Blog post 11: Using Edmodo for teaching and learning

Week 9: Blog post 11: Using Edmodo for teaching and learning

Based on the readings in this week, and your own experience in using Edmodo, write a post to discuss at least three ideas for using Edmodo for teaching and learning. Be specific about the grade level, subject area, and what you or your students will do with Edmodo. 

Edmodo.com is an online educational community that can be used in classrooms to make online learning a possibility. In my third grade classroom, I would use Edmodo for Snapshot assessing, student writing projects and for online book clubs and literature circles. 

Edmodo has its own form of assessing, which is called Snapshot. In this assessment, the teacher can choose objectives in which she wants to see where the students are and the program generates questions based on the objectives. This is very useful and efficient for teachers because it creates high quality questions for the teacher and the teacher can save time by not having to create the questions. Also, the program generates a score for the student’s performance. With those results, the teacher is able to see if the students are understanding the objectives and where there may need to be more reteaching.

Another way I would use Edmodo in my class is to create student writing assignments and other homework assignments. It is really simple to create and grade assignments on this program and it would be good for students to be able to do it in an electronic format. I think I would use it for writing prompts and the writing process because it would be easy to conference with the student online and be able to give the student comments and notes on their writing in an electronic format.

A third way I would use Edmodo in my classroom is to create groups within my class that could serve as book clubs and literature circles. If I could create groups and assign certain roles to certain students, it would allow students to collaborate and work together on this online community.

From what I have learned this week and with my experience with Edmodo, the possibilities are endless. Edmodo is a great tool to be able to use as a teacher and to get the students learning and working online is invaluable for current students because they are so well versed in technology and are so naturally good at it! Edmodo is a tool I will hope to implement in my classroom!

Blog Post 10: Self-Directed Learning Using Feedly

One of the posts I read that I follow on Feedly was titled “7 New Educational Web Tools for Teachers” In this post, the author shared seven web tools that can make a teachers work easier and more efficient! One of the tools is called Meta. It is a tool that allows you to search your websites as well as your documents and desktop to be able to find exactly what you are looking for. This can come in handy if you are looking for a file and cannot remember where you saved it to! Another tool that I found useful is Remotely. This tool allows you to access your desktop computer from anywhere that internet connection is available. I think this could be very useful to be able to access your school desktop from home and your home desktop from school. In case you ever forget something or have work that you need to do but you did it on a computer you do not have access to, this can come in handy. One last tool that I would like to discuss that I found useful is JuniorTube. This is like YouTube, but only has videos for children under thirteen that have been preapproved. This is invaluable for a teacher and for parents so that we do not have to worry that our kids may be watching something that they should not be.

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2016/10/7-new-educational-web-tools-for-teachers.html

            Another post that I follow on Feedly and enjoyed reading was “Here is How to Teach Writing Using Technology”. This article goes through the four main steps of the writing process: pre-writing, which includes writing prompts and mind maps, writing, revising and editing, and publishing and sharing. Under each category in the article, there is a brief description of what the student will be doing while in the section of the writing process and there are several links to educational technology tools that can be used to teach the are and for the students to work on their writing in the area. This article and the links provided to the various tools can be very valuable for a teacher that would like to teach and work in the writing process in a new and exciting way, rather than with only paper and pencil. Also, once the students are familiar with working with the tools, I think it would be a much more efficient and quick way to teach and practice the writing process.

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2016/10/here-is-how-to-teach-writing-using.html

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Blog Post 7- Google Drive

Blog Post 7- Google Drive

            Google Drive is a great resource for educators because there are a lot of different tools that can be used, and the best part of it… it’s free! I use Google Drive both as a graduate student and as a teacher. Some of the tools I use that I will elaborate on for this assignment is Google Docs, Google Sheets and Google Slides.

            The first way I use Google Drive is by using Google Docs as a third grade teacher. I use Google docs when I am completing lesson plans with my partner teacher. We work on lesson plans together and share them with each other so that we both have access to them to edit them online. When we are done with our lesson plans, we are then able to send them to our administrator, buy sharing them with her. I like that you are able to share a document and can choose whether the person you are sharing with can also edit it or will only be able to view the document without editing.

           

            Another way I use Google Drive is by using Google Sheets. Google Sheets is a tool that allows you to make interactive pictures and documents that others can go into and view. I would like to use this with my third grade class by creating interactive maps on certain things we are learning in social studies so that the students can go into the map and help them with their assignment and to better understand how we use maps.

            A third way I can use Google Drive is to create a Google Slide presentation. I think this would be useful both in my graduate studies and with my third grade class. I think the Google Slides is a good option instead of Powerpoint because the program can be used anywhere and it is not necessary to have Powerpoint installed on your computer. I think it would be good for my students as well, in case they are absent and miss a lesson. If so, they would be able to access the presentation from wherever they are.

           

            Google Drive has so many possibilities and tools that can be used. There is also Google Apps, a word processor, spreadsheets, drawing, forms and surveys. The resources are really endless and something that should be utilized as often as possible. I love the idea that all of these resources are available with only internet access.