A Parent’s Review of ClassDojo

Hi Alesha,
My son recently started at a new school that uses ClassDojo. I am not a fan. My son hates it. He has never been a bad kid and has received great behavior grades in the past. He is now receiving low behavior grades with this new behavior system. Our school uses a standards based report card. She equates at 80 to a 2 on a 4 point scale. He is penalized for not concentrating on his work if the teacher sees him look up from his paper- even if he is thinking about the answer. The system allows the teacher to say he did not follow class rules but is not specific about which one of the 12 she has. He is never found to be disrupting the class/other students. He completes his work. However, he is getting a poor behavior grade. He says the noises ClassDojo make are distracting and make it hard for him to stay on task. When student hear the sound they look to see who received a positive or negative point. I receive more feedback on my child's behavior than I do his class work! While I agree a teacher must have control of her class, there are more effective less distracting ways to do so. Consider getting rid of the negative points and only rewarding good behavior.

With every tool, there's always a positive and negative. Like adults, kids wear different hats. A child behaves well at home but can be less than their best at school. Poor behavior can impact learning your child's learning or someone else's learning.If this really bothering you, then you ought to have an honest conversation with the teacher and child to get the full story. Remember, a child can do great work but his behavior can impact others negatively. That's not fair to other students. This app is no different than the behavior charts used in school. Also when you think about it, what message does it send to the child when you only accentuate the positive? Children also need to know that they can do better. Let's be honest, as a parent, no one wants to hear that their child is not doing their very best. I use the app to message may children's teacher. If there's a question I have, all I do is ask for clarification or ask for an appointment to speak with them. It's best to have an honest conversation with both parties, you may see things in a whole new light. If not, then it's time to come up with an alternate viable solution to control behavior so that parent, child and teacher can live with.

I absolutely do not like ClassDojo!! That being said, I do believe it has some positive value in helping to remind students about their behavior. What I really dislike is the inconsistency. My son's teacher (he's in 3rd grade) is basing her conduct scores on ClassDojo. However, some weeks she may give lots of points and other weeks next to none. My son, for the first time ever, and only in his teacher's class but not other classes, received a 2 for conduct (of 1, 2 or 3). She will give some students points for being on time but not other students. My son received points one time when he was home sick! Several weeks ago my son earned 22 positive points and 4 negative points which resulted in an 84%. Why are the negatives so heavily weighted? Last week my son received 2 positive points and 2 negative points all week. He received a 50. There are many days when the teacher doesn't give any points at all...if a child doesn't get negative points it stands to reason that he/she should be getting some positive points but instead gets nothing. To base a conduct grade on a system that is so inconsistently and arbitrarily used is ridiculous. I think ClassDojo could be a useful tool but I don't think conduct grades should be based upon this point system when it's basically unfair because it's entirely up to the teacher how she/he decides to give out points.

Hi Alesha,
The thing I did not like about Class Dojo is that my child’s behavior was equated to a number and for a month my child did not pass 67%. PERSONALITY (British dictionary definition) – 1. (Psychol) the sum total of all the behavioral and mental characteristics by means of which an individual is recognized as being unique. I felt that Class Dojo’s role model is Commander DATA (in the Star Trek TV series) and my child was being equated to him (an Android with a brain composed of zeros and ones). Since my child is below thirteen years of age and still under COPPA (Child’s Online Privacy Protection Act) I emailed the Class Dojo Tech to erase all of my child’s data in their servers/computer and I also requested for a new teacher (one that does not use Online Behavioral program). Now my child and I are back to a normal, worry-free and a happy relationship.

I do not like Class Dojo.. As with any tool it has potential to do go and bad. In the hands of a good teacher it seems to work well. My concern is that in the hands of a teacher that is negative that all they would report is the negative thus giving the student a label that they are unable to shake off. My sons school seems to use the negative approach, instead of the "catch them doing something good" and the lack of specific bad or good behavior feedback is frustrating to both my son and I. It seems like a unnecessary tech gadget that complicates communication between students, parents and teachers. Whatever happened to a simple phone call, note or a well said great job? With all the things that teachers have to do this seems like another distraction.

