Student Stories is here!!

Woohoo!!! I cannot wait to begin using this with my classes! I can already see how this is going to be a huge motivator and engagement tool for the kids in my particular context. They'll be so keen to share their work, that I imagine we'll have to get their families used to seeing rushed, messy, incoherent work at first! Whoops. But they'll soon realise this makes them even more accountable, so they better do a damn good job of it! 

Released today, families will be able to follow along with their child's learning, seeing their growth in real time, rather than just a few anecdotal reports here and there. It can be also be used as a prompt at home, for kids to share what they've learnt during the day (cos we all know how easily they forget things, unless it was that awesome Yu-Gi-Oh card they traded for...). We can move on from those conversations that probably go something like this:

Adult: Welcome home, kid! How was school today?
Kid: Meh...

I'm sure there are more words in the kid's response...

Not only that, but Student Stories is something that can be used easily by kids! You can continue doing whatever teachery things you're up to, whilst they log on and do it all themselves. Take photos, record videos, add in their own reflections and comments. Once approved by you, these will be instantly shared with their families. It opens up to students a sense of responsibility and enables them to take more ownership of their learning. They can quickly share their work, rather than waiting for you to display it, then dragging their families in to see it briefly after school.

From a specialist teacher's point of view, it also helps me to showcase what students are learning in my lessons. I don't get to see the families as often as their classroom teachers do, and opportunities to share work are often few and far between, usually at parent-teacher interviews or acquaintance afternoons. This is going to be super handy, as a lot of the lessons we do are hands-on, so at the end of the year, there isn't a lot of work in their books. Families would definitely be confused about that, wondering what their kid is learning when there's nothing to show for it.

Am definitely going to have to make sure my iPad is fully charged for each day! As if ClassDojo isn't already draining it enough with how it's used currently (not that that's a bad thing!), am probably going to have to plug it in when it's not in use (for those few minutes...).

Super exciting new feature! Head on over to Student Stories for more info :)

New to ClassDojo

Hi all! How've you been? Apologies for my lack of posts... Went overseas, where I had limited internet access. Upon returning home, I just got lazy. You know, where you get used to no internet, and re-discover life? But hey, that happens to everyone, right?  Riiight?

Well, all that aside, I am back now. And my holiday was pretty fantastic; thanks for asking!

So what's new in education for 2016? Let's start with ClassDojo! I am so pleased to share with you some new features of this amazing digital tool (honestly, I just love CD so much): School Story, and School Leader Accounts. As the names suggest, these features provide a school-wide approach to accessing and using ClassDojo. 

School Story builds on the already existing messaging feature, by allowing leaders and teachers to post and share photos, videos, and messages to all parents connected to the school. A great way to include parents in assemblies, share exciting news, reminders about important dates, like those pupil free days. And in our bid to create a more sustainable environment, this will save on so much printing and photocopying of those school newsletters that easily end up in the yard on the kids' way out. Sharing news through School Story also allows parents to instantly translate it into the language their most comfortable with, breaking down those language barriers. 

School leaders can now also create their own accounts, allowing them to share important moments with parents, through messages, photos, and videos.

Existing users, all you need to do is update your apps and voila, new features! And the rest of you... Sign up to ClassDojo now! What are you waiting for??

Introducing ClassDojo Translate

Firstly, a quick apology for my lack of blogging. I am not going to make excuses, and I won't make this long, because I have an exciting thing to talk about! But yes, I am sorry. It did occur to me on several occasions that I'd been slacking off, and had I done anything about it? Nope... But that's in the past, and we don't dwell on the past, do we? ;)

ClassDojo Translate

New feature time!!! Woohoo! So exciting. As the name suggests, ClassDojo has now introduced a translate feature, enabling families to translate announcements and messages into the language they are most comfortable with. 

While we may be teaching students in English, and they eventually leave school with a solid grasp of the language, that is not the case for everyone. Many families emigrate from non-English speaking countries, and some may have school-aged children who grew up speaking their mother-tongue. ClassDojo Translate breaks down language barriers and enables everyone to communicate with each other. Pretty nifty, yeah?

