Wednesday 10 October 2012

Whole Brain Teaching Wednesday: Class Dojo Tutorial

     Have you been seeing posts around blog-land about the classroom management website, Class Dojo? While I didn't see an immediate need to check it out, the website's cute little characters drew me in and I knew I had to see what all the fuss was about. As I started exploring around some of the features I immediately began thinking of how this could be customized to create a super cute, interactive, WBT Scoreboard!!
using Class Dojo for whole brain teaching, whole brain teaching, WBT the scoreboard, the scoreboard

     If you're naturally drawn to tech stuff this might be perfect for your classroom or, as Coach B often mentions, this could be the perfect thing to have in your back pocket to bring out when things need to be refreshed! The following is step-by-step tutorial of how you might set it up:

whole brain teaching, class dojo, classdojo, wbt, the scoreboard
 1 ) "Try it right now" / "Sign Up"
-Click on either one as it will
  take you to the same form






_____________________________________________________________

whole brain teaching, class dojo, classdojo, wbt, the scoreboard

2 ) Fill in You Information
- This is a pretty standard form

- Make sure you select that you are
  a teacher.











_____________________________________________________________

whole brain teaching, class dojo, classdojo, wbt, the scoreboard










3 ) Tour Time! 
- Take some time to explore the different features of the site
- Any changes you make to any behaviours will be under the "Demo Class"
  and will need to be redone when the tutorial is over and you make your own class
 _____________________________________________________________















4 ) Create Your Own Class
- You can make as many classes as you want so it works perfect if see
   multiple sets of students every day!
* Explore through the icon options  to pick one that reflects your class
 _____________________________________________________________

whole brain teaching, class dojo, classdojo, wbt, the scoreboard










5 ) Begin Working on Your Class
- On your dashboard you should now see your "Demo Class" from the tour
   and the class you've just created
- Click on "Start" to begin working on the set-up for your specific class
 _____________________________________________________________

whole brain teaching, class dojo, classdojo, wbt, the scoreboard
  









6 ) Add Students
- The very first thing you'll be asked to do is to add students to your class.
- Put in students name and add them to your class by hitting enter. 
- You can modify their avatar by clicking the drop-down menu and dragging photos
  onto the students picture
- Hit "Save & Close" at the bottom of the screen when done
 _____________________________________________________________

whole brain teaching, class dojo, classdojo, wbt, the scoreboard










7 ) Edit Your Class Specifics
- After adding students you will be taken back to your dashboard
- This time, click on "Edit class" which will allow you to edit the specifics of your
   classroom like behaviours
 _____________________________________________________________

whole brain teaching, class dojo, classdojo, wbt, the scoreboard








8 ) Edit Behaviours
- Now that we have students we can now edit the behaviours.
- To really customize this for a WBT classroom I suggest deleting all
  of the suggested behaviours so we can add our own.
- You can delete a behaviour by clicking on it and selecting "Delete" 
   under the "Save" button.
- Once the behaviours are clear you can click on the box to "Add your
   own". Make sure to play around with the pictures too!
- Here are the ones I created:

whole brain teaching, class dojo, classdojo, wbt, the scoreboard








- Once you have created the positive behaviours that you want you
  can then click on the "Negative" button to edit the negative behaviours.
- Repeat the same steps as before to create appropriate negative behaviours
  that fit in with your class. 
- Here are the ones I created:
whole brain teaching, class dojo, classdojo, wbt, the scoreboard
- Hit "Save & Close" at the bottom of the screen when done 
 _____________________________________________________________ 

whole brain teaching, class dojo, classdojo, wbt, the scoreboard 
9 ) Begin Using Your New "Scoreboard" 
- When you start up your class you should now see all of your students
   and you can begin using Class Dojo as your "Scoreboard"!
 _____________________________________________________________ 

whole brain teaching, class dojo, classdojo, wbt, the scoreboard
 10 ) Award Points to Students
- To award a Scoreboard point to your students hit "Award Multiple Students" 
   at the top of the screen (see picture in Step 9)
- Select all of the students in your class (but NOT yourself) and then hit "Give 
  Award" at the top of the screen
whole brain teaching, class dojo, classdojo, wbt, the scoreboard
- Select the award you want to give based on the positive behaviours you
   set up previously
whole brain teaching, class dojo, classdojo, wbt, the scoreboard
- The GREAT thing is that when students are awarded a point a screen
  pops up on the screen briefly which is PERFECT for a 1-second party!
 _____________________________________________________________
 
whole brain teaching, class dojo, classdojo, wbt, the scoreboard
11 ) Award Points to the Teacher (Yourself) OPTION #1
- If you have made yourself part of the class (like I did as you can see in
  the photos in Step 10), you can award yourself a point simply by clicking on
  your character individually
- A BIG difference this time is that now you hit the negative behaviours that
  are appropriate for why you are getting a point. In this example, I am awarding
  myself a point on the Scoreboard because the students have "Continued to Talk
  After Class-Yes"
whole brain teaching, class dojo, classdojo, wbt, the scoreboard
- You can see now that the students have 1 point and the teacher has 1 point and 
  you can continue to use the scoreboard in this fashion throughout the class
 _____________________________________________________________

whole brain teaching, class dojo, classdojo, wbt, the scoreboard
12 ) Award Points to the Teacher (Yourself) OPTION #2
- If you do not want to make yourself part of the class there is another way to
  award teacher points to yourself
- To award a negative Scoreboard point to your students hit "Award Multiple Students" 
   at the top of the screen (see picture in Step 9)
- Select all of the students in your class and then hit "Give 
  Award" at the top of the screen
whole brain teaching, class dojo, classdojo, wbt, the scoreboard
 - Under "Negative" select the award you want to give based on the negative behaviours 
  you set up previously
whole brain teaching, class dojo, classdojo, wbt, the scoreboard

