The Power of Edmodo

Wow - what a past couple of weeks it has been in my class! I have introduced the most wonderful tool to my 7 and 8 year old students +Edmodo.  One could say I have unleashed another monster - everything we do in Room 10 at +Newmarket School becomes a new addiction for my students!

Edmodo is a tool which is a similar platform to the likes of Twitter or Facebook.  Children are all joined up under a class and have their own log on details.  The main page is a live newsfeed which can contain 'notes' or 'alerts'.  Similar to the other social media platforms, Edmodo lets children use the hashtag function to group ideas or conversation topics. 

As a teacher I have added subgroups for my reading and writing programmes so that I can direct specific learning to the children at their level.  This is a great way of differentiating the learning and encouraging group collaboration and reflection.

So how is my wonderful bunch of genius' using this platform? 

Firstly I have been setting 'assignments' each week as part of their reading and writing rotations.  Each group will be set a task related to their learning or level.  

In writing, Room 10 have been looking at simple, compound and complex sentences.  Each group has been set assignments containing motivational pictures related to WW1 (a topic which is still engaging to them despite an intense focus for the past 5 weeks).  The children are then required to reply to the picture with their #simple #compound #complex sentence hashtag.  It is great to see them commenting on each others and identifying the main and subordinate clauses in the comments below each post.  Children have also been maintaining their understanding of figurative language by posting a 140 character alert including a metaphor or simile about different colours - a simple yet really effective task!  In reading, children have been commenting on their weekly reading text and asking questions to further their understanding.  They have also been responding to visual reading texts and audio books which I linked into their reading group via assignments.  This has been a new way of using computers in my literacy rotations and the groups who are on Edmodo each day are beyond motivated.  A collective moan occurs when it is time to rotate to a different activity.

Secondly, my students have been learning how to reflect on their learning.  We have established success criteria for a good reflection.  It must contain both positives and negatives, indicate what you have learnt, anything you found challenging, what you enjoyed and the impact it is having on you as a learner. 

I have seen great reflecting about the classes I take but also it connects me as a teacher to students who are cross grouped into other maths classes.  In just one week, I have been blown away by the thoughts of my Year 3/4 students.  It is so powerful to see such strong student voice coming through and this is really helping me to inform my future practice and planning.  Students are using their own hashtag eg. #refWB to group their reflective posts together.  This will be invaluable later this term at the triadic conferences, as students will be able to share their reflections with their parents, simply by clicking on their hashtag.

Thirdly, individual passion projects are stating to pop up.  Maisie is using the hashtag #mauidolphins to inform and educate the class about this endangered species.  From this, other members of the class are jumping on the bandwagon and creating social action via information websites.  This is not something that I directed in any way - they are taking control of their own learning! One thing Maisie and I have spoken about is the possible use of Google Forms to make a petition that we could send to schools and families to save the Maui Dolphins by putting a stop to netting and trawling.  This is our next step! 

Fourthly, it has made me question the tools I am using in my classroom.  I have a discussion with +Sonya Van Schaijik about the use of our class blog.  It is a good way to communicate with parents and share student work, however with Edmodo it might not be necessary anymore.  When two of my boys figured out how to link their Google Drives with their Edmodo accounts I realised that they could then easily share documents from their Edmodo 'backpack' with their classmates.  This week I am going to experiment with three parents in my class by adding them as parent Edmodo users which will allow them to connect with their child's learning everyday and with the use of the Edmodo app, they can receive live updates to their mobile devices! 

Absolutely amazing tool which has inspired me as a learner, teacher and most importantly, inspired my gorgeous class!