Turning in Papers

Tip for teachers who have students write papers: Instead of printing out 50-some rubrics, just for the students to write their names on and return, POST the rubric as a link to Edmodo and print off one copy for yourself. This not only saves paper, but the rubric will never get lost; it's online! In the comments section, you can then put in where they lost points or where the did well. It saves on paper and is much easier to handle. The students like having it readily available online in case they need to work on it at home, and they don't lose the rubric. Handy!

This is what the sign-in page for Edmodo looks like!

Listen Up!

One great benefit of using Edmodo is being able to post audio files for students to listen to. Here's my specific example. In my 10th grade English class, we study Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar." The students who actually enjoy reading Bill's work are few and far between; the main reason being that they have such a hard time with his style. On Edmodo, I uploaded the audio files from the CD that goes with our text. The students would have the play in front of them, their headphones on listening to the text, and then would look through the graphic novel we had. I discovered that students were more apt to stop the audio and read side notes, then go back and listen when they were able to do the listening independently rather than as a whole class. This is something that should be encouraged. This doesn't have to be done for every text, but it's a great help when the texts are more difficult, or students need more support.

First Edmodo In-service!

I gave my first in-service today in Lakota, my hometown, on how to use Edmodo in the classroom. This was an interesting day because I was teaching some of my old high school teachers how to incorporate this in the classroom. I had them set up their free accounts on www.edmodo.com and showed them the various features from the profile to the calendar to how to create an assignment.
My past science teacher (the toughest and best teacher I had in high school) created a poll, an assignment, and a quiz! I was so impressed. We all took her quiz, which was multiple choice. After the quiz was over the students could view their results right away. It graded the quiz for her and also provided a pie chart for each question showing what percentage got the question wrong and what percentage got the question right. That would be perfect for teachers to see what areas they need to go back and reteach. It's great, instant feedback.
As a side note, I aced the quiz. I said she was the toughest teacher, but when I'm remembering stuff she taught me in Life Science.

What is Edmodo?

I explain Edmodo to my students the following way: it's basically educational Facebook. It looks very similar to Facebook, but the teacher controls what's on it and what's not. The teacher can post assignments, message, alerts/reminders, or polls.
What you, as a teacher, would need to do is create a teacher account. From there you create groups, such as "English 2 Period 3" or simply "Period 3." Once you create a group (which you usually sort by class), then you'll get a group code. This is what you give to your students so they can join your group.
The students will first have to create an account. Make sure the information they use is valid. A helpful hint, I told my students to use FirstnameMiddleinitialLastname. That way, it was easy for them to remember. In any case, I have a tech card (a note card) where the students put their user names and passwords. I keep it, so if they need to look at it, I've got the information for them.
Once the students have their accounts they must "Join" a group. That's when you give them the code. These are the basic first steps to setting up Edmodo!