Getting the most from the Communication Tools in Class Dojo

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.

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

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.