I am concerned that the multiple negative percentages my daughter received throughout the year, has negatively affected her desire to do better in the classroom. In many instances where she strived to get 100% for the day, she has fallen short. When she falls short, it seems as though she's giving up and cannot please the Class Dojo system. Days where she received 100% positive, I excitedly asked her what made the difference? She explains that she just sits there and doesn't talk all day. Those days, she appears sad and expresses that she didn't enjoy school that day. Although, I understand the importance of paying attention, and not becoming a disruption to others, this system seems to fail at taking into account that these are 8 and 9 year old children. Not robots. I would prefer that my child learn to have self control (a developed life-skill) within her own conscience, as opposed to accountability to a computerized program. I may have a chronic, Chatty Cathy on my hands, but I always encourage her to do her best and have a good day. She has always been a leader in the classroom and excels above the majority, in every area. I truly believe that Dojo has caused her to strive less. No one wants to feel below par. It seems that teachers could also, do something more constructive with their time. Hopefully, something with positive and lasting results.

Hello Alesha,
My son has been "experiencing" Class Dojo for 2 years now. In second grade it generally worked, and as a well-behaved kid he rarely received negatives - but when he did the tears, oh the tears! He got hardwired to the "bing" sound, however, and it became a negative experience awaiting the ticks on his avatar. Was it for me? Was it good? Was it bad? He stated focusing more on that than his work! In third grade now, the make-up of his class has changed. There are many new faces, and students with behavioral and emotional issues have been placed in his class (long story). I've been helping in the classroom as things have gotten so wild, and I can tell you some kids flat out don't care if they get less that 10%. One kid laughed and said red was his favorite color anyways! It works only if kids and parents care. Sensitive kids will still get anxious, though.
One other consideration: as hard as it is for some people to believe it, not every person in the world has a computer in the home or on a phone (or even a cell phone at all!) and hence, regular access to email and Dojo. I've told both past and present teachers we do not have regular, prompt access, but they both persist(ed) in sending time-sensitive class notifications via the computer only. This system leaves out those who lack a computer due to finances or choice.

Miss Otten, I would like to know how Jerome Abraham has been doing please!!!

I'm a parent and it's an awful system. One day in the future people will look back on Class Dojo and the "marble jar" and think we were in the dark ages the same way we look back at teachers who slapped hands with rulers. The only tool it gives teachers is allowing lazy teachers who haven't learned anything about empathy to manage behavior. I noticed a comment below that said with every tool there is a positive and a negative. The only people who think that's true are negative people. We have been using empathy to parent our children and never used reward/punishment and timeouts, etc. It's worked wonderfully and our kids are very loving and love us. The truly loved teachers are the only who don't use things like Class Dojo. Read this and you may change your mind: http://www.teachingace.com/thinking-about-classroom-dojo-why-not-just-tase-your-kids-instead/

I am a parent, and have seen this tool in use for a year now. It is for teachers who do not wish to connect with their students. I find no value in the tool It allows for public shaming of students. It has no basis other than teacher perception and favoritism. Teachers do not publicly post test scores so why would they publicly post behavior scores? The positive and negative feedback is not consistent and does not change students in a positive way. My son avoids this teacher. Asking a question can lead to a negative mark for not following directions. So he does not ask questions, and does not learn to his potential in this class. He tries to survive the experience and that is not how a classroom should be run. Students make fun of others during breaks that received low marks. What a way to take a student that may be struggling and have them give up. If teachers want to work on classroom behavior, try talking to your students and interacting with them. Don't use a pavlovian method of classroom bullying.

The teacher which uses the tool loves it. She can shame and bully students every class. There were teachers that loved paddling students in class. That did not make it an appropriate classroom tool.

My son's teacher uses this and myself and several other parents I have spoken to really don't find it to be of any benefit to our children's learning or behaviour. It puts extra stress on the children and has to be time consuming for the teacher especially as she does it in realtime for all the students. I really thing the teachers attention should be more on what's going on in their classroom and actually teaching the children

I love class dojo

As an educator I would suggest using ClassDojo as more of an instant and individual communication tool with parents. I still use the point system with the kids to build "community." We try to increase our overall percentage, but I have never placed an emphasis on each child's individual points. I communicate with parents through ClassDojo and it works for me.

It makes me sad that teachers are using this tool the wrong way. I am a teacher and I use this as a tool in my classroom, not to punish kids but to draw attention to behavior choices that are fantastic. It is also a great parent communication tool-it lets my families send me a text message if they have questions, and also allows me to broadcast an update to all who have the app. The kids have to do something petty drastic to lose points. I have never had anything but positive feedback-but I also don't use this as part of a "behavior grade." This is simply meant to be a tool-no, teachers do not need an app to manage a class, it is simply a more engaging way to do it, with instant parent updates. Teachers may reset points on this system as little or much as they like, and they can choose what to give or take them for. And no, it doesn't need to be used on a smartboard, or with the sound on-I use mine on a tablet, and while students know if they get points, it doesn't take away from our learning. I hope more teachers figure out how to use this tool in a more positive way!

