Sunday, November 15, 2015

Web 2.0 Tool: ClassDojo

     The awesome new Web 2.0 tool that I have recently discovered and expect to use in my classes is ClassDojo.   Teachers using this tool can award students for behaving well and doing what they are supposed to be doing, and they can also penalize students for not doing these things.  In addition to a point system the website and mobile app also offer the teacher access to communicate with parents via messages.   Also another neat feature that is provided with ClassDojo is the ability to have a stopwatch and countdown timer to help during transitions, class projects, and other various activities.  To help you further understand this information I have created a brief tutorial to help you get acclimated to the information   previously presented.  If you wish to watch this tutorial Click Here.
 
     One key feature of this blog that is very useful to the overall usefulness of the tool is the report feature.  This allows the teacher to take a deeper look into what that students strengths and weaknesses are in classroom behavior.  It can also be an indicator to that teacher, that perhaps one of the reasons the student is struggling is that potentially constantly being unprepared for class may be a result.  Also it allows the teacher to go back and see which come to class everyday willing to work hard and being on task.  Ultimately the product of this point system  review report allows the teacher to go back and check and review why that student is excelling or struggling.  It also provides another resource to review for Parent-Teacher Conferences. 


     Overall I believe that this can be a very beneficial tool to use classrooms by teachers.  I believe that the donut chart is very beneficial for students because they can read, interpret, and understand where they are losing points.  Also for younger kids, they can understand that green means good and red means bad.  In addition to emailing parents reminders about upcoming dates, a teacher can also use this resource to relay messages to parents.