Excited over Edmodo!

School is well under way and I'm here to report that Edmodo has exceeded my expectations so far this year!! I had to wait a year to get permission to use this free private learning network with my 5th grade gifted/talented (GATES) classes.

In retrospect, it was a good thing to have to wait. This year's group of kids seem very appreciative of the honor to be the FIRST in our town to use the site. Additionally, schedules have changed at my three schools so that I have had to change my pullout program. Now, instead of meeting with each group one day each week, I am following my library lesson schedule to have three days of GATES classes a week per group. This means that I do not have weekly face-to-face time with the kids but we do get to have a more intense time of instruction and activity with these back-to-back sessions.

With the help of Edmodo, I actually believe that I am delivering a better gifted/talented program this year. We have three consecutive days of project work on our SAILS historical era curriculum and then I supplement the program through Edmodo with assignments, polls, home response activities, current event responses, and more!

We start the year with a learning style survey so students can view HOW they are smart. I direct them to view their top three outcomes and evaluate if they agree with the results of the survey. Although most of my students were identified through our district criteria with one or more high percentage scores on spring achievement tests, some were referred and went through an interview process to qualify. Thus we look at ways we are "gifted" beyond academic, such as music, art, body, and others. I set up folders to "Explore Giftedness" in those areas. Most recently students could explore musical options, like a virtual piano, a percussion keyboarding site, and CodeOrgan to create music. We explored Thinkfinity's ARTSEDGE activity on "Spooky Sounds and Scary Tales" to listen to classical "scary" music. I have created a folder on art that includes some great drawing tools as well as links to art tutorials. The folder on "body smart" includes some line dances as well as educational jump rope rhymes.

Recent current events have included earthquakes in our state so I provided a link on earthquakes that included some interesting animated illustrations. Around Veteran's Day, I provided a heartwarming video about a soldier and his efforts to transport stray dogs that saved his life while serving overseas. They also participated in a poll to identify the military branch a family member or friend served in with the opportunity to make a response.

Students can check the calender to view upcoming site sessions, assignments, and school schedules. They can filter the posts to specifically view assignments, polls, or teacher posts. They can "turn in" their work after they have met the activity's criteria to view, read, and respond. They can go to the grade section to verify that they completed the assignment and view their score. This provides a great level of accountability that was missing in last year's program.

Parents have been provided with a special code to allow them to view calendar, assignment, and grade sections of Edmodo. They also have the option to receive notifications from Edmodo.

A great plus for me is the avenue of communication as students can post a public response or direct post to me. Students are not able to direct post to another students--their posts are public to the users of their identified groups. I receive email notification for every response made by students so I can easily monitor the program even though I may not be logged in.

Edmodo has helped me to develop a better program for my GATES students. Edmodo provides great tech support and I receive great tips and ideas from the Edmodo communities that I join. All of this--and it is free!

This has been a great experience this year--I'm very excited to have the opportunity to use this fantastic resource!! Thank you, Edmodo!!

I Don't Hate School . . . but Summer Will End

A friend recently shared a blog post with an article titled "I Don't Hate School, I Just Love Summer!" I'm not sure that I have "loved" this particular summer as it has been so hot. My summer morning walks started earlier and earlier in the morning as I attempted to find a "cool" time of the day. I failed to keep my flower beds tended and weed-free as I usually enjoy doing. According to weather history, we have not had such a hot summer since 1980. Triple digit temperatures on a daily basis! Without the assistance of a water sprinkler system, the yard would be yellow and dead long ago.

As a school librarian, I am not paid for summer work. However, I appreciate having summer time to work on and possibly complete work that I do not have time to pursue during the school year. Even though I have an assistant at each site, many projects remain in some stage of being completed. Part of this is that we are busy doing our business: serving our patrons. The other part is that my assistants do not always share the same time frame or priority level to complete the project as I do. This is not always their fault. When a teacher reports that AR is not working on their classroom computers, my "to do" list is cast aside to assist the teacher. As it should be. So part of my summer is spent trying to follow up on these partially completed projects and hopefully completing a few or at least taking them to the next stage at each school.

Another part of summer that I appreciate is having the time to read and consider edtech resources and posts. This is a time where I can sit and enjoy my cup of coffee as I follow up on RSS feeds and catch up on Twitter posts. I have time to explore and test edtech tool suggestions or simply read and reflect on blog posts.

This activity has become a common feature of my summer breaks since I started my "Summer Quest" a few years ago. I started then with "23 Things" to try to become more familiar with Web 2.0 resources for education.

