Class Dojo Review

It is hard to teach when your students are out of control and are disruptive to the classroom environment. You can spend more time disciplining students than you do teaching. This is unfair to the rest of your students who need you to dedicate as much time as possible to their academic success.

Personally, I feel that you must have an arsenal of techniques and strategies to effectively manage your classroom. If you have been teaching for any time, you know that what works one day can be a disaster the next.

If you have a tried and true strategy that has less than desirable results or you may want to start your new school year off with something new, it may be time to add Classdojo to your arsenal.

Classdojo uses technology to track a student's behavior. For those of us who love to implement technology in our classrooms, this is another way to engage the students in their learning environment. You can assign each student an avatar and administer either a reward or consequence from your computer, smartboard, or even more convenient your cellphone.

Students are able to monitor their status as they go through the day. As students see their results on the screen it prompts them to correct any unwanted behavior or continue in a good behavior that has been recognized. No student wants to be last or have points deducted on a video game and they are not going to want to have a less the stellar review projected on a board.

Classdojo is just one more tool that can effectively help you manage your classroom. With a few short signup steps, you will be on your way to a more tech savvy way to give your students the most productive classroom experience.

TourWrist Review

Last week I attended the Virginia Department of Education's From Vision to Practice Conference. During a session facilitated by iSchool Initiatives, a wonderful group of young people from Kennesaw State University, who are touring the country demonstrating how ipad apps can be used in the classroom, introduced us to the app TourWrist.

The TourWrist app is, in my opinion, a great app for two reasons. First, the app allows students to view other parts of the world. They can see landmarks, schools, businesses, entertainment, and other points of interest, all without leaving the classroom. It exposes them to elements beyond their community, circle of friends, and imagination. It shows them things that they may not see in everyday life and sets up discussions or comparisons of elements that are typical everywhere and elements that are not.

This tool is also wonderful when used as a writing prompt. Students can write about what they have observed or what was missing or not a part of the shot. Students are visual and instead of writing a prompt on the board, they can view their prompt using the TourWrist app. They can create a story about a portion of what they saw. For example, one person viewed a tour which looked like some sort of costume party. They could write about one character at the party, the host of the party, or they could be creative and write a complete story around what they have viewed.

I would recommend that educators explore this app and find ways to incorporate it into their language arts and history lesson plans. It is a great way to incorporate technology that our students are already using and expanding their experience beyond the classroom.