I love it.

G GB

this app was introduced to my daughter's 1st grade class and I love it.

I love classdojo I believe it helps children stay focused on acting properly as well as holding the parents and children accountable for their actions.if your child is following the rules they have nothing to worry about parents need to stop making excuses for their children.

as a dad I travel and when I check to see what is happening with DOJO, it doesnt report the correct day. For example, It reports behavior for a day that didnt happen yet. I travel to Asia and Asia is one day ahead of U.S. time . The programmers need to fix the problem ,,

I'm a parent of a third grader whose teacher uses Class Dojo. So far I am unimpressed. What concerns me is the amount of time a teacher must be spending each day plugging in data on their i-phone or other device for every single student. This must have an impact on the teacher's ability to stay focused on teaching. After reading some of the comments from the other parents, I now have even more concerns about its use. The one thing that I do find useful about this app, though, is that it provides a great way for me to send messages to the teacher.

My son is in 3rd grade and this is our first encounter with Classroom Dojo. I am NOT a fan. I feel like my son keeps getting negative points every few minutes. I get a general idea of his "bad" behavior such as "Not making a smart choice" or"Disrespect". When my son comes home and I ask him what happened he says...I'm not sure what I did wrong today. I would love to know what the teacher considers to be "not making a smart choice" or "Disrespect". My son used to LOVE school; he's gone to the Nurses office 4 times this year with a stomach ache wanting to come home. The school year just started!! We have only ever heard what a great kid he is, sweet, kind, good hearted. We are absolutely floored by the negative points he keeps getting.

I love this DOJO app. I look at it several times a day to feel like it is a good way to see how my son is doing. For me it is a good indicator and drives positive conversations at home. It is also a great way to communicate with his teacher.

My son started kindergarten this year and his teacher uses this app. There are 22 children in his class and I get anywhere from 5-7 posts a day about his behavior. So far all have been good (I'm glad) however, I'm very concerned that all the teacher is doing is spending time on her phone or device updating information! I'm not receiving any information on how he is doing with his actual work or education just behavior! He gets a homework sheet that needs to be turned in monthly and he told me that the words on the sheet are not even gone over in class and they rarely write any letters except their own name. With 22 kids and posting 5 -7 times a day per child what else is she doing??? The only thing I really like is the way to send messages and communicate quickly with her.

Our school district started using ClassDojo two weeks ago. My husband and I are not a fan of this and cannot understand how teachers can't see the damage this can do to a student. My child had 33% negative last week and 43% negative this week. No phone calls from the school or no emails to explain why. Our child's behavior is at 43% negative for the week and as parents we are thinking she must have done something drastic to be labeled having bad behavior almost half the time and wouldn't we be contacted about it so we could talk with our child. It is silly to think that this system is the same as using the punch card method or being moved from green to yellow to red on a traffic light. If a child doesn't do their homework and gets a punch on their card they have a consequence and will try harder next time. If a child does this in a classroom using ClassDojo a teacher can take off points and the child is at 43% negative for the entire day. Imagine what this looks like to a child. Why even try for the rest of the day because positive points are only added at the teachers discretion. Doesn't matter if your child is good the rest of the day. What if a teacher doesn't like your child? What if the teacher was too tired to enter something positive. How do teachers even have time for this app? This system is not across the board or fair for all students. Is our child's personal info shared with this app. Does it violate The Childs Privacy Protection Act? The only good thing about the app is being able to communicate with the teacher but we could already do that with an email or a phone call.

I don't no what the parent code is

dojo for kids without logging in

As other have commented before me, I am not a fan of this app. The behavior points are assessed in real time. I was checking this app daily until I realized all this app does is micromanages their behaviors. My child has not had any behavioral issues before in her other school, so why now? Children are not perfect 100 % of the time and I feel this magnifies if they are having a bad moment.
Personally I choose to look at overall behaviors, is there a trend, to what magnitude was the issue? There is no explanation of the behavior, just a red glaring piece of a pie chart. Also I wonder if this has been cleared through the school board to use.

how do you get class dojo with out signing in

this will be great

The one stop. This 6th of March and April and I will not be published on Mon

Hi there love this game because sometimes you have kids and they are Bab and then they are going because they want a dojo

I appreciate your comments on Class Dojo from a parent's perspective. I also thought you might be interested in knowing that you were mentioned at http://thirdgraderesources.com/can-the-classroom-dojo-android-app-for-teachers-get-your-class-into-shape/ .