We all know that being able to engage families in education is pretty important, and CD has consistently been helping us along the way. We've been able to : connect families, without requiring e-mails or phone numbers; we can share with them their child's progress in class, and take snapshots of learning as it occurs; and now we're able to communicate more effectively. 

Currently, Translate is only available by accessing CD on the web. It'll soon be making it's way to Android and iOS. I hope you love this new addition to ClassDojo as much as I do, especially as this is one particular feature that addresses a matter I am too familiar with. 

Thanks for continuing to be awesome, ClassDojo!

Say hi to Class Story!

As of last Thursday (06-08-15), ClassDojo launched their latest feature: Class Story. It's a new, and fun way to share with everyone what you and your kiddos are up to! Class newsletters aren't so hard anymore. Reminders just got easier. Sharing success stories is even more exciting now. Wow!

Along with the usual text that you'd normally send, now you can include photos and videos too. You can still see which parents have read it, and they also have a heart to click on if they like a post. I do like that one.

What I most love about this feature is that I can send reminders with a picture! I do this because it takes away the "pestering" feel that reminders are often associated with. And you know what? You could get really creative and send newsletter items over Dojo. Saves you some time, but also ensures that everyone's going to read it!

As a specialist teacher, I love being able to communicate with parents who I don't get to see all that often. Sometimes though, I do wish I was back in the classroom so that I could implement some other amazing ideas I have (what do you mean? Of course they're amazing!). I'm sure the parents would love to see those! But alas, they shall have to keep dealing with my Science posts. Which really, aren't all that bad...

I do apologise that this is such a short post :( And I do remember that I promised more on Groups as well. So you know... They will come!!! In the mean time though, go get re-acquainted with Dojo :)

Twitter for Teachers

Part of my role as a ClassDojo Ambassador is to participate in and host Twitter chats. I was surprised by such a thing. Before this year, my experience of Twitter was that it's just another procrastination destination. I had created an account years ago, and never did anything with it. Until some months ago. Now I am hooked! It is an amazing platform for connecting with educators all over the world. I have learnt so much, and have definitely drawn inspiration from them.

There are so many Twitter chats you can join, and  also build your own PLNs. I am currently participating in #dojochatANZ, #aussieED, #asiaED, and #includEDau. Fantastic educators, and a range of topics each week.

Now, not to blow my own horn or anything, but I am super proud of #includEDau. Along with another Tweep (which I learnt is what you call Twitter users), whom I met through #dojochatANZ (see?? Networking, not time-wasting!), we started #includEDau as a chat to focus on students with disabilities, and to support educators in creating inclusive classrooms. We've only been live three weeks, but the feedback has been amazing! I never realised we would gain momentum so quickly. 

Anyway, just wanted to share that last little bit, hehe. But seriously, if you're an educator, I highly recommend it as a networking platform. Get out there, don't be afraid to ask questions. After all, aren't we life-long learners? Here's a reminder ;)

ClassDojo Groups

Could ClassDojo get any better? Of course!!! #growthmindset

I am so excited to share with you a new feature of this already amazing tech tool. CD now has a grouping feature, allowing teachers to group students for seating arrangements, reading, maths, abilities... Whatever you want!

I've already begun playing with this feature, and I must admit: I'm having tonnes of fun! It's great being able to group students. As a Science teacher, my students are almost always working in groups. Awarding points is now much easier, and it's so handy knowing who's meant to be in which group! Sometimes I forget, and the kids are able to slip one by me... And perhaps that's also because I cannot be bothered getting my lists out to see who's meant to be where... But now, with a click, or swipe, I can very easily do that, and it's not a hassle because CD is always open in my classroom! Whether it's on my desktop, phone, or tablet.

Here's what your desktop screen will now look like. At the top, you have two tabs: one for viewing your students, and the other for your groups. Attendance, Award Multiple, Random, and Timer are now at the bottom - handy for when I am getting shorter students to do those things for me!

