ClassDojo!

This is the second year that we've been using +ClassDojo at RMHS.  While it's not perfect, I really do love what it has to offer and what an awesome tool it is in our classrooms.  If you haven't checked it out yet, here's the link.

In my department, we've always struggled with how to best record students' use of Spanish in the classroom.  Up until last year, we went with the good ol' student roster printed on a clipboard to record their participation.  Every time we wanted to record a student's spoken Spanish, we found a pen and marked a +.  At the end of the unit, we'd count up all the marks and calculate a score.  Pretty old school, no?  Just the physical drawback of always having that same clipboard and piece of paper were enough to make the system stink, let alone the lack of teacher-student (and then family) communication.

The awesomeness of ClassDojo is that it allows students and their families to see in real time, from any internet-capable device how much Spanish the student is choosing to speak in class.  We've customized the behaviors so that we mark a positive point when a student speaks in Spanish and a negative point when a student chooses to speak English when she/he could have chosen Spanish.  Now when I want to mark a student's efforts, I simply click on his/her avatar on the ClassDojo app on my phone (or iPad or laptop) and away we go.  

While I'm not sure if using ClassDojo has increased student participation in Spanish, I do know that a) it has made my part a lot easier and b) it has increased the transparency of the whole process.  I want my students and their families to be involved in their education and to be able to understand exactly what I see from them in the classroom.  Instant feedback is such an amazing part of all the new technology that has been coming into our classrooms the last few years.  I'm really happy to have been introduced to this program.