In the digital world we live in it is more convenient for us to text than to call. It is also difficult for educators to get to a phone during the school day in case of an emergency. Enter Class Dojo!
Let’s explore the Parent Communication features of Class Dojo.
Class Story
The best way for me to describe the Class Story feature is to think of it as your Facebook posts. These posts are meant for all parents to see. I use Class Story on a daily basis. I take pictures of what the kids are doing. Parents love to see their children working on their learning. One parent has told me they felt like they were a part of the class when seeing the Class Story posts. It is a “window” into your classroom. It is also a fantastic way to share class news.
Another way I use Class Story is to record myself modeling a math strategy. Parents today are not familiar with the way we are teaching math. They want to help their children, but are using “old school” strategies that confuse their children more than help them.
Here are some examples of my Class Story posts.
Be aware that all connected parents will see your Class Story posts. If you only want a few families to see it, then you need to use the Messaging feature.
A drawback is that there is no distinction between Class Story and School Story posts. In this video example you can see all the posts are by me. Some of these posts are from School Story. School Story is sent to all parents connected to your school. This has confused parents in the past. Since I am the one who posts for my school story, it can be very confusing.
Class Dojo Messaging
One of the most important features of Class Dojo is the ability to message parents. Many of us do not have access to phones during the day. Parents are at work and also may not have access to phone calls. This is what makes the messaging feature so special.
The messaging features allows you to send “text messages” to parents. This is incredibly helpful when you need to send quick messages to individual parents.
In this example, a parent is messaging the teacher about a change in transportation as well as needing extra work sent home for practice.
In this example, I have read the messages and responded to them.
One other feature to note is the fact that you will see a “check mark” when a message has been read. This is really helpful for records.
Quiet Hours
I will never forget the time I was woken up at 3am from a parent messaging me. She worked third shift and needed to tell me something. The parent had no way of knowing that she was going to wake me up! HaHa!
For this reason I am so grateful to have Quiet Hours!
To set quiet hours, go to Messaging. You will find this under “Options.” Make sure Quiet Hours are turned on and set it to what you’d prefer. I personally do not turn them off for the weekend, but I know other teachers do.
This is how Quiet Hours look from the Parent Interface. Parents will see a note saying that the quiet hours are on. I love this feature! I never want my parents to think I am ignoring them. They know I will see it in the morning. I also love not being woken up in the middle of the night anymore. HA!
Downloading Message History
If your school is like mine, you need to document parent communication. Lucky for me, I have the ability to download my message history for an entire class or even one parent.
The reality is that there will always be a student or parent that you want to keep documentation on. I really appreciate having this feature. I am not a fan of the formatting of the message history (see photo), but it provides dates and time stamps.
To download message history, you need to first go into Messaging. You will then find what you need under Options. You will then need to choose your class. Message history is saved even for archived and graduated classes. You can also download for individual students/parents. Keep scrolling through your classes to find who you need.
Here is a screenshot of what the downloaded message history looks like. It downloads in .txt formatting.
4 Responses
Thank you !
You saved me timenon not havong to go in and play with or understand what each of these functions does.
I am so glad you found this helpful! Please feel free to reach out anytime with questions!
Can parents use ClassDojo through text messaging as well? For example, I can’t download the app, I don’t have a computer, and don’t use technology or the internet very often, due to both health conditions, and lack of good internet service. The last 2 yrs we used “Remind”, which was great bc u could use it via text messaging, of which was the best method for me. However, I don’t see that option on ClassDojo, even though his teacher said I should. Maybe it’s just for teachers?? Or I’m an idiot? Lol!
Hi! The ability to text is built into the app. You need to go to your app store and download the app. Once you do that, you will be able to text the teacher (and they can text you) through the app itself.
Do you have a smartphone? Android or Apple? I can walk you through the process! Just let me know!