Lets Keep an iDiary

iDiary

Introduction

This app I am introducing is called iDiary. This app is used on any smartphone or iPad and computer. This app gives students the ability to start journals, and to start thinking of writing down "how they feel." Well iDiary gives your students that option to learn how to express how they feel and to start becoming creative writers.  I know when I was in elementary school I was never allowed to write what I wanted to write, or write about how I felt or how I was feeling. I want to make sure my students will have time to read their own books and/or read books that they choose, while also allowing them to write about how their day was and reflect on how to make it better. I think giving your students the freedom to write how they feel and how their day was gives them a chance to express themselves better and it also gives you the teacher some extra help to be there for your students and understand what they are going through. You,as the teacher can either make the app private so that you cannot see the writings or you can make it public where you as the teacher can only see the posts. You, as the teacher control the whole system. 

Features of the iDiary

This app as many features mostly good but still some quirks you may need to work through. The app looks like an online journal with a writing section even with a spiral notebook appearance. On the top of the page it has the words "Write Your Day..." expressing the users to type and express how their day was and/or is going. The opening page includes a calendar so that the students may know what day it is and/or go back to the calendar to see what he or she wrote on a different day. It gives them the opportunity to always have that option to go back and see what they wrote weeks ago without having to go through all the posts. They can just pick a day they might remember. For example if they want to remember what they wrote about at the beginning of the year they can just click on the calendar and review what they wrote about at the beginning of the year. 

On this app this app you can also upload pictures and videos into the post. Which gives the students the ability to express how they feel in a picture, or a video. You can even have the students do a project to interview how they are feeling or how their day went.  On the app you can even place links into your post. So maybe they could post a music video of their favorite song, or the song that makes them feel better when they are having a rough day, or maybe they could post another blog of someone feeling the same way. There is just so many thing you can do with this app that makes it so personal for each and every student. But just like with everything their is the some downs, for example the app is more difficult for younger students to maneuver. It is an app for more of an older crowd. This app would work best for a third grade classroom or higher, just because the students will need to know how to type and write sentences and in third grade is when you become more aware of how to complete full sentences.

How to create an iDiary

• First, go to iDiary and click on "sign up"
• Second, you will get the option to sign up a class, which is what you want to do as the teacher of the classroom.
• Third, you can include all the names of your students and make the account private or public. 

Teachers feedback on the App

"Easy to download, easy to install, easy to use. Nice for keeping records of things, nice set up, change text size, colors, move from one date to another. No click to save, saves automatically. Clean of ad's."

"Want a diary for your computer to keep records or memories safe, pass worded if you wish this is the program for you. It's clean easy to use. Font changes easy to do, text color, even back ground colors. Nice to add little happy faces as well. A nice all around program. GET IT!"

All teachers seem to have something positive to say about the app, and love using it is the classroom. I actually found a website that has many review about the app. 

What I think?

I think this app will definitely be used in my classroom. Because with every classroom comes a time where you need to teach your students to become creative writers. I would not just use this app for personal journaling I would use this app for my students to begin blogging and/or being able to just write down notes and information they are learning at that moment. Or when they do not have a piece of paper with them or a pen they can just pull out their iPad and start writing or journaling about what they see,feel,or experiencing. 

References

H. (n.d.). IDiary for Kids Reviews | edshelf. Retrieved October 04, 2016, from https://edshelf.com/tool/idiary-for-kids/

Idiary logo - Google Search. (n.d.). Retrieved October 04, 2016, from https://www.google.com/search?q=idiary logo

A Must-Use App for your classroom

Personal Experience with Discipline Procedures

Wanting to be a First Grade teacher, I feel as if this app will be a big help. I have had the amazing opportunity to be able to observe classrooms throughout my college experience. One of my favorite classes and teachers that I have observed used an app called "ClassDojo." At first I was extremely curious, because in a way "ClassDojo" sounds like a "ClassDummy" but it is not that way at all. Oh, was I wrong. ClassDojo is a interactive points system. 

