Why I Deactivated My Class Dojo Account

I want to begin by saying I am not passing any judgement on people who use Class Dojo.  I believe there are many great ways to implement the program.  This was a decision for me based on what I think is best for me and my students.

Last week my husband asked if I would walk to the bank after summer reading program to pick up our checks.  On my way there, I stopped and talked to a former student of mine who was riding his bike around town.  I asked him about his summer and he told me about being pumped for football, planning how he was going to get to practice and which friends were in his class this year.  I realized after talking to this boy for a few minutes that I did not recognize his voice and I could not remember the last time I had a 1:1 conversation with him.  I know I had conversations about behavior and paying attention, but I don't remember just talking with this boy.

At the beginning of this week I was finishing up a run around town when I came across another former student playing in front of her house.  I asked her about her summer and she told me about what she has been up to and how she is excited because she got the teacher she wanted again this year.  Just like a week ago, I realized I did not recognize her voice.  She is a very quiet student and I don't remember really talking to her.

These interactions made me sad and sick to my stomach.  I teach music, so I see all students in the school every week.  With students constantly entering and leaving my room, it is easy to miss the small opportunities to talk and interact with my students.  This also helped in my reflection about being intentional.  I have to be intentional about my interactions with my new staff and students.  These two interactions and my reflection afterwards led me to deactivating my Class Dojo account.

I am at a bigger school this year and my number one goal is to take advantage of every opportunity I can to interact with my students.  I loved many of the capabilities of Class Dojo, but I always struggled with using it consistently and I felt like it got in the way of interactions between my students and myself.  Now, this could be because of me the user and have little to do with the program.  I am not sure, but I do no that for me personally, it was not working so it was time to come up with a new system.  As much as I love technology, sometimes a paper grade book, post-it notes and face to face communications work the best.