Top 10 Ways I've Used Edmodo in the Classroom:

1.  Use for professional development:  Edmodo has hundreds of professional learning communities that teachers can join to share experienes, share resources, and ask questions from like-minded colleagues across the country.  It is a great way to connect with other educators and talk about lessons, technology plans, and anything else related to classroom experiences.  Everyone on there wants to share and learn – so it creates a very welcoming and non-threatening environment.

 

2.  Changing profile pictures monthly and doing short posts: A fun thing I do with my students every month is ask them to go online and change their profile picture to fit some sort of theme I have decided.  The theme might have to do with what we are working on in class, a holiday, a season, or anything else.  After students change their profile pictures, they write a short (1-2 sentence) post about what their picture is and why they chose it.  At the beginning of the year, this also afforded me the opportunity to teach students (reinforce for some students, teach new skills to other) how to conduct an image search online, how to save an image, and how to upload it to Edmodo. 

3.  Jigsaw project groups:  There are two ways you can create groups on Edmodo.  1.) a teacher can create ‘small groups’ within a larger group.  This requires all students to already be a member of the large group, and the teacher assigns students to different subgroups.  2.) a teacher can create and share codes for as many large groups as he/she wants, and ask students to join the groups that apply to them.  I have done both, and find that it is really a matter of preference (and time) for whichever you choose.  One is more instructor-centered, the other is a more student-centered approach.  The end result is the same.

[In the photo, the large group is Gamma Language, the small subgroups are listed underneath]


4.  Post student work in draft form to help the revise and edit process: Students can attach documents to their posts, which is a great way to conduct revise and edit sessions in class or at home.  Using the ‘reply’ feature on each post, students can provide feedback to their classmates about their writing.  When I do this, I will scaffold the activity so that students are looking for particular writing traits and/or they have sentence starters to guide their responses.

5.  Turn in digital assignments:  One of my favorite features of Edmodo is the ability to create and turn in assignments.  Especially useful for digital projects, this feature allows students to submit a paperless assignment through Edmodo.  The teacher can even annotate and grade the assignment right on the computer!  I have used this feature for digital projects that require presentation to the rest of the class – I was able to load the presentations onto the computer that is hooked up to our LCD projector before class started, which helped minimize down-time between student presentations and streamlined the whole process.  Another plus: teachers can quickly see who has turned in an assignment and who hasn’t.

6.  Pre-tests and quizzes to assess prior knowledge: Another great feature of Edmodo is the quiz tool.  You can create a quiz for a particular set of students and have them take it online.  Edmodo automatically mines the data from student answers and provides you with question-by-question statistics.  I have used this feature for vocabulary study so I know which vocabulary words to focus on (the ones that students struggled with!) and which ones we can simply review.

7.  RSS feeds of weekly poetry and word-a-day:  RSS (really simple syndication) feeds are an excellent way to keep your students in the know.  An RSS feed is when content from another website – lets say, for example, the Time Magazine for Kids – is delivered to your Edmodo page for all users to see.  The RSS feed comes up as a ‘post’ – much like a Facebook post.  Students can view and comment on the post as well.  You can add and change subscriptions to suit the current needs of your class or curriculum.

8.  Connect and share with other teachers in the school: Edmodo allows you to connect with other teachers (essentially, you are ‘friending’ them!) but you can’t see their class pages or anything they post.  The teachers at my school created a group where we can share resources and ideas with each other – our very own PLC!

9.  Students use the ‘backpack’ feature to store and save documents, projects, resources, etc.:  How many times has a kid asked if they could email themselves a document, or complained because they can’t find their flash drive?  The backpack feature on Edmodo solves those problems.  Basically it is a cloud feature – students can store documents, links, and other resources in their backpack and access them from anywhere.  I had to teach students how to do this, but it’s a very simple few step process that they were very excited about!

10.  Keep parents in the loop: With Edmodo parent connections, teachers can send private messages to parents about student progress or concerns.  Parents are able to see and monitor the work and posts of their child (and their child only!).  A great way to scaffold proper online etiquette and social networking skills, as well as foster a rich home-school partnership!


The Edmodo website is a great way to learn more about the program and get started.  View their tutorial here:  Edmodo Help