LAURA BAIN
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Getting the most from the Communication Tools in Class Dojo

1/3/2018

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Clear and consistent communication is something that schools can struggle with and finding the right tool can be tricky. Alongside its dynamite classroom management tools, Class Dojo actually has some very useful communication features that are often overlooked. In my opinion, they are the best part of Class Dojo. Parents love to see what their children are doing at school and feel a part of their learning journey.
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The tricky part can sometimes be, knowing what to use for different purposes. Here is my quick guide to using the different communication tools on Class Dojo.

Class Story

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This feed is designed to showcase what is going on in your class. Share examples of learning, celebrate achievements, advertise upcoming events. Photos or videos of groups of students with a caption explaining the task is ideal. Other great uses can be to share homework or assignment tasks by adding attachments to posts. I had a teacher last year, use it for his "Daily Recap" which was a hit with parents. 
DO: Keep this feed very visual - parents will keep coming back for more! Try to avoid posting just text messages – that is more what the “all parents” broadcast feature is for in Messages.

DON’T: Post a stream of individual photos of children. Parents will get annoyed at 20+ notifications and having to scroll through a river of posts. They only really want to see their own child. Groups of children and collages of photographs are better. Individual shots can go on individual Student Stories.

Student Story 

Student story items just appear within the general feed of that child’s parent and so are mixed in with their Class Story and School Story. This is great way to individualise posts and share a child’s learning journey with their parents. The student can also see these posts from their student account. The best thing about Student  Story is that the kids can do it themselves! One less thing for you to take care of in your busy classroom.
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DO: Teach students to post themselves! Don’t worry, you approve all posts before they go live. Use it to document evidence of learning for reporting descriptors, to collect formative assessment and as a student reflection tool. 
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DON’T: Use this as a way to send messages to parents. The students can see this themselves.


Messages

This is a quick and easy, but an often overlooked tool. Messages can put you in instant contact with parents. You can tell if they have viewed a message (by the blue tick) and the date they viewed it. You can send the same message to all parents all at once using the broadcast feature, which is great for quick text reminders. You can also schedule messages to be sent at a certain date and time which is useful for those who like to plan ahead.
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DO: Use it for quick text reminders instead of posting them to the Class Story.
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DON’T: Use informal language. Although it feels a bit like a chat interface, keep correspondence professional at all time.






Thanks for reading. I hope you found this Blog helpful.
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Scheduled Messages on Class Dojo

19/4/2017

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Class Dojo is always adding new features. In the few years I have been using it, I have seen so many great additions including Student Story and School Story. I have 100% teacher uptake at my school and consistently receive happy parent feedback. 

It was great to see the addition of a simple but highly useful addition to the messaging capability of the platform - the ability to schedule messages. This can be done from the messages section of your class view while logged in via a web browser. Messages can be scheduled to all parents or single parents. This feature has not been rolled out to the Messenger App or Class Dojo Apps on IOS yet.

I really like this idea. Too often I will think of a message I need to get out late at night and really don't want to upset parents with late night notifications. Ultimately this leads to me often forgetting to send the message. Now I can schedule them to send at a more appropriate time the next day. Good one, Class Dojo! 
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Introducing Little Bits

28/3/2017

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One of the most exciting features of our new Fab Lab this year is our littleBits Pro Library. I am completely new to littleBits and, admittedly, there are a number of components I have NO IDEA how to use yet! BUT I have been so excited to get started with them. 
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Over the last couple of weeks I have been running some rotations with the Year 6 students which aimed to give them experiences with electrical circuits before their STEAM unit next term. They involved rotations with littleBits, Makey-Makeys, Electric Brain Box Sets and a couple of related iPad apps. Its been a busy few weeks, but the students have enjoyed themselves immensely. 

What are Little Bits? The official spiel....

littleBits makes an open source library of electronic modules that snap together with tiny magnets for prototyping, learning, and fun. littleBits consists of tiny circuit-boards with specific functions engineered to snap together with magnets. No soldering, no wiring, no programming, just snap together for prototyping, learning and fun. Simply combine the different littleBits together and start creating your own design made of sensors, motors, input and output modules

What is littleBits? from littleBits on Vimeo.

Introductory Lesson with Year 6

At the start of the lesson I provided the group with a bowl with a power (9V battery) and output (LED). I discussed the anatomy of a bit, before moving onto the four categories of bits:
  • powers(blue)
  • inputs (pink)
  • wires (orange)
  • outputs (green)
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We explored how bits joined together magnetically and from there I encouraged the students to connect their power and see if they could get their LED (output) to shine. Following student successes, I provided each with an pink input. Each student had a different type of switch. I instructed them to add it to their circuit. Some added it to the end of their circuit and discovered that it had no impact on their output, this being a valuable discussion point. We moved on to discuss the order of bits. I set the challenge of creating a circuit with multiple outputs and inputs to control them. The majority of students took a little time to work on this but were all successful in the end. Without much in the way of prior learning to base their explanations, the students made connections and constructed a pleasing understanding. We ended the lesson by testing how the REG LED could be adjusted with the tiny screwdrivers from the littleBits Library.  
​The images below were used to support the lesson in our Class Notebook, which I found on the Resources for Education on the littleBits website.

Working with @littlebits today in the #makerspace with Year 6. Today was their introductory lesson. So much #fun! #edtech #aussieed #technologyteacher #electronics #circuits #science #sciencefun

A post shared by Laura Bain (@larubain) on Mar 27, 2017 at 11:18pm PDT

Sharing Learning with Class Dojo

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I love having the students record their learning on their Student Story on Class Dojo. At the end of the lesson, each student added a short video demonstrating the circuit they had created. It is a fantastic way to document their understanding and success with the activity as well as share with parents. The example (pictured) shows a student example and his parents encouragement. Always nice to see!










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Another student captured video, which I also shared on Instagram is below.
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A post shared by Laura Bain (@larubain) on Mar 27, 2017 at 11:46pm PDT

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Daily Recaps on Class Dojo

16/3/2017

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A lovely idea for Class Story on Class Dojo has come out of one of the classrooms of a late Class Dojo adopter. It is always pleasing as the Class Dojo Mentor to see people getting on board and having success. We now have all of our classes using Class Dojo on the Primary Campus.

This teacher has used Class Story to post his "Daily Recap". This is a great idea for combating the "What did you do at school today?" question parents often ask their children at the end of the school day. 

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I love how this idea makes learning transparent for parents but also how it makes students accountable for their own learning. 
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I'd love to hear about how other teachers are making use of Class Story. Please feel free to comment below!
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Technology will never replace great teachers, but technology in the hands of great teachers is transformational  -  George Couros
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