I have been working with some 4th & 5th Grade teachers to set up Edmodo groups for their students, and the students are so excited! I never thought I’d see students so excited to do homework! Many of the teachers have been using Edmodo to “flip the classroom,” which means that what the teacher would normally teach to the whole group in class is being taught through a video posted on Edmodo that they can watch from home. The nice part about using videos is that the students can pause and rewind their teachers instruction as much as they need to so they can learn at their own pace. I’ve also heard that parents are raving about Edmodo because if their child has a homework assignment that they don’t understand, they can refer back to the videos and the teacher explain it. There is also a feature in Edmodo where the students can send a message just to the teacher instead of the whole group, so they are able to ask their questions individually if they’d like. You might be wondering, if your students are being taught the content in video form from home, then what are you going to do with all of that free time in class? Practice and apply the skills! Now there will be time for practice when the teacher is there to help the students. It also frees up time for hands on activities, labs, etc. Here are some ideas of how teachers at Springfield Park and Maybeury are using Edmodo in their classrooms:
Linking to Virginia Trekkers Podcasts to teach the Civil War.
Students posted presentations they created to reflect on a novel they had been reading in class.
You can give your students assignments that are turned in to the teacher and graded automatically if it’s multiple choice. Short answer requires the teacher to score the response, but you can grade it within the Edmodo site. (Notice how this student who was absent is able to make up his quiz from home on a Sunday afternoon!)
Edmodo provides opportunities to network with other teachers. I put Mr. Gardner, 4th grade teacher from Maybeury Elementary in contact with Mrs. Moore, 4th grade teacher from Springfield Park Elementary, so they could share ideas with each other. In this case, Mr. Gardner saw an assignment that he liked that Mrs. Moore had posted, so he saved it to his library and assigned it to his class as well. There are many professional groups within Edmodo where you can collaborate with teachers from across the country.
If you are interested in getting started with Edmodo in your classroom, I would love to help you get your teacher account and student groups set up! Please e-mail me or schedule a consultation at etechplace.org/hues.
