EDMODO TODAYS MEET Edmodo is a cybersafe social
EDMODO & TODAY’S MEET
• Edmodo is a cyber-safe social learning network designed like Face book. Edmodo allows educators to create learning environments to extend their teaching beyond the classroom. • Today’s Meet is similar to Twitter or Edmodo, as it gets students chatting, using a 140 character limit and an easy-to-use interface. Today’s Meet helps teachers conduct online discussions, while channeling the results onto one web page or an Interactive White Board.
Today’s Meet: Extreme Sports Video Tweet
First Assignment: We watched “Wandering Seal” Video on Smart Board and Today’s Meet. The students “ Tweeted” their reactions. That evening they watched video again on Edmodo and had to post a one paragraph summary with details from video. Common Core Writing Standard W. 4. 2 b
We responded to quotes, learned figurative language and interpreted poems. CCSS R. L. 4. 2
The students loved the polls. This was after our Historic Peacemakers Unit.
A unit on angles and measurement. It was going to snow so I challenged them to make angle snowmen and take pictures of them.
This activity led to interpreting Robert Frost’s Poem “The Road Not Taken” and a lesson about themes within a poem. They also wrote essays about a person who inspires them. Common Core standards R. L. 4. 2
I sent weekly posts asking “The essential question” about topics we were learning. I also chatted with students who liked to socialize on Edmodo or tell me something that was important to them.
• This was probably one of their favorite assignments. They watched a video from you tube titled Extreme Sports and tweeted about the video. We then read an article from Read. Works titled: “Do Extreme Sports Go Too Far”. They had to weigh out the pros and cons, then write an opinion essay using the article and the video as evidence to support the side they had taken. Then they debated on Edmodo answering other students’ posts. Finally we had a student prepared debate in class. CCSS W. 4. 1
• Another Common Core aligned assignment was learning how to write a thesis statement and a “hook". The students were sent a Learn Zillion video through Edmodo and watched the video for homework. It was teaching them how to write a thesis statement. Then they read an article titled “All Split Up “ about single gender classrooms. They needed to weigh the evidence, choose a side, and write a thesis statement. • The next morning we shared our thesis statements, made changes, and wrote the rest of an opinion essay in class.
• I feel that using Edmodo, Today’s Meet, and other similar technology in the classroom is extremely valuable. This is my first year using Edmodo and I already have ideas for next year. One unexpected outcome of using Edmodo was an improvement in using correct grammar and punctuation. At first I had a block on their responses. I made comments to them as I posted, correcting their punctuation. They made improvements very quickly once they knew that everyone saw my corrections. Just last week I took off the block. Their responses are near perfect!
Back to School Night: March 1 st I asked the parents to “tweet” about the Science Fair and Back to School
- Slides: 15