App 1: ClassDojo
ClassDojo is an application that allows teachers to better manage their classrooms and interact with their student's parents and guardians. It allows the teacher to reward behavior points, either good or bad to students. You can also take attendance, and email or message parents. It also provides an overview of that classes general behavior for the day.
The first step in ClassDojo is to create your class.
The first step in ClassDojo is to create your class.
In the first box you enter the name of your class. In the second box you select your grade level, and in the third box you select the subject of the class. Once you create your class you can then determine the number of students and the different types of good and bad behaviors you want to use.
After you select the number of students you want, you simply type their name into the box at the top and it automatically assigns them all a unique avatar. You can then edit the different behaviors you want to be able to choose from, or you can use ClassDojo's standard set (which are the behaviors listed in the photo).
As the day progresses, you can add both good and bad behaviors to a students profile. This either adds or subtracts points from a student. You can select these behaviors multiple times if a child is consistently good in one area or bad in another.
You can then send these progress reports to a student's parent to give them a daily, or weekly overview, of their child's behavior in class. You can also take attendance in the app.
The app appears to be geared more towards an elementary or middle school setting but I feel this app would also benefit a high school social studies classroom. I know from experience that parents start to communicate less with their child's teacher as they reach high school. However this app gives teachers a way to keep parents in the loop without having to constantly be scheduling parent-teacher conferences. Since this app also allows a teacher to directly message a parent, it is possible to inform the parent of behavioral problems that their student might be having. This app is definitely something that I will be using in my future classroom.