Happy Wednesday everyone!
I am very fortunate to be surrounded by successful teacher mentors within my close friend base, family and extended family. They are the ones that I desperately seek help from the night before I am delivering a lesson plan and cannot find a hands on activity, or the ones that tell me "it's all going to be ok" in the end.
The moment I was informed that my next block had me teaching a grade 4/5 split, immediately I thought of an extended family friend, who has been teaching in the junior/intermediate stream for close to twenty years to this day. She not only reassured me that split classes are nothing to be afraid of, but gave me some really excellent resources, one of which really stayed with me, that I'd like to share with YOU.
Welcome to edmodo! Take a look at the site, and see what your first impressions are, because I had one very initial thought.
The very first words that came out of my mouth were "WOW! It looks just like Facebook!" And, in reality, it does. The profiles, the news feeds and the homepage are completely identical. However, unlike Facebook, edmodo caters solely to students and teachers (even parents!), enhancing and promoting their learning needs. Edmodo prides itself in being a safe and easy way for your class to connect and collaborate, share content and access assignments and homework, their grades, even school notices (upcoming bake sale, dance tickets on sale tomorrow, etc). Edmodo's goal: "to help educators harness the power of social media to customize the classroom for each and every learner".
What I love about edmodo, is that I can embrace, not turn my head away, from the fact that likely all of my grade 4/5s will already have active Facebook accounts. They are online sharing their thoughts, personal information, likes and dislikes, and connecting in a way that works for them. Edmodo allows me as a teacher to take this love for personal profile sharing, and incorporate educational learning strategies and networking opportunities that are very much a part of these students' futures. The site allows teachers to post messages, discuss classroom topics, manage calendars, assign and grade classwork, share content and materials, and exchange ideas with peers. Teacher's can create their own profile, which allows them to access and monitor all activity in their "classroom", and it allows students to create their own profiles as well. Most importantly, edmodo is a private, closed community and ultimately all activities are monitored at all times. Some features, for example, are removed from edmodo that you would find on a Facebook profile, to avoid obvious problems. The largest example of this is the "Facebook wall". There is no wall on edmodo, removing the temptation for students to interact inappropriately with one another. They can communicate with their teachers, their "subjects" (ask a question to "language arts") and on pages such as "homework help" and "assignment questions". Peer to peer activity is limited and closed.
There are also awards to be earned on edmodo, created by the teacher and given to students. This is where you can recognize students for their achievements in the classroom (Student of the Week, or Measurement Superstar perhaps), and a place where students can display all they have accomplished on their profiles.
Go online! Look around, browse, check out some webinars, and read some testimonials. The site comes highly recommended and personally, I cannot wait to see how my students react!
Until next time ...
No comments:
Post a Comment