Once my son reaches one negative mark, he is doomed for the rest of the day. Example: today he was at 100% till he was "off task" it instantly dropped him down to 83% ( that's 17 points! ) he then proceeded to have a LISTENING, ON TASK, and LISTENING positive point. this got him a whole 89%. really ? .... This is not a positive way to encourage children. I could not imagine going to work everyday, and my boss giving me points for all my good and bad behavior. I would feel belittled, no desire to work harder after seeing that big nasty red bad point. Especially knowing i have to work 3 times harder to never make it back to where i was.
I work with children daily. The up hill struggle for children to back a come back after one bad point, is silly.
Even I get discouraged when i hear the sound of the app go off on my phone. How sad is that!

I have learned to hate this app. I currently have a 5th grade "competing" to get the lowest points possible. He's basically outsmarted the system by using it to show off how useless it is, and as such, we now have a kid with a behavior problem and a tool that is esentially useless in combating it. His teacher typically gives 8-15 points per kid per day. Multiple that by 20 kids, and what in the world is going on? Plus, she taps on it without actually speaking to the child, so the kids have no idea why or when they're getting or losing points. I also have a 3rd grader on this system. She has perfect points, but it all means nothing to me. I would much rather receive actual communication from these teachers rather than communicating via an app. All of the other parents I've spoken to have the same opinion. We don't need to know about the small things that happen in class every day ... for younger kids, those small problems need to be corrected the moment they happen. If it is an overall behavior problem, a parent should be contacted directly. In the case of a 5th grader, this app is just useless, IMO. We need a system with more consequences for poor behavior and a system that uses - gasp - actual communication between a teacher and parent.

The thing I find most distressing after reading the comments given about this tool or app is that those who are not a favorite or outright dislike Class Dojo want to blame it for their child's behavior/performance or more specifically, lack of GOOD behavior/performance. All of us parents believe our child is the greatest, as they should, and in many ways they are ... but we are not sitting in the classroom with them.
Unless you grew up in Mayberry ... we parents sometimes forget that as children we were not perfect in school either. I remember having days were I was on the ball and not-so on the ball in school. I feel like that if my parents were more involved with what I was doing, when I was doing it ... I would have been a better student. But make no mistake ... I learned from my failures. The comments I see above want us to give approval all the time, even when it is not earned or deserved. What kind of children are we trying to raise? Ones that have an over-inflated view of themselves, who are more entitled and lack critical thinking skills?
What we should be doing as parents is getting involved with our children and talking to them about the fact that in life ... sometimes 80% "approval" is just as good as 100%. Sometimes we fail, but the getting back up and recovering from a failure is often better than getting it right in the first place. True education is learning from experiences and how to not make that mistake again.
So instead of giving our children another thing to blame for their actions ... how about we hold them accountable and help them understand why personal accountability is so important. Not just give them another thing to blame for their failures.

I just want to have a class room student dojo

i love ClassDojo I am a kindergarten teacher and I only use it for communication, sharing class story not so much with points because we have our classroom token system. I appreciate reading all the comments because it gives me more idea how to use it well and HOW NOT TO USE IT.
as all apps and system its always on how we use it for the benefits of our students.

I like that

This is the experience I have had with Class Dojo as a parent of two boys who are in 5th and 6th grade. The school they attend has used Class Dojo since their 3rd and 4th grade year. At first it seemed like a good communication tool for the teacher and parent, but this year (5th and 6th grade), I have learned that the teachers are letting students put in the points even though they may tell the student what to put in, I feel it is a privacy issue for the student who gets the points (positive or negative) and it creates a hierarchy among the students. The student who is allowed to give the points feels they have authority over the student who gets the points. For example, my son has mentioned a girl in his class who is bossy and tries to tell him what to do. She has been allowed to go into other students planners (a communication and organizational tool) and put a stamp if they wrote down all of the assignments and if they got their parents to sign. She subsequently started writing comments in his planner and made verbally comments to him. This bothered him and he voiced his concerns to me. I told the teachers about it and so far I have not seen any more comments and my son has not complained about her again. But my point is that allowing students to have control or authority over another student (kind of like a teacher's pet) creates a system of classification of authority or status. It reminds me of when I try to redirect or discipline my younger son and my older son pipes in to reinforce what I say. I tell him that he is not the parent and it is not his place to discipline his brother. He should mind his own behavior and act as an example instead of trying to tell him what to do. It feels like the teacher is giving the student authority to be bossy and reinforcing it by having her do the things she is supposed to being doing. Although this can be construed as the student being a leader, it is over stepping her bounds that the teacher is not setting.

