Class Dojo

I first found Class Dojo back in December of 2011 while I was blog-hopping. I thought it sounded like a cool idea, but I was a substitute at the time and didn't have a class to try it on. I used it with a tutoring student of mine, and it worked fine, but I had no idea if I'd be able to manage it with a class of 24 {or more!}.

When the music teacher at my school started using Class Dojo this year, it was a huge hit with all the kids. Since all the kids were talking about it and I already had an account, I decided to jump on board, too. I'm glad that I have another teacher to test this out with!

What Is Class Dojo?
Class Dojo is a free, online management system. You can use it on a computer or on your mobile device; get your Apple app by clicking here, and get your Android app by clicking here.

ClassDojo app icon, courtesy of The App Store

Cool Features

• 100% free
• Add a ton of classes {I currently have 21 and can still add more}
• Customize behaviors... Add both positive and negative behaviors to track
• Automatically tracks and graphs student behavior over time
• Add points on a computer or your mobile device {I walk around the room with my iPad and award points}
• Students can log in with a special code to see their points for your class
• Parents can also log in to track their child's progress
• Add comments to the points you award so you can write down details about the situation
• Very friendly and quick-to-respond team {I got to Skype with Kalen from ClassDojo when I first tried it. He was super-nice and listened to all suggestions I had!}
• Quickly and easily print instructions about how to sign up for students... and send an e-mail invite to parents
• Students like to log in and change their avatar, so it keeps them motivated to pull up their progress at home
• Take attendance through the computer. I use this at the beginning of class, and then when I chose "award all" during class, the absent student automatically does not get points
• Track behavior trends by day, week, and hour
• If another teacher in your school is using Class Dojo with the same student(s), that student can merge the accounts together so he/she only has to remember one log in to view both sets of points

 Features I'd Like To See

• A demo student and parent account so the teacher can familiarize herself with it and be able to show others what to click
• Ability for parents to set up alerts -- perhaps they could automatically receive an e-mail when their student's behavior dips below, say, 80% positive. 
• Ability to take attendance on the app. 
• Ability to display student avatars without showing points {students are always interested in viewing their avatar and their friend's avatar in class... but I can't show it because I don't want to display the class points on the board}
• Ability to add comments to behavior points from within the app

I put "Features I'd Like To See" instead of "Things I Don't Like" because it seems that Class Dojo is constantly working to add more features and make it more user-friendly. I have high-hopes that the above-mentioned cons will be added in the near future.

How Do I Use It?

If you don't already have an account, go ahead and sign up. It's totally free, so even if you don't like the system, you haven't lost anything.

When you log in for the first time, you automatically see your demo class that Class Dojo set up for you. You can't ever delete that class, FYI. It used to annoy me, and then I realized that it's handy for showing the students how Class Dojo works and sounds without displaying everyone's point total on the board. 

When I first put in all my classes, I named them by the teacher's name. Thankfully, the music teacher has a 3rd grade son, so she can log in to his account and see what it looks like from a student's account and from a parent's account. It turns out the student sees exactly what you name the class. So if, for instance, the music teacher and I both named a 1st grade teacher's class by her name, Smith, the student would just be able to see the word "Smith" twice on his account. He wouldn't be able to distinguish between the music account and the Science Lab account. So... just FYI: be specific when you're naming. 

When you want to set up a class, click "+ Create a class" in the top right. 

Name the class, specify a subject and a grade level for the students, and customize the class icon. 

Type in names of students one at a time or copy/paste a list. 

You can edit students at any time. 

Add/edit behaviors. Class Dojo defaults to a certain behaviors {both positive and negative}, but you can edit or delete them as you wish. If you have multiple classes that you want to have the same behaviors, you can import behaviors from another class so you don't have to type everything in every time you set up a new class. 

When you're ready to start tracking behaviors, click on "start" from the home screen.

View your students. 

From this screen, you can take attendance, set a timer {perhaps to challenge students to do something in a specific amount of time in order to earn a point}, and award points. You can award points to one student at a time or select multiple students. 

Click the "settings" button to toggle the following options:

I never display a class on the Promethean because I don't want students to see others' points. However, you can log in to Class Dojo from your laptop before students walk in and minimize that window during class. Then you can walk around and award points from your mobile device. When you award points on your mobile device, a sound should play from your Promethean {if the Internet connection is good}. It's a way to alert students to awarded points {both positive and negative} without embarrassing anyone. 

After you're finished with class, click "end class" to go back to the home screen. Click "reports" to view the trends Class Dojo found. 

