Classdojo for Parents

Classdojo is an online application used by teachers to communicate and share your child's learning experiences in the classroom. Classdojo can help parents feel connected to their child's classroom experience. Classroom teachers create a teacher account that allows them to add parents as account users. Some of the features of classdojo vary depending on how schools use but below are the main features often used by teachers.

Communicate

Classdojo allows for teachers to communicate with parents one-on-one or as a group to share individual student information or classroom activities. Once a parent creates their account and connects to the teacher account, they can message the classroom teacher at any time like text messaging. The application is also used to remind parents of upcoming events or activities such as field trips or classroom presentations.

1. Parents can view, like, and/or comment on any Class Story, School Story, or Portfolio posts in their newsfeed.

2. View their student’s Reports up to two weeks ago.

3. View and respond to Messages exchanged with teachers.

4. Update their Account Settings, which includes their basic information, login details, and language preference.

Translations

Classdojo has an excellent translation feature that allows teachers to connect with non-English speakers breaking the language barrier. The translation feature allows teachers to send individual messages in English that can be translated into a parent's native language once received. Parents are also able to send messages using their native language that can be switched to English on the teacher's side. Currently, 36 different languages are available in the classdojo application. The feature is often used to minimize the need to use interpreters to maintain ongoing communication with parents. Parents can take advantage of the translation feature to ask questions or communicate information about their child.

Parents can set their language preference by following the below instructions:

1. Click on your name in the upper right corner of the page

2. Select "Account Settings"

3. Under "Language preference," select your desired language

4. Click the blue "Save changes" button

Teachers can see when a parent has translated a Class Story post, by seeing "Translation viewed by X parents" beneath the post.

Teaching Tool

Some teachers use classdojo as an online teaching tool. Teachers can address parent's concern about homework or record short videos explaining how to do an assignment. Parents can play the videos to their child for assignment review or to assist with homework.

Classdojo's creators suggest that teachers can use classdojo Class Story feature for remote learning by...

• Recording up to 8-minutes in video lessons

• Posting announcements, challenges, and text updates

• Sharing links to learning sites to keep students practicing their skills

• Uploading attachments like worksheets and other printable for families to complete at home

• Sharing photos of curriculum or whatever, just to keep your kiddos feeling connected ;)

• Creating an Event and get your entire class together at the same time! Meet digitally through Zoom or Google Hangouts

Teachers use Portfolios for remote learning by...

• Sharing Activities to assign projects directly to student devices to which students can respond

• Encouraging students to create and upload photos, videos, drawings, and journal entries to share their learning experiences

• Allowing students to upload Microsoft Office files, PDFs, and image files of their work and submit voice recordings to explain their thinking

For more information on how to use classdojo as a parent go to: classdojo.com

adopted from classdojo.com