LAURA BAIN
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Contact

Getting the most from the Communication Tools in Class Dojo

1/3/2018

0 Comments

 
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.
Picture
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

Picture
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.
​
Picture
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. 
​
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.
​
DO: Use it for quick text reminders instead of posting them to the Class Story.
​
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.
Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Laura's Blog

    Read all about my thoughts on teaching in the 21st Century, my experiences with technology in the classroom, running a Maker Space, launching STEAM and Design Thinking with students, coding, robotics and much more!
    Keep up to date by subscribing below!


    Email Updates

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    RSS Subscription

    Click the button below:
    Subscribe

    RSS Feed


    Archives

    July 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    August 2016
    June 2016
    June 2015
    November 2014


    Categories

    All
    Apple
    Applications
    Apps
    AR
    Assessment
    Badges
    Binary
    Class Dojo
    Code Club
    Coding
    Computer Science
    Devices
    Digital Ink
    Digital Technologies Curriculum
    ESafety
    Events
    Forms
    Holidays
    ICT Capabilities
    Ideas
    Leadership
    Learning Environments
    Lego
    LittleBits
    Microsoft
    Mindfulness
    NAPLAN
    National Science Week
    OneNote
    Ozobots
    Reporting
    Robots
    Science
    Social Media
    Sphero
    STEAM
    STEM
    Teacher Tools
    Tips

Home
About
Contact
Technology will never replace great teachers, but technology in the hands of great teachers is transformational  -  George Couros
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Contact