How do you put negative points

For those worried about privacy, the students already know who the poorly behaved are. It should come as no surprise that the students who are constantly calling out and being negative towards others are do not receive as many points. Even with frequent chats with the student and his parents, as well as following school procedures for infractions, it wasn't until I started using ClassDojo that one particular student of mine started turning a corner in his behavior. It was especially valuable when his group refused to save him after a couple of days of very poor behavior. They got sick of using their own hard earned points to help someone who clearly didn't care. He realized that his actions impacted others and their learning. Since his peers weren't going to put up with it, he cared that much more. I set a timer during class to remind myself to give or take points. As long as students have been cooperative and on task, they get points. My students understand they will get one warning after a negative behavior and that after that warning, they will begin losing points. As with most technology and tools in the classroom, it is all how the teacher uses it and knowing the makeup of the classroom. I've only had one parent question its use and this particular parent was known as one that had rose colored glasses when it came to her children. She's had two children already pass through our and while they were overall good kids, like most they had their bad days. It was never her child's fault and the teachers were just out to get her kids. Once I walked her through ClassDojo and had her son explain it as well, she realized how many opportunities her son had to get points and how he often chose to yell out information unrelated to class just to get laughs. He is a bright individual, so it wasn't avoidance behavior and he didn't care whether he got positive or negative attention. After seeing his friends get more points and knowing his mom would see his as well, his talking become constructive to class and he actually became a great helper, too.

I must say, I was surprised and disappointed to see so many negative reviews of Class Dojo! I'd like to say that I'm sorry for all of the children who have been negatively affected by this program. I'd like to add my experience of using Class Dojo here, noting that it has made considerable improvements since the article was first published two years ago.
I am second-grade teacher in an international school in China, with a very mixed class of British, Australian, European, American and Korean children. I've been using Class Dojo for two years now, and over the last year have been successful in getting our school leadership team to have Class Dojo adopted in every class in our school. Before we started using Class Dojo we already had a very well-established system of giving house points for our eight Guiding Statements (things like asking questions, trying our best, taking risks in learning, working together, and so on). It was very successful but its implementation meant a lot of work for teachers - house points needed to be recorded in diaries which children might have lost or forgotten to bring, and collating the points to see which House was winning took a great deal of work! Class Dojo has instantly solved all of our problems by removing the need for diaries to record points in, and by allowing our Head of Houses to collate all of the data instantly, without having to send emails and/or students around to round up the points, then add them up on a calculator! Furthermore, there are a number of wonderful tools which enhance the teaching and learning experience, including being able to randomly choose students, the Class Dojo timer, the Big Ideas cartoons with Class Dojo characters, and the Help Desk which I have always found to give prompt, friendly and useful feedback from the Class Dojo team.
We haven't yet tried the negative points feature, which I understand many parents have had bad experiences with, as our school has a policy of only giving positive points (poor behaviour is certainly dealt with, but house points are not taken away). However, I think that next year we might introduce negative Class Dojo points, just for a select number of behaviour - the "digital" or "either-you-did-or-you-didn't" behaviours. Not things like fighting, or being disrespectful, or not being on task (which can have nuanced situations and complex causes, but things like being late for homework (without a satisfactory reason) or running in the corridor. Anyway, we shall see.
I'd like to say that Class Dojo has developed greatly during the time I have used it. I have seen many new features come in which improved the program and made it work better for teachers, students and parents. Free apps are now in place for Android and iOS devices; the appearance of the website has greatly improved; they are producing a series of beautiful and very inspirational videos about learning, in partnership with the well-known educational researcher Carol Dweck; and Class Dojo now has Parent and Student accounts. I've been trialling these in my class for the last couple of months, and they have been a huge success. One of the complaints I've often heard from parents is they feel like they don't know what their children are doing in school; this is a problem that diaries are supposed to solve, but discussions with other teachers (including formal staff meetings) show that teachers find it extremely difficult to keep up with the workload of filling in individual mini-reports three times a week for each child. Now, using Class Dojo, this problem has been eliminated. Communication is greatly enhanced, parents have given me very positive feedback, and the children love their Student Accounts, where they can monitor their house points and have fun changing the appearance of their avatars.
To address a couple of other concerns: privacy seems to be a very well-addressed issue, as the Class Dojo information is entirely protected, available to nobody except the teacher and parents involved; and I have found that, although they are planning in the future to add Premium Account features, all the things which are currently free on Class Dojo will always be free. This has been announced in an article on their website and was confirmed to me by a message from one of the administrators.
In short: I would wholeheartedly recommend Class Dojo for any teacher, and have found it to be an extremely positive experience.

