Class Dojo is a great app that connects you to your classroom. After creating a free profile, you can create a classroom by inviting your students to join. You can monitor and record their attendance with ease. It also allows you to create either positive or negative behavior attributes, and award or penalize students based on their behaviors in class. These can range from being on task or helping classmates to speaking out of turn or inappropriate behavior.
You can design your dojo to notify students when they receive a positive or negative badge. However, depending on your class, you may choose to create avatars for your students, and use the dojo app to tally and track their behaviors. This allows you to use the app behind the scenes, as a convenient way of analyzing what the key behaviors are in your classroom, without your students knowing.
When students check in, they can personalize their avatar and see their behavior performance for their class. This gives them feedback on what their actions are in class, and whether they are desirable. It is an easy way to spot the students that may need more attention than others, or it may notify you of something troubling a typically well-behaved student.
The other great thing about Class Dojo is you can include the parents. Not only can you message and get to know your students, but their parents as well. If a student has done well or has issues in class, you can message the parent, much like Facebook Messenger, and notify them. This allows you to be constantly involved with your students, and can incorporate their parents as well, who may not have other opportunities to be involved.
Sports: Pushing the Limits
I think it would be great to design a course that discusses the implications of the current trends in sports. This would involve educating students in a variety of sports that have been evolving, pushing athletes to extremes. Consider halfpipe competitions in snowboarding or skateboarding. The height of the lips are increasing, and have serious repercussions. By using case studies, such as the documentary, The Crash Reel, I can discuss with the class concerns like how far is too far? The course can even dive into the use of steroids in multiple sports.
But why stop there? Consider a different aspect that could be included, or a whole different course: Adaptations & Disability in Sport. The Crash Reel touches on this as well, following Kevin Pearce, a snowboarder suffering from a major brain trauma. However, another case study can be Team Hoyt, the father-son duo that compete in marathons and triathlons. The son, Rick, lives with Cerebral Palsy, which forces the pair to adapt equipment for him to participate.
By using case studies, I can reach students with the reality of these issues. I can also promote community involvement, by having them go out and observe someone living with an impairment or disability participating in physical activity. I can open their eyes to the struggles of people around them, and give them tools to include, help, or work with such individuals.
Team Hoyt
The Crash Reel Trailer
H.S.I.: Historical Scene Investigators
I came across this idea when I stumbled across the website HSI: Historical Scene Investigation. They have adapted sample events in history, and turned them into case files. As such, a teacher can 'hire' their students to investigate historical events. I find this a fantastic way to try and intrigue students in History, a subject many students find boring.
I can also organize primary or secondary sources in various formats (print, pdf, video) and put them into a 'case file'. Then I can build investigative questions that need to be answered. For example, did Truman make the decision to drop the atomic bombs, or was it inevitable? Students can take the initiative to prepare for a 'court appearance' as the lead detective in this sample case.
This method breaks away from lecturing, and creates a dramatic format for students to learn in. They can filter through actual historic 'evidence' and come to conclusions themselves. As such, the driving questions can be straight-forward, or controversial, like was dropping the atomic bombs justifiable? Students can answer deep questions about history in this format. Teachers could go even further and develop this into a class project. Every student must pick a topic to investigate, build a case, and present it to the rest of the class, or the 'court'.