EdmodoCon Guest Post #2: N. Dale

Our 2nd guest blog post in the series is by Nira Dale, a 9th grade English teacher in Florence, Alabama, and a very active member of the Language Arts community on Edmodo. You can follow Mrs. Dale's educational adventures on her very impressive blog: Mrs. Dale is a whiz with implementing tech tools in her classroom. Take a look at what she learned during EdmodoCon 2013.

What I Learned...

from EdmodoCon 2013

1. Create CCSS Edmodo quizzes that strategically tie standards to each question for even more comprehensive feedback.(Stibaly Johnson)
2. Navigate and utilize the Common Core Consortium website.(Stibaly Johnson)
3. Attempt to "Meyerize" my English class--Not sure exactly how yet...But I'm determined... (Kim McMonagle)
4. Flip the learning inside out by assigning my students a block of time to create "30 sec. Lessons" (Patrick Fogarty)
5. Organize my lessons and relative resources into eTexts --iBook Author (Patrick Fogarty)
6. BACK CHANNELING (Edmodocon.)
7. "Let students digitize their work samples by having them take a picture of their written work for assessment.( Kate Baker/ Liz Calderwood)
8. Use Mp3 apps for students who are not as comfortable with video presentations. Audio podcast allow students to focus mainly on speaking and listening--CCSS :-) (Kate Baker/ Liz Calderwood)
9. Set a goal to go paperless! (Melissa Butler/ Kate Baker)
10. Have students create a fictitious commercial in a project-based learning activity to support their conclusions/ stand on the given issue--Make it very real-world. (Bijal Damani)
11. COLLABORATION STATIONS~ Use physical space and available devices for "collaboration stations" (Denise Yamashita)

I hope to apply these strategies as soon as my school year begins.

--Nira Dale English 9

Mrs. Dale also curated on her site session videos from EdmodoCon. For impatient participants (read: me) anxiously waiting for the release of the archives, Mrs. Dale's videos were very helpful! I'm so impressed with Nira Dale that I gave her a shout out during EdmodoCon. 

Nira ROCKS, so be sure to connect with her!

If you would like to contribute and share a EdmodoCon 2013 post, please submit!

EdmodoCon Guest Post #1: L. Monge

Our first EdmodoCon Guest Post is brought to us by Laura Monge from Rancho Palos Verde, California. Laura is starting her 27th year of teaching and is obviously excited by all this crazy tech stuff. Looking forward to going paperless, Laura will be piloting a BYOD 1:1 iPad 4/5 combo classroom this year. Like what you see? Laura will be presenting at CUE in Napa in October!  Way to go, Laura Monge!

Yesterday I woke up about quarter to 7 in the morning, opened my emails, and saw this reminder that Edmodocon would be starting at 7:00 a.m. Since this was my first time experiencing Edmodocon, I had zero expectation or thoughts about what it would entail.

I tuned in right from the start of the live stream program, still in my pjs. Little did I know what I was in for...the day was filled with some of the most amazing speakers!  Some were educators, some technology specialists in their school districts, some Edmodo staff. These people speaking were from all over the world, and Edmodo had flown them in for the event.

As each person shared the ways they had utilized the Edmodo site with their students, a code was given out to the audience to join that person's Edmodo page, with all the videos, ideas and handouts included on that page. In real time, we, the audience, commented and asked questions on the Edmodo page and on the live stream.  It was a real collaboration!

I watched the presentations on my iPad. I took notes on my iPhone as each speaker shared their amazing ideas for using Edmodo in the classroom. Although I used Edmodo last year with my students for communication, sharing videos, and flipping the classroom, there are polls, assignments, quizzes, school planner features I need to add to my repertoire.

I will be making an iMovie of what I learned and saw yesterday! Amazing!

I had to do it! Had to make an iMovie synthesizing the massive amount of innovative information shared yesterday at Edmodocon! Here it is!

Thank you, Laura for attending EdmodoCon 2013 and sharing your experience! You can connect with Laura on Google+ and at her blog, Laura Monge's Blog Page.

If you would like to contribute and share a EdmodoCon 2013 post, please submit!

COMING ATTRACTIONS! Edmodocon Recaps! Guest Posts!

I am so awed, overwhelmed, and overjoyed with presenting at Edmodocon 2013 and meeting phenomenal, inspiring educators.  Let me just say, I am BEAMING and get GOOSEBUMPS every time I talk about it with my home PLN.


 It was just...yeah... No words, just beaming smiles and goosebumps. Mind has been blown and Baker can't talk--as Liz and anyone else who has worked with me can attest, this is a miracle!

Screenshot of Liz & I at EdmodoCon. Photo Credit: N. Dale

As soon as I can process this and find the words,  I will be writing a series of blog posts on Edmodocon and the presentation Liz Calderwood and I gave.



