This is for all of my fellow-educators! I have been introduced to the greatest program in the world. It’s free and all of your students will love it. It’s called: EDMODO.
Edmodo is designed like a Facebook. The difference being that the teacher is the creator of the group, and there are no private messages that can be sent between students. All messages are placed on the wall so that the teacher and all students can see it. Another difference is that it is totally safe! Nobody can join your group unless they have your specific group code, which I gave out to my students and their parents. This allows parents to be involved, and be alert of what is going on.
Using Edmodo, the teacher is able to do so many things! First of all, you can post assignments. How great is that! No child can say they didn’t know about an assignment anymore because it will be online! You can also post a quiz on there. Pop-quiz at home! How cool is that? You can also fill in a calendar so that your students will have an online reminder of all the events and important dates that are coming up. Of course since parents have access as well (if you give them the code), it serves as a great reminder for parents too! You can post polls, you can post alerts for important things, you can set up educational apps for your students to be able to select from and use to further their learning, and you can even post pictures of field trips. No more trying to send e-mails to the parents. Everyone can get them at once 🙂
Now one of my most favourite things I have noticed, is that students who do not understand their homework are now able to get in contact with me online. And if I’m not “on” at the time, any other student that may be on and does understand that part of homework can jump in and help. For parents who can’t help, now they can connect with people who can. This has served extremely well!
I don’t know if you can tell by now, but I am thoroughly excited about this program. I’ve only been using it in my class for a week, but it has already been so helpful with my students. And the best part is, it’s almost a guarantee that students will be logged on when they get home because, well, it’s just like a Facebook! They may just be too curious about what their classmates are posting to be able to avoid it 🙂
If you are a teacher, or could use this site for any other reason, I strongly recommend it. Go to: http://www.edmodo.com and watch the demo video. It is so good and shows you what Edmodo can do. I hope you begin using it and fall in love with it like I did!
Calm in Christ and Fitness 