the app, they'll be immediately presented with a news feed from their child's classroom, complete with photos and updates from the teacher. This way, the teacher can share important and enjoyable moments, without having to worry about them being made public on a class website or blog. In addition to already being able to message parents directly, Class Story is an excellent addition to what was already a robust app.
Overall, this program is absolutely awesome, and I've used it at the middle school, high school, and even university level. It's great for monitoring and recording student behavior, especially since it graphs everything for easy analysis.
Plus, students can create their own accounts to keep an eye on their behavior as well. And being able to link parent accounts is an excellent feature that I think most teachers would love. All in all, it's a wonderful program that I think can really help with classroom and behavior management!
RSS Feed