- Again, the GREAT thing is that when students are awarded a point a screen
  pops up on the screen briefly which is PERFECT for a "Mighty-Groan!"
- You'll notice that the students now have no point bubbles next to their names
  where they previously had green 1 point bubbles. Their negative point has
  cancelled out the positive point that they previously earned. 
  _____________________________________________________________

whole brain teaching, class dojo, classdojo, wbt, the scoreboard
13 ) Determining a Scoreboard Winner
- If you used Option #1 and made yourself part of the classroom then it will be
  clearly displayed who won the Scoreboard game by who has more points next
  to their names. If you see above, the students have won with 3 points as I only
  have 2 points.
- If you used Option #2 you want to hit "End Class" at the top left of the screen
  when your class is done and/or when that specific Scoreboard round is done.

whole brain teaching, class dojo, classdojo, wbt, the scoreboard
- Once a class is done you will be able to see the results for the "Whole Class"
   as well as for each individual student
- Make sure you set your range for "Today" so your results don't include information
  from a previous day's class!
- If you see above, the students have won as they had (all together) 24 positive points
  and only 16 negative points
_____________________________________________________________

     If you play around with it, Class Dojo, has so many options that you can modify to make it fit your WBT classroom's needs! This tutorial shows the steps that I came up with while I was first looking at it but I'm sure once you are used to the options you could use it for even more WBT strategies! Perhaps you could use it to include Independents, if needed, or be used as part of the Super Improvers Wall for those students whose goals may fit in with the behaviours you have programmed in.

     What other ways can you think of to use Class Dojo with WBT?

To learn more about Whole Brain Teaching, visit their website
To learn more about the WBT strategy of the Scoreboard, see my previous post or visit this Whole Brain Teaching article.


** I wrote this tutorial out of personal interest and was not approached by Class Dojo to promote their website.

13 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  2. While we appreciate the tremendous amount of work involved in this tutorial, we will soon be launching a competing product as an IPhone and IPad app. We won't be able to advertise Class Dojo on our website forum. Thanks enormously for all your outstanding contributions to WBT!
    Coach B

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Coach B,

      Thank you for taking the time to view my tutorial. It was never my intention for this tutorial to be used as an advertisement for the website which is why I chose to include a disclosure at the bottom that stated:
      "I wrote this tutorial out of personal interest and was not approached by Class Dojo to promote their website."

      I personally found the website to be quite neat and couldn't help but think of how it could be used with WBT. I created the tutorial as an option that people may use if they thought it could fit in with their classroom's needs.

      Sorry for any confusion this may have caused!

      Delete
  3. You have excellent tutorial writing skills, Miss L! I didn't take this as an ad. There was a webinar last night by Laura Candler and this was one of the sites reviewed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Carolyn! The website is very user-friendly and I can see a lot of people using it to meet the needs of whatever strategies they are using in their classroom

      Delete
  4. Hi Miss L - Kalen from ClassDojo here. On behalf of the entire ClassDojo team...thank you so much for this great post. We really appreciate your support :)

    Please let us know if there's ever anything we can do for you from here! And let us know if you'd be interested in being featured on our new ClassDojo stories page - www.classdojo.com/stories - think lots of teachers could benefit from hearing your story! My email is kalen@classdojo.com

    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much Kalen for stopping by my blog and leaving such a supportive comment. If there is anything I need I will be sure to get in touch :)

      Delete
  5. I am your newest follower! I love using ClassDojo and I am very interested in Whole Brain Teaching. Thanks for posting!
    Teach to be Happy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Marianne! Thank you so much for following and taking the time to comment :)

      Delete
  6. I really appreciate this tutorial... as someone who loves Class Dojo and wants to implement WBT this year, this has been very helpful. I saw the WBT Scoreboard app at the National Conference. While I like it, I wouldn't be able to access it on the computer or project it on a whiteboard which is a drawback for me. I'm going to have to give it some serious thought.

    Love your blog!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Melanie, I'm glad that you found the tutorial helpful :) While the WBT Scoreboard app is more WBT-specific (being specifically designed for them and what not), Class DoJo does seem to have a bit more flexibility in regards to having it on the computer, on the white board and it can even be shared on a classroom blog/website/etc. I hope you find the option that works best with your class, good luck!

      Delete
  7. Not everyone has an iphone or ipad. I use Class Dojo on my android tablet. All your work is very appreciated.

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  8. I REALLY appreciate this tutorial on using it with Class Dojo! I love the idea of Class Dojo with my tech savvy students and parents. I have been conflicted as what to do since so many ideas from WBT appeal to me...even if there is an app for WBT I appreciate the flexibility that Dojo would offer teachers on using a variety of devices. So thank you sincerely for including this on your blog!!

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Thank you for commenting!