ClassDojo

Get your Mojo with....

    WHY use Class Dojo? 

The answer to this question is actually quite a simple one. What’s a teacher’s first job at the beginning of a new school year? Yes ! To establish and foster a community of learners. Class Dojo is a great way to help establish a community in your class. It lets students know you are a connected unit with parents and the school. Moreover, with the student “charts” you can have students self-reflect on their behavior and their attitudes towards learning. This will help them to build an eternal desire to learn and work hard toward their goals.

So HOW does it work?

Classdojo is a free online behavior management website that teachers can use. The sign up is generally easy and classdojo is very user friendly, even for those who aren't big "techies".

You can watch my How-To Demonstration here:

http://screencast.com/t/deJPHWeun2

WHAT does ClassDojo do?

Classdojo has a wide array of uses. 

1. Behavior Management - classdojo's main use is for classroom management. It is a point system for your classroom, that includes both positive and "needs work" points. The rewards and consequences are left up to you.

2. Attendance - Along with free management , class dojo has an option to take attendance. This works fabulous for me. In our district we have to take AM and PM attendance, but sometimes it can be hard to remember, especially when you can't pull up infinite campus right away. However, I always have Dojo open so I can mark students Present, tardy, or absent as need be and refer back to it when I need to do my attendance. 

3. Growth Mindset - I am huge supporter and advocate of growth mindset. Teaching students that their intelligence isn't pre-determined is essential to their success. Class Dojo offers videos of their main monsters- Katie and Mojo - overcoming challenges and learning to have a growth mindset. And YES these videos are FREE.

4. Parent Communication - Parent and teacher communication is needed for a successful school year. Dojo offers a messaging system in which you can connect with parents who have downloaded the app or signed up online. It is a great and simple way to stay communicated. Parents may ask about the points, such as why a student is losing or gaining points. Moreover, with 'Class Story' you can add events and pictures to a time line in a 'facebook' type of manner. 

Helpful Backup Resources

Helpful Resources for your Teacher Tool-belt

            As educators we also need resources we can reach out when in need of ideas! I've gathered some of my favorite resources, some provide free sources, others require a subscription. 

Teachers pay Teachers is exactly what it claims to be - an open marketplace for educators. If you are struggling to find passages for a standard, or need forms for your teacher binder, or even if you need vocabulary posters for your classroom, you can find it at TPT. You must create an account, but the account set up is free. However, not all the resources are free. Either this is a great resource, and it can be trusted because the documents truly come from educators doing the same thing as you! Best of all, if you are good at creating centers or documents, you can upload your ideas for sale!

Turtle Diary is another great website. The account set up is free, however if you don't want you don't have to use an account to get the resources. Turtle Diary provides various videos for ELA, Math, and science. Along with videos it provides worksheets and interactive games for students. I've used this website mainly for the videos, it has great videos on life cycles, carrying with grouping, vowels, and much more. I've provided an example of one their videos. The videos are great for an introduction to a lesson. 

One last resource I'd like to share is Super Teacher Worksheets, as you can tell by the name super teacher is a collection of worksheets. Although for access to all of the worksheets you must pay a subscription fee. There are many free worksheets for different skills though. I personally use super teacher to get an idea of worksheets, I have created many worksheets myself based on the layout and content of the super teacher worksheets. I have also used some of the worksheets for homework or small group work. 

Other General Resources

Read Works: http://www.readworks.org/ 

Tumble Books: https://www.tumblebooks.com/ 

Story Line online: http://www.storylineonline.net/ 

Reading A-Z:https://www.readinga-z.com/ 

History for kids: http://www.historyforkids.net/

Science Kids: http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/

Discovery Education: http://www.discoveryeducation.com/teachers/

Math Resources

Common Core Math

  We are all aware of the rigor that common core brings. And I feel as though, math is often put on the back burner. Recently a new law has passed that requires students to "read by 3." This implementation means that a lot of focus will go into ELA standards and math will be left in the dark. 

BUT !!

It doesn't have to be! I have some great resources to share with you. 

Zearn.org is a great website which is free. You can sign up and add student accounts. Perhaps choose students who need the extra instruction and have them log on to complete work after your math lesson. You can also set up accounts for students and use it as a center. Or best of all, you can use it whole group! It has videos for each standard (lesson) and interactive problem solving, as well as number talks and sprints!

Khan Academy is very similar to Zearn. In which you can set up students account or use whole group. However Khan is more centered on skill rather than standard (ex. Addition with carrying v.s 2.O.A.3)

Engage New York has an entire curriculum set up for math. Broken down into Modules for each standard. Each Lesson is complete with Number Talks, Sprints, Concept Development, Problem Set, Debrief, Exit Ticket, and Homework. A really great resource if you are wondering how to teach a standard or where to get rigorous problem sets for students. 

Meet the Blogger

Ms. Carey

Hello, my name is Teresa Carey! I'm a 2nd year teacher, teaching 2nd grade at Crestwood Elementary. 

I graduated NSC in 2014 with a degree in Elementary Education with a concentration in Special Education. I have returned to NSC in 2015/2016 to complete a technology endorsement. After my endorsement, I hope to continue my education with a Master's. I would like to become an instructional coach. Teaching is my passion, but as I've come to grow with technology I want to see it develop and progress in our classrooms. 

 I have come to learn a lot being in the classroom; the ups and the downs. Through this blog I hope I can be of help to any teacher struggling to find resources for certain subjects, or easier ways to organize and deal with documents.

I hope you enjoy my blog & I look forward to sharing ideas with you all! 

Learning...

Update: 3/30/16

It appears I didn't understand the difference between a post and page. Interesting concepts indeed. 

I will upload my original "Pages" and "Posts."