Hate thispeech system. Points are then away 3 minutes after school starts. Very awkward for middle schoolers. As always, unless the teacher likes you, you are always penalized for something minute.

dose it work

From what I've read in these comments, most of the negatives re class dojo are actually complaints about the teachers using it. Don't blame class dojo - I use it in my classroom and it's a fantastic tool. If a teacher is inconsistent or slack complaiput the blame where it belongs.

As a teacher who recently started using Class Dojo, I think it is a wonderful tool for teachers, parents and students. I have completley changed the way I plan to use it this year. My expectations and the ways I use Class Dojo are clearly outlined for parents before school starts and I refer to them throughout the year.
Our school does not use dojo as a grade in any way. In my opinion, the app should not be used in that way, but if it is, items given for points should be consistent.
I also do not display the points screen in the classroom. My students know what they are expected to do, and if they follow those expectations, they are rewarded points. If not, they earn zero points (I love this new addition by the way)!
Students must be made aware of when they make choices that are unbecoming, otherwise they might not know the choices aren't good ones. Accountability is important throughout life. It is important to learn to solve problems and that isn't possible if one always focuses on the positive.
I have taken out negative point values this year, with the exceptions of disrespecting or hurting others, but giving a student 0 points helps the child realize that maybe a better choice can be made next time.
Students in my class reach a certain number of points to earn coupons for fun things in the classroom.
If circumstances are less than desirable in a student, I can easily see what needs to be worked on, as can the students parents. A behavioral reflection sheet is sent home after the child and I discuss behavior, if it is extreme.
I think Class dojo is a wonderful addition to my classroom and my school!

I'm a second grade teacher who used Class Dojo for the first time last year. I asked the parents of my students to give me their pros and cons of the program throughout the school year (so I could reflect on where I could do things differently to make it work best for all my kids) and it was all positive!
Regarding privacy - The messaging and pictures that are attached to your account for your child is all private (between you and the teacher). The pictures added to the class story are available for any parent in the classroom with an account to see/like/comment on.
Yes, the total point score for Dojo is visible to the entire class when it's on the teacher's home screen, but most of my students enjoyed seeing their score throughout the day. For any student who was disappointed or upset by it, I would have pep talks with them about setting a possible point goal for the day. For example, if they lost a point in the morning for being off task/not doing their work, we would talk about ways we can earn that point back throughout the day. If a point was deducted for any reason, I always made sure my students understood why that happened but I frequently reached out to parents in general to make sure they didn't have any questions or concerns regarding the points. I promoted positivity as much as possible with Dojo. Also with "negative points", teachers can edit the title and value for each point. I changed mine to match my classroom atmosphere/environment. It wasn't as generic for parents, so if their child lost a point, the reason was more obvious so there wasn't any confusion.
Aside from Dojo, I continued using e-mail, phone calls, and conferences to communicate with parents throughout the year. Dojo was just the easiest because I downloaded the app to my phone so it was an easy way to communicate with parents throughout the day and outside of school!
It really depends on how each teacher utilizes the program. I loved it. It also allowed my students to cash in their points for different hands on rewards that they were all interested in. Every student was able to work towards something they wanted to earn from the prize list, some just made it there at different times. The class was super excited about it and I noticed it had a positive influence on my class environment.

How do I take my kid out of a school/class from last year so that I no longer receive notifications from them without deleting new class messages?

