ClassDojo

1. What is ClassDojo?

Positioning: ClassDojo is a global communication and classroom management platform primarily focused on K-8 education, offering tools to foster positive classroom culture, enhance parent-teacher communication, and support social-emotional learning.

Functional Panorama: It covers several explicit and implicit modules, including:

• Classroom Management: Teachers can award “Dojo Points” for positive behaviors and skills, manage student groups, and create custom feedback options.
• Parent-Teacher Communication: Enables instant messaging, sharing photos/videos via “Class Story,” and private individual updates.
• Student Portfolios: Allows students to share their work digitally, which teachers can approve and parents can view.
• Social-Emotional Learning (SEL): Offers a library of activities, videos, and discussion prompts focused on mindfulness, growth mindset, and other SEL topics, accessible through “Big Ideas” and “Monster Moves.”
• School Story/Announcements: Facilitates school-wide communication and announcements for administrators.

2. ClassDojo’s Use Cases

• Teachers can use the Dojo Points system to reinforce positive behaviors and skills in real-time, promoting a supportive classroom environment.
• Teachers can utilize Class Story and Messaging to keep parents informed about classroom activities, share updates, and facilitate direct communication, enhancing home-school connections.
• Students can use Student Portfolios to document and showcase their learning progress, creativity, and reflections, fostering a sense of ownership over their work.
• Parents can use the ClassDojo app to receive immediate updates on their child’s behavior and learning, communicate directly with teachers, and view their child’s digital portfolio, staying engaged in their education.
• School Administrators can leverage School Story to share school-wide announcements, events, and important information efficiently with all connected families and staff.
• Educators can integrate “Big Ideas” and “Monster Moves” SEL content into daily lessons to teach mindfulness, resilience, and other social-emotional skills, supporting holistic student development.

3. ClassDojo’s Key Features

• Dojo Points & Feedback System: Supports real-time positive feedback for students, with customizable skills and reports on student behavior and participation.
• Class Story & School Story: Allows teachers and administrators to share photos, videos, and announcements with parents, fostering a community feel.
• Student Portfolios: Enables students to upload their work, which teachers can approve, and parents can view, promoting student voice and showcasing learning.
• Messaging: Provides private, instant messaging between teachers and parents, facilitating quick and direct communication.
• Big Ideas & Monster Moves SEL Content: Regularly updated library of short videos and activities focused on social-emotional learning, mindfulness, and growth mindset. For example, recent additions of new “Monster Moves” content aim to engage students in SEL lessons through interactive animations.
• Enhanced Reporting for ClassDojo Plus: ClassDojo Plus, a parent subscription, now offers more detailed historical behavior reports and insights, allowing parents to track trends over longer periods.
• Improved Language Translation: User feedback has led to continuous improvements in the in-app translation feature for messages and stories, addressing the need for better support for multilingual families.

4. How to Use ClassDojo?

1. Set Up Your Class: As a teacher, sign up on the ClassDojo website or app, create a new class, and add your students. You can then customize the positive behavior points you want to track.
2. Invite Parents: Generate unique parent codes or send email/SMS invitations from the “Parents” section of your class. Parents download the ClassDojo app and enter their code to connect with their child’s account.
3. Engage with Students & Award Points: During class, use the “Toolkit” for activities like timers or group makers. Award Dojo Points to students in real-time by clicking their monster avatar and selecting the earned skill. Students can see their points increase instantly.
4. Share on Class Story & Portfolios: Post photos, videos, or text updates about classroom activities to your “Class Story” for all connected parents to see. For student work, guide students to upload to their “Student Portfolio” via their unique login code or the student app; then review and approve their submissions.
5. Communicate with Parents: Use the “Messages” tab to send private messages to individual parents or broadcast announcements to the whole class.
6. Pro Tip (SEL Integration): Regularly integrate short “Big Ideas” videos or “Monster Moves” activities into your daily routine to consistently reinforce social-emotional skills. These are easily accessible from the app’s toolkit or home screen.
7. Pro Tip (Customizing Feedback): Teachers can create custom “needs work” points or “positive points” specific to their classroom rules or academic goals, providing more tailored feedback than the default options.

5. ClassDojo’s Pricing & Access

• Free Tier (Teachers): The core ClassDojo platform is free for teachers, providing access to essential features like Dojo Points, Class Story, Student Portfolios, and Messaging for unlimited students and classes. This includes the ability to invite parents and track basic behavior data.
• ClassDojo Plus (Parents): A premium subscription for parents, offering enhanced features such as detailed historical behavior reports, access to additional photos and videos from Class Story, and the ability to track multiple children more extensively. This tier is typically priced monthly or annually.
• School/District Level Access: ClassDojo offers school-wide or district-wide premium features, which may include enhanced data analytics for administrators, professional development resources, and specialized content access. Pricing for these enterprise solutions is custom and requires direct inquiry with ClassDojo.
• Web Dynamics/Promotions: While the core teacher features remain consistently free, ClassDojo occasionally offers introductory discounts or free trial periods for the ClassDojo Plus parent subscription, often promoted during back-to-school periods or Q3/Q4.

6. ClassDojo’s Comprehensive Advantages

• User-Friendly Interface & Accessibility: ClassDojo is renowned for its intuitive design, making it highly accessible for teachers, students, and parents, even those with limited tech experience. This simplicity contributes to high adoption rates compared to more complex Learning Management Systems.
• Effective Behavioral Management: The real-time positive feedback system is highly engaging for young students, proven to be more effective for behavior reinforcement in K-8 settings than traditional methods.
• Strong Parent Engagement Tools: Its seamless communication features facilitate unparalleled parent involvement, with many teachers reporting increased parent participation compared to other communication tools.
• Focus on Social-Emotional Learning (SEL): ClassDojo dedicates significant resources to its “Big Ideas” and “Monster Moves” content, providing a curated and engaging library of SEL lessons. This integrated approach to SEL is a distinct advantage over competitors that may only offer communication or academic tracking.
• Data-Driven Insights: While the free version offers basic reports, the ClassDojo Plus subscription provides parents with deeper insights into their child’s historical behavior trends, enabling more informed discussions and interventions at home, a feature often limited or absent in other basic communication apps.
• Market Recognition & Adoption: ClassDojo has achieved significant market penetration, being widely adopted in millions of classrooms globally. This widespread use creates a network effect, where many parents are already familiar with the platform, easing onboarding for new teachers and schools.