EdmodoCon 2013 Guest Post #4: D. Easterling

Our fourth guest blog post is written by Dara Easterling, a Catholic elementary school teacher from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dara has been teaching for almost 14 years and loves helping young children to learn about and use technology in a productive and creative way.

Hello all,

I want to share one experience in particular while watching an EdmodoCon session online.  The one experience was with a session called "Classroom Gymnastics"presented by Kate and Liz.  First, let me just say the presenters were phenomenal.  Second, the resources provided in the presentation and in the folders associated with the Edmodo group are very easy to understand and will help me in my flipping.

Lastly, that there is not just a one size fit all model to communication, collaboration, and instruction within learning.  It takes flexibility and a willingness to attempt new things in order to move forward.

When you think of gymnastics, particularly women's gymnastics there are the following elements.  I am using these elements to outline what I got from watching and listening to the session.

Rounds
-  preparation is key (lesson template along with timing of lesson; gathering of resources)
-  student participation is key no matter how limited it may be
-  working technology is important

Apparati
-  Edmodo
-  equipment (iPad, laptop, etc.)
-  classroom or other learning environment
-  apps or Web 2.0 tools

Scoring
-  built in assessment tool with Edmodo
-  ability to complete a skill in the routine

Completion of Skill 
-  video clips or other presentation to show what was learned and how growth came about
-  collaboration

All of these things I plan to meld together during the upcoming school year and hopefully end up with my students and I earning a perfect "10" for our routine.

Thank you, Dara, for attending EdmodoCon 2013 and the compliments! I anticipate the you and your students will be Olympians in the sport of learning!

You can read about Dara's adventures in elementary education on her blog, Kontemporary Kreations. 

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

EdmodoCon Guest Post #3: M.Valois

Our third guest post comes from Megan Valois, a high school History/English teacher in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Megan is the guest moderator on the Canadian Ed Chat (#cdnedchat) on Twitter who enjoys expanding her PLN and learning about new tech tools to improve her teaching and class experience. Here is Megan's recap of EdmodoCon 2013.

On Tuesday, I participated in a virtual conference - a professional learning opportunity - called #Edmodocon. It was presented by the good people over at the #Edmodo app/website. 

If you aren't familiar, Edmodo is a social learning platform for schools, often called the "Facebook" for schools because its format is similar. Edmodo has many advantages for many reasons. It's a great, safe place for teachers and students to connect; students can post questions, submit assignments, create projects, access notes, join discussion groups, and much more.  Students need access codes to join a class so it's secure and safe. Check it out: www.edmodo.com

#Edmodocon provided educators with the chance to 'virtually' participate in a full day conference to learn more about the amazing ways to utilize Edmodo for classroom learning and success. More than 20,000 educators globally tuned in! There were several sessions throughout the day by presenters on a range of topics, including digital citizenship, project based learning, "flipping" the classroom, building leadership capacity and more! 

Some of my take-aways from the sessions were:

1 - Using Edmodo for literature circles
2 - Ways to teach students how to be better digital citizens
3 - New apps (compatible with Edmodo) to try - ie: Explain Everything
4- Re-emphasis on what I already knew about how amazing project based learning is
5- Flipping the classroom

Patrick Fogarty's session: Access, Engagement, and Equality with Edmodo was one of my favourites. Loved his "30 second lesson" ideas, where students can create a video in "30 seconds" about a key concept. This is a great way to teach the skill of summarizing main ideas! You can build on this by having students string together a series of related '30 second lessons' too! 

He also reminded us about the core philosophy of differentiated instruction - my biggest passion. He shared: "It's professional malpractice giving kids work they can't access in multiple ways". To meet the needs of all learners, we must give opportunities for choice! 

Flipping the classroom/BYOD by Kate Baker and Liz Calderwood was another gem. The idea of classroom flipping is "a form of blended learning in which students watch lectures online and work on problem sets with other students in class. This approach allows teachers to spend more time interacting with students instead of lecturing. This is also known as backwards classroom, reverse instruction, flipping the classroom and reverse teaching."[1][2] 

I am already a huge proponent of BYOD and am very intrigued by flipping the classroom. It's definitely something I'd like to try, even for just a few lessons, to see how it works. The advantages are so very clear - that more time spent actually working out problems in class with teacher support will benefit the students. My fear, of course, is that the 'homework' of watching the lesson won't be done and then the in-class time would be wasted. Does anyone have suggestions for me or guidance about this? Would love your feedback because I am really keen on trying this if I can wrap my head around how to make it work! The ladies in this session were engaging and passionate; it was a great watch! 

One of the more powerful moments of the day was Sheryl Sandberg's virtual address as part of the Lean In organization. She reminds us that we are "teaching future leaders". Her talk was about gender stereotypes in leadership and what we can do to promote leadership among young girls and women.  Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk0Gq00LHMc

Thank you #Edmodo for a great conference! I already look forward to next year!

Thank YOU, Megan for your recap! 

You can connect with Megan and read about her academic adventures at her blog. 

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

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!