Write About It Wednesday: Class Dojo and Custom Planners

So I promised myself I'd start blogging, so here we go! :) I'm all about technology, so my goal is to share at least one technology resource every week, but hopefully I'll get better about blogging and I can share more than one a week!

Write About It Wednesday: Class Dojo & Custom Planners Edition

Do you use Class Dojo? Have you ever tried it? If not, you NEED Class Dojo in your life! It's such an amazing tool! I found it a few years ago when it had the basic function of tracking behavior, but it's become so much more and it's growing even more this month! 

So what can you do with Class Dojo? So much!! 

• Track Behavior: You can award positive, negative, and neutral points/warnings to students for all kinds of activities. You get to choose what activities deserve to receive positive and negative points. They can have a point value of anywhere from -5 through +5 including 0 which could be used as a warning. You can allow parents to see positive points, no points, or all points. 
• Parent Communication: You can post announcements and reminders to all parents. This helps eliminate the old fashioned newsletter! Or you can still post your newsletter to the wall as well. You can also communicate one-on-one with parents, just like you would with a text. You can also share photos and videos with parents on the whole class stories, or individually. 
• Toolbox: All of those tools we all love are in one place with Dojo. There is a timer, random student picker, group maker, noise meter, music, and 3 places to help post directions or questions including directions, think-pair-share, and today. These are all great places to get students more independent or following directions. All of these tools are available at all times. 

That's NOT it either! Do you talk about Growth Mindset with your students? Class Dojo has the most adorable videos to help students understand Growth Mindset and Mojo (see that adorable green guy up there, yup that's Mojo) is the star with all of his friends. They're short videos that help students understand what Growth Mindset is. 

The coolest new feature coming later this month is the Portfolios. Students will each have their own portfolio. They will be able to share their learning using photos, videos, drawing, journal entries, and more. Teachers will be able to approve and give feedback on things that the students post. Then parents will be able to view and comment on the things their own children post. The objects they post will be able to be organized into folders as well. 

There are so many other cool features, but these are the main ones. The best part of all of it is honestly their support staff. They are extremely aware of privacy concerns, and they'll always help out if a district or administration has concerns about privacy. Overall, it's a great piece of technology that combines so many aspects from other technology tools that are out there. It's nice to have everything in one place!

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Have you ever heard of a Happy Planner? Apparently it's all the rage with... everyone? I see them everywhere I go. Even Target has them! This is a Happy Planner:

I've always been an Erin Condren planner user. There's probably a post on this blog from years ago about how much I love the planner. The problem is, I hate writing in my plans. I feel like I'm doing twice the work. Insert, my own planner with the help of the Happy Planner punch and discs! By creating my own planner, I can type my own lesson plans, but still have the cute part of the Happy Planner. I am just finishing it, but I feel like I need more pages than just calendars and a checklist?!? 

What other pages do I put in it? I could sit here for days wondering (Note: I've already redone the colors, stickers, and overall theme of it 4 times. I'm pretty sure the mister is sick of my complaining about it!)