A Simple And Easy Solution For Your Online Classroom Management Woes By Deepti Sehgal
The last 6 months have been incredibly busy for teachers across the country, including myself. I’ve been learning how to use online tools, experimenting in my classroom, and choosing the right tools for my context. And this is over and above what we as teachers continue to do - educate, motivate and inspire the next generation of Indians.
In search of the best alternative for classroom management tools, I stumbled upon Class Dojo through my engagement as an Expert Teacher Facilitator with Teach A Class Foundation.
In short - Class Dojo is a simple alternative to managing your classrooms, especially if you want to avoid overly complicated platforms. You can use Class Dojo’s built-in “wheel of names”, timer, think-pair-share and many more student engagement tools to promote flipped classrooms, empathy and socio-emotional learning (SEL).
In addition, I find it highly engaging to create class groups, practice positive reinforcement with Dojo points and keep my students’ parents(a unique pairing with parent-teacher meetings/PTA)
Here’s a shortlist of features I find useful to manage my classroom
Toolkit
Mark attendance, curate student e-portfolios and award Dojo points (positive and negative points) on various skills and for behaviour management.
Set up values and classroom culture using Dojo points.
Enhance students’ interest and participation in the class with the toolbox that comprises of activities such as think-pair-share, wheel of names, timer and more
Customize the skills you want to build with your students and the respective points allotted for them. For example, the teacher can reward students with points for demonstrating positive behaviour such as helping others, joining the class on time or any other activity they deem fit for a reward.
Special Dojo awards such as No Homework pass or Extra chat time with the teacher, incentivise students to win the most points.
Student profiles are assigned a unique Dojo ‘monster’, a character that appears on the student’s personal page. Dojo monsters can be assigned randomly or by the teacher.
Class Dojo’s ‘Big Ideas’ videos and activities feature promotes SEL by motivating students to think positively and imbibe values like teamwork, mindfulness and perseverance in a responsive way.
About Class Dojo Teacher Page
Class Dojo is free for teachers forever!
The Class Dojo teacher page is divided into three areas: ‘Classroom’, ‘Class Story’, and ‘Messages’.
Classroom tab
allows teachers to track class points, individual student points, and generate reports.
Teachers can view attendance reports as well as student and whole-class behaviour metrics.
Teachers can filter as well as print results based on preferable time-frame and view the data as a ‘donut’ (Class Dojo’s version of a circle graph) or in a spreadsheet.
Portfolios
Class Dojo Portfolio enables students to easily share their learning through creative tools such as photo, video, drawing, text document or any assigned worksheet. They can easily upload work to their Portfolio in class or at home.
After approval of the posts by the teacher, families can see, like and comment on their child's posts on a mobile device, or on the web.
Teachers can also share the feedback instantly with both students and parents.
Class Story
An awesome feature that teachers can use to post photos, explanation videos, PowerPoint presentations, word documents, video messages etc to keep parents as well as students acquainted of the happenings of the class.
Messages tab
Allows teachers to send direct and whole-class messages to parents.
Messages can be sent in the form of an email or an in-app text message.
Teachers also get a receipt indicating if and when parents have read the message.
Teachers also get notifications when they receive messages from parents or when parents sign up to be a part of the classroom.
Parents can see behavioural and academic progress of their children as well as communicate with the teacher via the messages tab.
Recommendations & Review
It is very important to use Dojo Points as positive reinforcement alone. Negative points can result in a highly competitive and extrinsically motivated classroom culture.
Use the tool's public features in ways that support students' privacy and dignity as some students could interpret the behaviour tracking as a system of extrinsic rewards and punishments, especially when the information is displayed publicly.
In conclusion, Class Dojo’s effectiveness depends largely on responsible and consistent use by the teacher. With thoughtful implementation, it can help teachers and parents support students' growth through goal-setting, feedback, and celebration.
Explore Class Dojo in our Tool Repository
About the Author
The author is Ms. Deepti Sehgal, Mathematics Educator and Lab Incharge at Ahlcon International School. Deepti is an Expert Teacher Facilitator with Teach A Class and has trained over 550 teachers on 3 different ed-tech innovations. She has won several awards in the field of education. She is a CENTA TPO 2016 Rank Holder, CENTA TQ 2020 Badge Holder and a CENTA® Micro-Credential In Online Teaching Badge Holder. Deepti believes in creating and implementing innovative activities to make learning fun and engaging for her learners.