Ms. Pugh's Tech Site

What is Class Dojo?

Class Dojo is a website that teachers can use as a classroom management strategy. Teachers can create an account for free and then add a class. Each student in the class is given an avatar that represents them. Throughout the day, the teacher can monitor the students bheavior and add or subtract points based on how the students behave. Class Dojo can also be used to communicate with parents and the parents can see how many points the students score each day. The website is becoming a more and more popular method of classroom management, it is even used at my placement school. Some teachers can choose to display student progress on the screen in front of the class, which to some parents and educators is a controversial method of using it. I think Class Dojo is a great resource for teachers to use and it is a fun and exciting way to encourage students to stay on task.

Class Dojo Tutorial Video

To the left is a short walk-through video of all the different features that Class Dojo has to offer!

What I did with Class Dojo

I first created a free teacher account with Class Dojo and made a fake class with 10 students. As seen on the left, the students points are displayed right next to their avatar. Teachers can choose to display this at the front of the room, or they can choose to keep it kept private. Positive points can be given for things such as helping others, staying on task, participating, teamwork, and working hard. Teachers can also add other skills that they feel are worthy of recieveing points. One addition that has been made to Class Dojo is the option to give students points for "mask manners." This means that teachers can award points to their students for keeping their masks on and obiding by Covid-19 policies. Teachers can take away points when students are getting off task, or disobeying class rules. Another great feature that Class Dojo has is the "Class Story." This feature serves as a type of social media in which the teacher can post updates about what is going on in their classroom as well as photos, videos or assignments. Parents can connect to Class Dojo and stay up-to-date by looking at the Class Story. The website also allows teachers to send private messages to parents. This can be used to explain why a student recieved a point or had one taken away, as well as reminders for assignments or parent-teacher conferences. Students can also use Class Dojo to submit assignments which is helpful for teachers to have all the assignments located in one place.

Other ways to use Class Dojo

Along with the ability to monitor student behavior and communicate with parents, Class Dojo also offers a number of other helpful tools for teachers to use. There is a tool kit located at the bottom of the website that offers resources such as a timer, selecting a random student, random group making, a noise meter, the ability to display a question for "think pair share," the date, and music! Teachers can also use Class Dojo to take attendance. There are also a number of activities that Class Dojo provides that teachers can use for social emotional learning and creativity. There are videos that teachers cana show to their students and then activities to complete after watching the video. Overall, Class Dojo is a great resource that teachers can use for classroom management. I recommend keeping the points private between teacher and student instead of allowing the whole class to see how many points each student has. It is not necessary for student to compare eachothers progress. I also recomment starting fresh each day with zero points for each student. Everyone deserves a chance to redeem themselves if they were having a bad day. If used correctly, I think Class Dojo can make a teacher's life a whole lot easier!