How do i connect with class dojo

I love class dojo

I have to say how Happy I am to see other parents feel the same as I do about Class Dojo. I think it's a terrible app and is certainly not helping my 5 year old son. My son is in kindergarten and already hates school. I be talked to the teacher and the principal about the negative impact it is having on my son. I, as a parent, don't need to see every time my son fails to raise his hand in class. The more negatives my son receives the worse he gets through the day. He is 5 years old! It's much easier to live up to someone's expectations of failure than to live up to their expectations of success. I absolutely hate this app!

How are the points calculated. I've seen where my son starts with 100 and even gain a point or 2. Once he loose a point he drops down below 50. After he gains 2 maybe 3 more points, he's only at a 60 percent. How are the poinsettia calculated? Please help me understand.

To ms freeland we need to aplod dogo com

Iknow what class Dojo is and to work it but,How do you check your kids Class Dojo points.

Technology is sometimes a double edge sword and Class Dojo is no different. From looking over the reviews teachers seem overwhelming to like the app. Parent reviews (this and other sites) however are vastly different – ranging from loving it to hating it.
I for one see little use and long term value for such a tool. Let me explain. School/the learning environment is vastly different than it was years ago. Kindergarten is the new first or second grade and so on. The demands places on kids, the amount of homework and expectations are different. Now how this affects overall level of knowledge down the road is still out for debate although I have read studies that indicate it is not so positive an effect. That being kids “turned off” from learning, anxiety and depression. (Just what we need, more kids on psychiatric drugs!)
I attempt to put myself in another person’s shoes – including my 6 year old. Often times I have to “think back” but my child actually likes these discussions I have with him. If gives both of us time to relate experiences plus more importantly that he is not all alone.
Imagine for a second during your work day you are constantly, via an app, graded on your performance like “you made a good choice”, “you participated”, “you made a bad choice”, “you’re on task”, “you’re working hard”. Generally speaking this is and should not how your workday should be. If you need someone micro analyzing you, looking over your shoulder every minute of the day – then I have some advice for you – pour a big glass of your favorite adult beverage at the end of the workday.
Now image this happening to a little kid.
Maybe it is an age thing (I’m an older parent) but I don’t expect “instance praise or criticism” for EVERYTHING my child or I are doing during eight hours of work. Save that for reviews. Now there needs to be a level of interaction but does it really have to monitored by the minute? I think not.
It nice to hear praise and get constructive criticism but I fear that we are over time dulling the senses with this constant feedback – negative or positive.
If my child makes a “bad decision” deal with it. If it is a really “bad decision” of course I want to know but I still want teachers to handle the situation then move on. I don’t want to dwell on such a decision hours after the event took place – best to deal with any situation immediately while it is still fresh/relatable in a child’s mind.
Maybe this is just the way it is now days. A short phrase or silly digital sticker. I however still like good old communication, written or oral. Nothing give me more pleasure of being a parent when my six year old tells me “I like talking to you” and “can you tell be about what happened when you were six”.

When I signed up for this app I really thought that it would just be to advise me of things my son had done well. However, it is just full of group photos of which my son is hardly ever in - has appeared in 2 out of 60 photos added. Secondly, teachers are sending out updates after 9pm at night and before 9am on a SAturday morning - I'm sorry but my son's school week ends on Friday at 3.15 - and his school day ends at the same time - on what planet does my child's teacher think it is ok to disturb us when we are in private home time?? Not on. As a financial adviser - we have to adhere to not contacting clients between 9pm and 9am as it is deemed unsocial hours - Dojo should not allow teachers to send out random last minute messages for the next day, nor am I interested in seeing photos of other children in my sons class - I'm not a fan

Not a real fan. My son's teacher has my phone/email (plus they see me twice daily AM & PM). There is no reason they can't tell me directly what needs to be said.

Having my son subjected to it for his year in kindergarten was horrible. He cared more about the 'points' than learning. Eventually had to ask the teacher to not inform my son of his 'points' and that we would not be using the app any further. His attitude towards school changed, he was more interested in learning than acting in a particular manner.

I recommended Class Dojo to my sons Kindergarten teacher last year at conference time. As she had marked every behavior problem down on his report card. I told her how am I suppose to know if you don't tell me. I asked her to use Class Dojo just for positive points for her students and it worked. He loved Class Dojo. She did not include the parent part of the program. My son was just excited to tell me he did well and he received positive points. As a special teacher I don't use it but many teachers do and I can send parents videos of what we are doing in my classroom. 80 percent of the parents had viewed our classroom videos before school was out.

Impressive! Thanks for sharing this.
Such a great information.