OK... Before any of you accuse me of being obsessed, let me just say that while I was testing this feature, I didn't want to use any of my existing classes, because we were on holidays, and I didn't know what groups they'd be in for the following term. So I created a test class, and what better anime than Naruto?? They're already in groups! Shikamaru also happens to be my imaginary child, for when I need to try things with the parent account...

Anyway, moving along! You may have noticed that you can also see each student's monster when they're in a group. How nifty ^^

Another wonderful thing about this feature is that you can still award points individually. As you would normally, just select the student you'd like to award, and do so. To award points to a group, you simply select that particular group and then "Award Group". Easy. 

There's bound to be more posts as I get this up and running with my real classes, but this brief intro should have you sold anyway ;) So go check it out, have a play, and fall in love all over again :) You can also visit their page to learn more about ClassDojo Groups, which I can guarantee has much less Naruto-related content ^^;

ClassDojo and Children's University

Have any of you heard of Children's University? It's a great organisation that schools can become involved with, providing extra-curricular activities to broaden students' learning experiences and inspire them to continue studying after school. This is our school's second year with the program, but my first year. Students can earn hours for activities they participate in, and once they have enough hours, they get to graduate! Proper ceremony with gowns and mortar boards. Pretty cool! Anyway, this post isn't really about Children's University (CU). It's more about how ClassDojo can help you with Children's University.

You might be thinking that it's not really any different to how you may already be using CD. And I suppose if you wanted to, you could use it for tracking behaviours and encouraging particular skill sets. But my "light bulb's" (anyone get that reference??) a little different... Inspired by school holiday activities organised by CU, I came up with an idea of how I could link the two. After all, as an Ambassador, isn't it kind of my job to do this? Have ideas and share them? If you know me at all, you'd realise how hard the first part of that job requirement is for me to do, haha. But I had one! And now I can share it :)

So by now, I've created a class called "Children's University". The names of all participating students are listed in there. This part is all the same, as if you were creating a new class. The only thing I might pick on (sorry, CD), is that there isn't a "multiple" option for selecting a grade. CU is open to kids aged 7-14, so you can imagine that there are many grades within this class. I just selected 7, as that's the highest our school goes to.

This is where things change a little. Instead of having behaviours and skills, my "Positives" became activities the students can participate in, each weighted at 1 point, to represent 1 hour. These are activities run at school by our lovely teachers (thanks!). I have also got one called "Holiday Program", which is for when students attend one of the activities organised by CU, obviously in the holidays. These are often held at the participating university, hence the mortar board icon. This is weighted at 4, again, to represent the number of hours students can earn. You may have noticed two other activities. These are called "Other" because students can also earn hours for participating in sports, and attending other CU certified events, not necessarily run by CU, or our school. These are weighted at 5 and 1, to help add on tonnes of hours! Very handy, as one particular child racks up at least 10 "Other" hours per week! In the comments, you can write what those activities were, which is very handy!

Now the whole reason I started a CD class for CU wasn't actually for recording their hours, because when signing up to CU, students are given a learning passport, which you stamp for their hours (how fun!). I created a class because I really wanted to use the messaging feature. Oh how I love this part of CD! Sometimes, students forget that they've returned forms to attend school holiday programs, and so I thought: "I wish I could remind them closer to the date, rather than continually pester them on the last day of school..." And that's when I had my light bulb moment. I CAN do that! Duh! Using ClassDojo. At the time, I thought I was rather clever for thinking of that, haha. All these students are already familiar with CD, as I use it in Science, and some of their parents have accounts, so it wouldn't really be that hard to introduce it to the rest of the CU cohort.

Now that I've done that, I can send reminders about activities and events, and students can also check how many hours they've got, if they ever forget to bring their passport to an activity. As I have CD on my phone, it's with me all the time, so even if we can't stamp their passports there and then, we can at least record the hour(s) on CD, and stamp it later. How ingenious! Perhaps I should talk to some CU people about this, hehehe.

So now, I shall write up some letters and attach each parent's code, and hopefully after the first few weeks of school returning (10 days of holidays left), we'll have everyone signed up and ready to be bombarded with reminder messages! And also photos of their kids participating in the activities. I am so excited to get this up and running!!! I only wish I had thought of it sooner.