Toggle the dates in the drop-down list to see behaviors. 

 Here's an example of tracking a certain behavior by hour:

You can clearly see when I was teaching and trying to show an example point to my students. :)

You can also track behaviors by individual student:

Here, we can see that Denzel has not signed up with a username yet, and he has a problem bringing his homework to class... shame on you, D-Wash. 

I'm still learning all the little tricks of Class Dojo, but at this point, I can confidently say that I recommend it. I think I'll have to add some sort of reward instead of just the points {x number of points = x reward}, but it's working great so far.

Silent Light Decibel Meter

With the excitement of science experiments combined with amplified sound due to my lack of carpet, there are many days when the Science Lab is a very loud room. On most days, I don't mind, so long as students are talking about what we're doing.

I did have one particular grade level that was much louder than the others, though. Instead of talking in a normal voice, it seemed that they all wanted to YELL as loudly as possible during their entire hour with me. It was frustrating, and it gave me a headache. :(

One day, my Apps Gone Free app alerted me to a little gem called Silent Light. I downloaded it but didn't know if I would use it or not. The next week, my little friends were excruciatingly loud again, and I decided to give Silent Light a try. 

For whatever reason, all of the students I've used it with have loved it. They're amazing when Silent Light is turned on because they view it as a game!

Silent Light app icon, courtesy of the App Store

When you open Silent Light, you see this screen:

You can tap the "We are learning to" board to write your objective if you want. ...Or you can tap the double bars on the left side of the board and slide it to the right to make it disappear completely:

Click the gear on the top right to adjust volume level and points:

Slide the gray button around each red circle to adjust. I love that this app doesn't adjust decibel sensitivity by percentage or decibel numbers; instead, it gives you a description of how that level is going to sound when it's just right. You can adjust anywhere from "hear a pin drop" to "an international airport." You can also adjust the intervals in which the app will give "points." {I'll explain those in a second.}

After you've configured your settings, you'll want to reset the timer and point counter by clicking both the green and the red circles. Clicking the circle with the arrow will reset both. You can pause the "on task time" button or stop it completely. {I usually pause when I'm giving directions.}

At this point, I connect my device to my Promethean board so it will display where every student can see and hear it. You don't have to do this step, but I think it helps keep students aware.

The decibel meter starts working immediately. As long as the students are within the specified decibel range, the light stays green, and the "on task time" keeps ticking. I award students with a point every 5 minutes, and I hope to extend that as the year goes on. {Every time the class earns a Silent Light point, I give everyone a Class Dojo point. Huge motivator!}

If the noise level gets too loud, the light will turn orange {I'm sure it's supposed to be yellow, but it definitely looks orange in my room.} and the "on task time" circle will turn red and say, "off task time." I love that it also counts time "off task," although I wish it would describe it differently. I don't necessarily think that students who are being loud are off task, but that's a post for another day. :)

A quiet "ding" lets students know when the stop light is switching levels. I was absolutely amazed at how aware they were of the sound. I also love that there's a little peer pressure... the few who were struggling to be as self-aware of their volume as others were definitely shushed by the others who wanted Dojo points. ;)

I have no idea what happens when the volume gets so loud that the light turns red. I have a little friend who keeps volunteering to scream for me to "test it out," but I keep politely declining. ;)

I think this app is phenomenal for teaching students to be more self-aware of their volume!

Silent Light is $3.99 in the App Store, but if you watch Apps Gone Free carefully, you may be able to snag it for free sometime, too.

CISD friends: here's a tutorial for you. 

Yo Window

Yo Window is a weather app with really neat graphics and capabilities -- perfect for illustrating weather and seasons with the little ones.

The app is $1.99 in The App Store, but I snagged it for free when it was featured on Apps Gone Free one day.

Yo Window app icon, courtesy of the iTunes store

Launch the app and pick your city. I chose New York City for my demo:

Although the animation is technically a drawing/cartoon, it's a pretty realistic picture! If it's windy, things will blow around on the screen {like the flag on the bottom right}.

Even cooler: you can slide the green dot to the right and fast forward through time to see what the weather conditions will be through the day.

The picture on the screen changes with the weather conditions.

You can change the scene you see, as well.

I personally like the "village" scene, but the airport is nice, too.

Other options included:

I put in my own town and tested it with what I saw when I looked out the window, and I have to say: it's surprisingly accurate!

I think I might use Yo Window when I teach a kindergarten lesson over night v. day. If you could fast forward far enough, it would also be a cool visual to use when teaching about the seasons.