I can remember when I was in First grade and we had a system called "Pin It." My teacher had a long piece of felt material hanging on the wall. She painted the felt piece in three colors; green was painted on the top third of the felt, yellow was painted on the second third of the felt piece, and red was at the very bottom of the felt piece. Each colored part of the felt piece had words that my teacher had written on there; on the green part it said, "Great Day", then on the yellow part it said, "Warning", and on the red part it said "Needs Work." My teacher then had each one of her students names written on a clothes pin. At the start of every morning, all our clothes pins started clipped to the green part of the felt piece. As the day progressed if one of my peers got in trouble, maybe talking back, not listening, cutting in line, throwing food, or putting hands on someone else, they had to go up to the felt piece hanging on the wall and move their clothes pin to the yellow part. That was just the way my teacher dealt with class management.

Introduction to ClassDojo
Classroom management will always be a tricky part in being a teacher. With this app, it is fun and interactive for all ages of students that you may teach. This app is a way to keep all students on the right track. On the app you make your classroom, which means you get to name your classroom, put all your students in the class, you can either upload a picture of them or use the little monster creatures they give you.In the picture to the left I have created my own classroom, with all of my students names and their own little monster to match their personality. You may have the ClassDojo app on your computer, iPad, iPhone, or any other smart phone device. This app encourages your students to be on their best behavior in

order to earn "dojo points." To earn dojo points they must be kind, listen, share, and you may add any type of positive feedback to earning dojo points. While they have a chance to earn dojo points they also have the opportunity to lose points. They may lose points for not listening, not following instructions, touching their friends, etc. With this app you may also be able to set up goals for each individual student, and also goals as a whole for the class. In the picture to the right you may see the first white box says "Class" and it has all the students points added together to make a whole. By doing this you may say at the beginning of the week, month , or even school year what the goal is, or how many points you would like for the class to earn and have a party planned or a field trip planned if they exceed the goal.

How to set up an Account:
Here is how to set up your ClassDojo account:

• Go to the App Store on any Apple device or smart phone app store. 
• Type in "ClassDojo" 
• Click on create an account; when you do this the app will then ask you to create an account as a teacher, parent, student or school leader. Go ahead and click on educator because you are an educator and this is for your classroom use only. 
• Next you will get to add all of your students first and last names. You must add their first and last names so that if for example you have two girls named Brittany the app will show their last names as well. 

While using your ClassDojo account you may also have the opportunity to be able to share your account and activity with the parents or guardians of the students in your classroom. Sharing your ClassDojo with your students parents or guardians shows them you truly want the best for them and it is also an easy way to have the parents/guardians be apart of the classroom. Now a days it is extremely difficult to get the parents/guardians involved in their child's school life.

Teachers feedback on ClassDojo
Here are some thoughts on how teachers feel about ClassDojo in their own personal classrooms. Here is a wonderful article on how to use ClassDojo Effectively in the classroom. Most teachers that I have talked to love the fact that they can easily discipline their students without the harsh term of writing their names on the board or moving their clothes pin, but in fact they can just pull their phone up and give the student a "positive feedback" point, or "needs improvement" point. As you can see in the two pictures on the right and left that I have made my own "positive" and "negative" points. I can give these points to either one particular student or all my students as a whole. Having this convenience of having my whole class system in my phone brings such relief. I do not have to keep up with scrap papers with all the "positive points" for my students and "negative feedback" points on another piece of paper.

What I think?
As you can tell I have a many positive things to say about ClassDojo, because I really think teachers will get so much use out of the app, and it relieves much stress off of the teachers shoulders which makes it even more important. At the same time I do have found one flaw in the app. For example when a parent/guardian looks on their child's progress they can see ever child in the classrooms progress, which I do not like at all. I feel like it is a privacy thing, and I wish the app only allowed that parent/guardian to only see his or her child progress. With that being said I think that is the only problem I have with the app.

Overall, I think ClassDojo is an extremely useful tool in any classroom. With that being said, it does not just have to be used in a school classroom, it could be used for a sports team, a Sunday school classroom, for your own personal children at home to earn prices. It gives you and your students a way on bonding and they can feel comfortable in your classroom, because no matter what your classroom should be a safe zone for all children, and they should feel comfortable with you and feel confident in you as their educator. And also using this app it should give you the confidence to be the best teacher you can be and want to help your students and make them the best possible people they can be in life.

References:
@. (n.d.). Idea Board | ClassDojo. Retrieved September 05, 2016, from https://www.classdojo.com/ideaboard/#getting-started

Trio, T. (2015, September 10). Using ClassDojo Effectively. Retrieved September 05, 2016, from http://teachingtrio.blogspot.com/2015/09/using-classdojo-effectively.html

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