IB Learner Profile and ClassDojo Poster Pack Freebie

It Takes Two

When two great programs are being utilized in the classroom, it only makes sense to combine them! Check out my FREE International Baccalaureate Learner Profile Posters that incorporate the beloved ClassDojo monsters at my NEW Teachers Pay Teachers Store, Lovin' the Learnin' with Mrs. Crosby!

Download the free poster pack at my TpT store:
Lovin' the Learnin' with Mrs. Crosby

Keep your eyes peeled for more IB related material in my TpT store. If you have requests, let me know.

Partnerships Really ARE the Best! ClassDojo and Night Zookeeper

This week, ClassDojo and Night Zookeeper partnered up using Class Dojo's Big Idea series to share resources on creative writing.

I love to write! My "before I know what I want to be when I grow up" degree was in journalism. I spent a few years as a newspaper editor. I cranked out articles and edited the articles of my team. The writing part of the job was great! 

However, TEACHING writing to young children is a whole different story. Teaching writing is just simply hard. I find it to be the hardest subject to teach. Therefore, I will gather up all the plentiful resources you can throw at me and use them until the cows come home. And that's just what I did this week when ClassDojo introduced me to the Night Zookeeper.

PART 1

My 2nd graders sat on the carpet, lights off, eyes on the whiteboard, watching video #1, Creating a Character. We then came back to our desks and eagerly followed the video suggestions, creating a character that had skills and abilities, likes and dislikes, a look, a feel...a character.

Our planning map for creating our character using the Night Zookeeper's suggestions.

PART 2
Next, we headed back to the carpet, turned the lights out, and watched as the Night Zookeeper series explained to us how to use our 5 senses to create a setting in video #2, Creating a Place. It was amazing. Somehow, my kids went back to their seats and came up with phrases like "It smelled like 1,000 year-old rotten eggs..." and "The sticky candy cane floor crunched loudly under her feet." We shared, we cheered for the great ones and helped the ones almost there get something down.

Our planning map for creating a setting using the suggestions from the 2nd Night Zookeeper video.

PART 3
The next day, we went on to add details to our story courtesy of the Night Zookeepers lesson #3, Creating Obstacles. We created the problems and tried to give specifics to aid in our creative writing piece. It started to get tough. We lost a little focus. We paused. We decided to go back to the carpet and watch the video again for inspiration. We had found our groove! We were back at it. Just take a look at some of our final work.

I will let you head over to watch the final video in the series, "Creating an Ending". I want to hear what you thought of these great teaching aids. 

• Did they inspire your students? 
• Did they help give you some direction in your writing lessons? 
• Will you use them again when you review creative writing? 

My class would love to see the work your students created after watching the videos. Please share!

The New ClassDojo Groups Provides an Innovative Tool for Collaboration

If you are like most teachers, you are enjoying your well deserved summer break.

ClassDojo released a new feature today.

And, if you are like most teachers, you are also checking in with Pinterest every so often to pin some new ideas to keep your class fresh and exciting for the next years crew. Today, I want to share a great pin for your board that my favorite classroom management and communication tool has launched that has amazing potential to up the anti and help make managing your group work, PBL work and teamwork to a whole new level.

This morning, ClassDojo launched a brand new grouping feature to their already amazing classroom management platform called ClassDojo Groups. Class Dojo Groups allows teachers to digitally organize groups of students into any number of teaming categories to award all of them at once. 

If you are familiar with ClassDojo, you know that just by selecting multiple students this same thing can be accomplished. I see a few aspects of this update that support a positive classroom culture that were not as easily achieved by just selecting multiple students.

• Students can visually see themselves in a group that was either named by the teacher or named by the group itself, cementing the idea of teamwork. We all know how important visuals are, especially for our youngest learners. The avatar associated with each student is reflected in the team box. If you are a teacher that allows kids to change avatars, then again, that visual representation of themselves is seen in their group.

Students can be placed in multiple groups at once.Here I have my test class split in half (Thunder/Lightning),and another group with a few kids from each of those groups.

• Students can be placed in multiple groups at a time. Teachers can create individual table groups for all their students, as well as placing those same kids in different reading groups, different PBL groups, or even by odd/even numbers (as I can picture myself doing for transition challenges).
• Special groups can be made for specific data tracking for intervention or enrichment supports. There may be 3 children that a teacher needs to track on task behavior for hourly. How motivating will it be to let those kids know they are working collectively to stay on task and will be rewarded with a positive point for each hour of on task work!
• If you share your class with other teachers in your building, those teachers can also see your teams and award them. If you share your class with your Art teacher, and she would like teams, why not add the Art table teams or Music teams according to that teachers needs. What an amazing communication tool for parents for those classes they may not always get feedback from.
• And finally, if you gamify your review lessons, you can do it in ClassDojo Groups! Create a lesson review classroom, create your gamer groups, and play your review games. Points can be awarded and challenges can be made for units, quarters, or whatever works for you. How much fun is that!

I am sure there are a ton of creative uses for this exciting new feature the ClassDojo team has brought to us. I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas. Oh, and don't forget to pin this to your "classroom" board for next school year! I know you are going to just love this new feature!