This summer I explored and found several edtech resources for myself and to share with teachers which I listed in my last blog post. I am very excited about livebinders and Symbaloo and sqworl for the organization of similar online resources. I am still waiting for a teacher to get on board with me on Wordstash which I think will be great for academic vocabulary. And of course I am so pleased to be allowed to use Edmodo with my gifted/talented class this year.

So it isn't that I hate school but it is more about losing the time to follow and explore this wealth of online resources. I may have a brainstorm to write something notable about a web resource I stumbled over or utilized during the school year, but more likely than not, my time to share in blogging will end for now--just like this summer of endless heat will finally come to an end.

Summer Quest: Not Finished yet Not Failed

August is here and that signals an official end to the summer for me. Now is the time to get my head focused to get in the game of school!

Google docs was the focus of my quest this summer. I have done some reading but have not progressed to the application level of this quest. This is largely due to the need to gorge on Edmodo as I will be using it with the gifted/talented students this year. I'm thinking that Edmodo will achieve several of the reasons I was looking at Google docs (at least I'm hoping so!) thus I diverted my attention to Edmodo midway in the quest. I appreciate that Edmodo posts to my Google reader. Although I'm still subscribing to the email notifications, I can use that strictly as a "notification" and know that the information is stored to read later on my RSS.

Although I possibly "failed" my initial summer quest, I have found some wonder sites to share and use in the coming year. Standouts at this time include: WordStash (vocabulary building); LiveBinders (organization of URL folders); Symbaloo (visual bookmark organizer); eyeooo (visual URL comparision) ; Digital Vaults (resource for history documents); Dipity (digital timelines); Museum Box (research project organized in a box); and of course, Edmodo! I am indebted to the blogs and tweets I've read from the tech experts this summer!

Maintaining/teaching at three elementary school libraries pretty much keeps me on my toes, even with full-time assistants at each building. Thus this pretty much marks the end of my blog entries until next summer's quest. I want to end this quest with a "poster" that I found in my RSS feeds--an interesting graphic to promote the understanding of the educational role of the school librarian as I strive to serve my patrons with the best I can offer. Thank you to Jennifer LaGarde for posting this on the YourTeacherLibrarian wiki.

Summer Quest: Inspired!

Although there are many sites and tutorials available on the web, I have found "Ideas to Inspire" to be a great resource to view specific Web 2.0 tools and a variety of ideas to consider for a possible use with my gifted/talented students or a lesson in a library class situation.

Today I explored the site and found a slide presentation featuring the use of Google docs in the classroom. I realize Google docs has been available for some time now and it is a shame that I am just now working to find applications for my teaching situation, but I figure it's better late than never!

Some slides share specific uses and some share basic information. For example, slide #3 shows the number of people that can collaborate on a specific Doc type at one time. Just so you know, 50 people can contribute to a presentation while up to 100 can edit a document at the same time.

Slide #6 discusses the use of Word Count in a document which includes the Automated Readability Index. You could paste text into the document and then show your students the reading level of the specific text. Or you could use their own writing sample and then show possible editing options to increase the reading/grade level of the sample. This might be helpful when trying to encourage students to work on sentence structure and word choice when writing.

"Work smarter not harder" is a motto I am trying to incorporate into my daily living philosophy so it is good to know that Google doc offers templates to assist both teachers and students. Slide #12 explores the use of templates in the program.

I want to come back to explore Google forms (G forms) which is presented on slide #18. Students respond to questions/comments using a 1-5 format or an ABC option. Slide #24 also shares a way to use G forms to receive parent return slips as an electronic alternative--now that's interesting!

This slide presentation has provided me with several ideas to utilize in lessons and many areas where I need further explanation and reflection. I want to look into Assignment Tracker but not as intently as before now that I will be using Edmodo. I am still very interested in the collaboration possibilities of Google docs but need to consider how to assist and monitor students with that feature. And I am very intrigued with slide #20 on Dynamic Visualization. Hmmm . . . lots to think about!

Summer Quest: GoogleApps???

And just when I think I am getting caught up with Web 2.0, I read a Blue Skunk blog article by Doug Johnson about GoogleApps and librarians.

GoogleApps?? What about Google docs? Are these the same thing or is it something different?
Apparently the use of this cloud-based productivity tool and storage space in his school district will allow

"no cost to the district e-mail accounts, shared calendars, a mailing list generator, an to-do list and address book for all staff and students. As powerfully, it provides word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation programs that require only a web browser to access and use. The files created, like the applications themselves, are stored “in the cloud” where can be easily shared, collaboratively edited, and published. [See Libraries in the Cloud in this issue.]

These tools and the files they create are available anywhere, at any time, from any computer that has an Internet connection - Windows, Mac or Linux. No software other than a good web browser is needed."

Looks like I better get busy!