In the meantime, I'd like to put a call out to all you wonderful and amazing readers...



For those of you who attended the conference, virtually or in person, please share your experiences as a guest post on my blog. I'd love to hear from you, the audience, about your experience with Edmodocon!  Great take-aways? Favorites? Recaps? Share, share share! Your submission can be in written, audio, or video form. 

Just complete the form below and provide a link to where I can find your submission and I will copy/paste into a post here. For those of you who don't have your own blog or are unsure, this is super easy because you don't have to worry about design: I'll do that for you! And if you already published it on your blog, I don't mind! Posts will go up ASAP. You keep 'em coming, I'll keep posting them! My only stipulation is that you demonstrate appropriate and professional digital citizenship. #JustSayin'

There is one very important thing that was evident during Edmodocon that I can put into words right now:

Using Edmodo as a management and communication system has transformed my teaching, learning, and connectivity, but it is the PEOPLE who created, maintain, and use Edmodo that make all this magic happen. The tool is leverage to lift the load of learning. No matter the tool you use, it is the PEOPLE who matter most.

Thank you to Edmodo and all the educators, students, administrators, and support staff who use Edmodo. If you thought I was fired up before, just wait and see what I'm going to do to next. Radiating, blazing, Edu-awesomeness! I hope you will join me, because...

 We make each other better, together.

#EdcampHOME is Where the Heart is... for Learning

EdcampHOME demonstrated the power of organized mulitple Google Hangouts and educators' desire to learn. In the 3+ hours of the un-conference, I can honestly say I did not move from my seat. Despite all the amenities at home & ability to multi-task with housework, I sat glued to my spot the entire time. I did not want to miss one second of the action. And I was sad to see the organizers' GHO end.

I remember attending my first Edcamp in November and being awed by the session board: its masking taped grid on a cement block school wall and the giant post it notes used for session creation; the organizers on laptops furiously copying the schedule to a Google spreadsheet. Seeing the big session board for the first time showed me the power of messy, home grown, do-it-yourself professional development. I had been trained for years that teaching and learning was neatly and purposely sequenced in lesson plans and prepackaged by professional third-party developers....by the way, I always had the hardest time writing lesson plans because I felt like I was predicting the future and the students' demeanor (some days just aren't made for group work) and mandated professional development workshops were never my thing either because I like to pursue things on my terms, but I digress... That big huge wall of post it notes at EdcampNJ became a symbol for my epiphany to intentionally pursue my own professional development and my colleagues to do the same. As William Ernest Henley wrote in his poem, Invictus, "I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul" or this case, my education.

When I saw EdcampHome first popped up on my Twitter feed, I did not hesitate to register, but I couldn't help but wonder if the power of the session board would be lost online-- boy, was I wrong. The website design and organization and using http://en.linoit.com/ for brainstorming sessions was mesmerizing to see-- the sticky notes appeared and covered and covered and covered each other. And despite the time it took to get the sessions organized, it was evident the participants had much they wanted to learn. As we all know and experienced today, learning is messy and we learn more from facing an obstacle, adjusting and adapting. To quote that English proverb, "A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner."

I did have a few frustrating moments when trying to sign up for the first session and not being able to do so on the log jammed Google doc (Karl saved the day!), but unfortunately the session didn't get going due to technical difficulties on the moderator's end. I was bummed to miss out on discussing class blogging, but I hope to connect with Elizabeth Buckhold via Twitter and can learn from her. Getting my Elizabeths mixed up, I did pop into the Global Collaboration Hangout with Elizabeth Goold for the last 5 minutes of session 1. Not realizing I wasn't where I intended to be, I launched right in chatting with the other ladies in the room and probably confused Elizabeth Goold with my explanation of why I was late. But my error was really a gain once I realized that now I can add 2 more Elizabeth's to my PLN.

I moderated session 2, talking about Creating Digital Workstations for Readers Workshop with Markette Pierce and Steph Hardinger which evolved into a conversation about digital tools for the English classroom. Can't complain about that! I hope to connect with these ladies more! Here's our conversation:

Wrapping up the day, I took the lead for contributing first for the SmackDown sharing one of my favorite tools for the English classroom, Gobstopper. During TeachMeetNJ in August of 2012, when I first heard the word "smackdown," I didn't think it was very complimentary: I had visions of people bad mouthing apps and really smacking others down, little did I know that it was a quickfire way to share resources. EdcampHome's smackdown really became a lifting experience with the participants sharing their initial trepidation about [Google] hanging out in an unconference and praising the organizers, David, Kelly, Shawn, and Karl for creating such a homey event. I'm awed by the experience and to be part of something that will revolutionize professional development.

Thanks again!