Keep parents informed about their kids’ behavior and academic progress using this app. Record learner behavior and development; upload photos taken throughout the school day to this platform. Students can also add assignments to their portfolio with just one click. You can also send visually aesthetic reports to parents and staff members.

Website: https://www.classdojo.com/

What Users Love About the App

“Continuously evolving! I had previous experience with this software, but my son is older now, and his teachers no longer use this app/software. My youngest just started school, and I am pleased that his teacher uses ClassDojo! It is even better than I remember it and I was excited about it back then! The free version gives you the instant Real-Time Talk feature. This is like a text-type feature that allows you to talk back and forth with the teacher instantly. I have already used it three times in the first week of school! In addition, the free version gives you access to the dashboard where you can find your child’s “story.” In this section, the teacher can give points for good behavior such as “being ready to learn” and “staying on task.” There is a monster avatar that the children can use the points to buy features and accessories for. The dashboard also allows you to see class updates, photos, and announcements. The desktop version gives you access to all of the above features. If you download the app available for android as well as iPhones, you can award your child points at home for completing homework or other good behavior. The children can customize their monster, and you can set goals for the week. If you buy ClassdDojo Plus for less than eight dollars a month, you get even more features such as Progress Reports, unlimited points to award your child, and extra monster parts that your child can earn that are not available with the free version.”

“Class Dojo allows teachers to reward individual students (groups or whole class) positively, using points for good choices (e.g., stays on task, works cooperatively, shows kindness) as well as poor choices (e.g., playing during lessons, poor behavior in music class). Teachers can determine what good behaviors/habits they would like their students to demonstrate and set point goals to change their monsters (Class Dojo offers fun holidays, reading, and other monsters). They can message parents with a positive note or concern about using Android or online devices. Teachers don’t have to answer “How’s my child doing?” because parents can see behavior points in real-time. Class Dojo has a toolkit for playing, timer, group maker, and options to display items (directions, think-pair-share, or daily messages on interactive whiteboards).”

“This app was recommended to me to help with class participation in the classes I teach. I wanted to be able to keep track of what students were accomplishing. Here’s a list of things I wanted to keep track of: questions answered correctly/incorrectly, students helping each other, or asking insightful questions. I wanted to use this to help with formative assessments in my classes. I felt like documenting these things in real-time would give me data that would help me teach better, identify issues that students frequently had, and report information to parents or administrators if something came up.”

“There’s so much this software can do, so much good it can do. I will focus, however, on my favorite amenities. 1) This is the most important for me. I can use this program as a personalized classroom Facebook. To clarify, I can message parents about their child’s progress in real-time. I can send pictures and written updates of good work and proof of a flourishing student. I can also send evidence of children who need work focusing or causing distraction. I no longer need to send home notes that have a high chance of getting buried at the bottom of backpacks or simply get forgotten over the weekend. Instead, I can take a picture or copy the information and send it straight to the parent. This is especially important when reminding parents of upcoming conferences of IEPs. Better yet, the parent can reply right back to me. They can easily message me directly with questions. It’s also handy with alerting parents that there is homework or that a book still needs to be read—despite a child’s possible promise that they don’t have anything to do after school.”

“I like that parents can see how their child is doing in real-time. The app is very useful and be accessed from many different devices. The message feature is also nice because you can respond quickly to a message and not worry about sending an email. The message board is also a great way to keep a record of conversations that can be referenced later.”

“Class Dojo helps me communicate more effectively with parents that I don’t see often, and even the ones that I do! It’s set up like a social media site, making it easy and accessible to all parents. Via the app or the website, parents can private message me. When this happens, it will give me a notification on my phone. For example, “Joe will be arriving late today due to a doctor’s appointment,” and it gives me the option to private message them as well. Class Dojo also allows me to leave messages on the main board about our day or what the students are working on—this is all something parents can view. The program keeps track of who’s viewed what and gives the parent the option to like the post. I had the parents sign a photo waiver initially, and I am now able to post pictures of their child’s day. Whether it’s doing word work, or just being creative during art, I’m able to post a picture of their child doing something in class, which the parents wouldn’t normally have access to. There is also a daily points system for each child that is only accessible to that child’s parent to give them an idea of how they are behaving. I have chosen not to use this option since I have young, special needs kids. This feature is simple to use and gives options for the children’s points. The best thing about Class Dojo, in my opinion, is the ease of use. It’s easy to use and keeps parents informed of daily/weekly news.”

What Users Dislike About the App

“I wish there was a way to search through the message board to find certain conversations instead of having to read through the whole feed. A keyword search would be nice to pinpoint the conversation you are trying to recall. Another feature that would be nice is another way to connect with parents. Right now, you can print the codes or send a text to the parent. It would be nice for there to be an option for an automated call to go out to the parents as well as reminding them to sign up for their child.”

“I don’t have a con with the mechanics of the program or the amenities it provides. However, one part my students may not be overly fond of is that there is no privacy feature when I want to show one student how many points they have or how many offenses they have made—one student can see the points of all their classmates. It’s often too big of a secret to keep. A student with fewer points than their classmates may get a bit crestfallen at being behind while the students far ahead of their peers get distracted with gloating.”

“I used it for several years, and it was okay. Setting up the categories that I wanted to keep track of took some time, but it wasn’t too hard. I was able to copy categories among classes. I also found it somewhat easy to set up classes. Using it, however, wasn’t fast enough for me. I had to click 3-4 times to document one thing. I thought it would be quicker. I can see younger students finding it cute that the little icon wiggles before the pop-up appears. I wanted something faster, though. I never felt comfortable having my students or parents download it because it looks juvenile. I wish there were different themes to choose from. I wouldn’t be taken seriously as a teacher if they saw some of the art! I also wish I could have more flexibility with naming students and arranging them on the screen. Having them arranged like my seating chart would have helped a lot.”

“Class Dojo does need to add more “pictorial” icons (e.g., exercise, specials, Spanish, computer). These are icons that students see when the point is awarded. I try to use icons representing the behavior that I want students to model, but I often repeat icons. I encourage my students to participate in exercise/brain breaks every day, so I currently use a “mountain icon.” Students who show leadership choices see a badge.”

“Sometimes, it is a little tricky to set up the sharing of a classroom with other teachers. It would be nice to have a step-by-step set of directions to go along with Class Dojo. The directions are included, but it would be helpful if they were more concise.”