Class Dojo Announcement - Going School Wide!

Many of my teacher friends know how much I love Class Dojo! I was even lucky enough to meet Sam, one of the creators of Class Dojo, at ISTE San Diego in 2012. I'm such a fan I asked if I could take a pic with him.

We had a great chat that day and he asked a lot of questions about how Class Dojo could make things better in the classroom. I think that's one of the things that makes this program so good, they go out and find teachers and listen to what we're saying.

For those of you who haven't heard of it, "ClassDojo is a classroom tool that helps teachers improve behavior in their classrooms quickly and easily. It also captures and generates data on behavior that teachers can share with parents and administrators. Better learning behaviors, smoother lessons and hassle-free data - and its free!" Kids love the monster avatars, and love seeing their points grow. One of their favorite jobs is to be the Class Dojo checker during a read aloud. One person gets to hold the ipad and watch for great listening behavior while I read. They also love giving themselves points for good work.

Now on to the big announcement. Class Dojo just announced the ability to go School Wide! What does that mean? It means that now teachers who team can connect and share their students! You'll be able to use Class Dojo with other teachers who share your students at your school, share rosters, and track student progress across classes. If you Job Share, it will be easier than ever to share the class. When students go to a special class, that teacher can give points that you will be able to see. Team teaching, student teacher, teacher's aide, all areas where this might be a great tool to have!

There are two ways - Shared Classes and Shared Students. Read all about it here on the Class Dojo Blog and get the specific details and how to right here > How do Class Dojo school wide features work?

Classroom Clickers in a Low Tech Classroom

Have you ever seen examples of classrooms with clickers? Have you tried to figure out how you could get your hands on a set? Donations? Donors Choose? Second job? 
Now you don't have to as long as you have paper and one device - a smart phone or a tablet will do.
Plickers is an iOS or Android app that the teacher uses to scan student cards. Each student has a paper card with a unique visual code. The code has four sides labeled A, B, C, and D. The student turns the card and holds it up for the teacher to scan. The app scans the codes, records who the teacher assigned each card to, and captures the answer each student chose.

What an amazing app! You don't need to be a 1to1 class, you don't need a set of ipads or clickers, you don't need to share devices among kids, all you need is paper. The cards can be scanned from a distance so the teacher could stay in front of the class and just scan the group while they hold up the cards.

Image from https://www.plickers.com/support

Check it out. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/plickers/id701184049?mt=8

What if Everybody Did That?

Last year I found this book, What If Everybody Did That? and used it as a read aloud for my class. It sparked some great conversations and fun scenarios. The story goes through a day in the life of a little boy who makes some minor poor choices. But then it is pointed out how bad this would be if everyone did that. From leaving trash on the ground to calling out in class so many small things become big deals quickly. This coming year, I'd love to have the class create their own book patterned in a similar way after doing the read aloud. I found this great lesson plan all set.

Lesson Plan - Click Here

Here is a free resource for class book pages TPT Book Page

I hope you enjoy this book as much as we did.

Playing Around with Classroom Design

There are many versions of the "In Our Classroom" poster and I decided to play around with it with my Photoshop. I'm still not sure if I want to use the black and white or color version. Feel free to download and use it yourself. I searched to see where the original poster came from but haven't found the author. If you know the origin, please let me know so I can give credit. If you'd like to use this poster - it is formatted for 11x17. You should be able to print it out at your local office supply store. Here's a link to the images in jpg and pdf file forms Click Here