Edmodo

If I have one technology friend, it is Edmodo. Together, we can do anything!

But honestly, it is a very useful and user-friendly tool. If you're familiar with Facebook, it is likely that you could pick up the logistics of Edmodo very quickly.

What is Edmodo? It is a website where teachers can create classes (called "groups") that their students join. Once this is done, teachers can share posts, create polls, assign quizzes (multiple choice, T/F, short answer, fill in the blank, matching) and more. Posts can be sent immediately, or scheduled to be sent at another time (i.e. the next morning before school starts).

Everything that you post or create in Edmodo gets saved in your library so that it can be reused again. Sync it with your Google docs so that all of those gems can be accessed quickly; you can even give your students access to particular folders, if you'd like.

As you can see, I have shared some ixl.com practice as well as Learnzillion.com videos on Edmodo

To create a class, you simply "create a group." Once you have given the group a name, grade, and subject area, it will give you an access code. Students who are already on Edmodo simply have to click "join a group" and enter that code to be put in that class. Students who are not on Edmodo can use that code to create an account and join their first class. (Another option is to send the join link to everyone in an email.) Then you can start sharing! Each student is given a parent code so that parents can keep up with their assignments and grades on Edmodo. As a teacher, you can create small groups, limit students' abilities to comment, change their passwords, and more.

I have not used Edmodo extensively yet, but I intend to use it daily this year. Schools where students do not have tablets/laptops with them throughout the day can still use Edmodo for homework assignments and a sharing center during trips to the computer lab. 

For a PLE, I plan to post the day's agenda and activities in a post in Edmodo. When the activities are student-driven, they will have the freedom to go about it at their own pace, taking more time with a particular activity or assignment if they need to. Students who are grasping the information a bit more quickly can move ahead to the next assignment or assessment. Students who finish early can then peer-tutor group members that may need some assistance, or practice the topic on ixl.com, khanacademy.org, or similar sites. 

Homework Email/Keeping up with your classroom website

Using Google Docs, my teammates and I send out a homework email every day. That may sound like a chore, but it's not too hard and the parents love it. At the top are links to our websites, general announcements, and upcoming events. Then we have a table: a row for each teacher and a column for each day of the week.

Students are expected to write down their assignments in their planners, but as sixth graders, they mess that up sometimes. This email serves as backup for them, and lets the parents know what their kids are/should be working on. Something else that this provides us is an opportunity to link directly to assignments. For example, if homework was to watch a Khan Academy video, I can link directly to the video so all they have to do is open up the email and click. If homework was a worksheet, I can attach a copy of it to the email so absent students (or forgetful ones) aren't left behind.

To link to a worksheet, though, it needs to be online somewhere. That's where my classroom website comes into play: I have a tab on my site labeled "Documents Manager" where I (try to) keep documents sorted by their unit of study. Once I have uploaded the document to my classroom site, I can copy its link to the Google document.

To attach copies of worksheets that are not digital versions:
CamScanner: take pictures of documents that you have printed out and convert them to PDFs. What I like
about apps like this one is that they will combine all of the pictures from that session into one file, so you're not uploading lots of separate files for both fronts and backs. What is neat is that it will guide you in grabbing the corners of the document so that the final product is only the piece of paper you want (no random backgrounds or anything) and you can choose a filter that makes it look exactly like a printed piece of paper (bright white with black writing).

As far as I can tell from my experience, this app does not limit the number of pictures you include in one file. Other apps like Handy Scanner will limit the number of pictures you can use.

If you're interested in checking out my classroom website, feel free. It's not stellar, but it's functional! If you have any advice for it, please let me know!

Thanks for reading!

PLE Sites

Personalized Learning Environment... I'm nervous but very excited about it. It is going to be so much easier to do since we are going to have tablets in the hands of every student at our school, but that doesn't mean it's going to be totally simple! Here is a list of sites that can be used by students individually to learn, practice, and move at their own pace. They can be used as part of a lesson or as individual work that may be worked into a lesson.

• powermylearning.org : (FREE) games that students can play that are aligned with the Common Core! 
  
  
  
  
• StudyIsland.com : (NOT FREE) rigorous (but multiple choice) questions that are aligned with the Common Core. This site is not free, but many schools choose to purchase a license for a grade or for the whole school. Teachers can pick individual topics to assign to their students. There is a game mode that can be used for more entertaining question answering. One neat thing about the site is that there is a pre-test for the courses, so students can take them at the beginning of the year to get a taste of what they are going to be seeing. 

• KhanAcademy.org (FREE) Students can watch videos on so many different topics, some of which come with accompanying practice. As teachers, we can build classes of our students and see which videos they have watched. If you have a flipped classroom, you can assign them as homework and then confirm that they watched them this way. Hint: when making your classes, DO NOT think that you have to enter all of their email addresses individually! 

• ixl.com (FREE) This site has tons of topics that students can practice. A license can be purchased, or students can pay for an account, for unlimited access to this site. For free, however, everyone can practice a limited number (20) of questions per day.

The next thing that I need to check on is whether or not they are all accessible on a tablet... That's not always a given!

8 Mathematical Practices

I currently do not have any displays of the 8 mathematical practices in my room, and am trying to think of a good way to make them visible without taking up too much wall space. While I was looking for some display resources for Math 6 Common Core "I can" statements, Teach Inspire Prepare on TpT had these free mathematical practices cards. Check them out as well as the "I can" statement cards that I intend to purchase!

Ask 3 before me

Something that I would like to get better at is giving students time to think, research, and struggle. That last part may sound harsh, but it is good for them to recognize that not everything is going to come easy to them and that they have the tools to overcome confusion and get help from someone other than "the person with all of the answers", because honestly, I don't! Something that I plan to display in my classroom is an "Ask 3 before me" poster. I got the font from Hello Fonts on TpT (Hello Box Stitch) and created it really quickly. You're welcome to use mine or create your own!

Fonts

Make fun posters!

Using this resource from teacherspayteachers.com, you can download tons of fonts that will help you spice up your handouts, announcements, posters, etc! Just download the zip file, look through the fonts individually (which isn't super convenient) and if you want to use one, just "install" it. It should then show up in your processing programs (Word, Powerpoint, etc.) under Hello _____. I have found that they don't always show up very legibly if they are too small, but if you make them large, they look so fun! 

Divisibility

Even though divisibility rules are not mentioned in our unit plans, sixth grade math teachers have been teaching divisibility rules for a while. Here is a resource for teaching those divisibility rules that I found (of course) on teacherspayteachers.com

When I get my head wrapped around it, I fully intend on making some of my own to put on there! Promise!

For the beginning of the year

We will not be getting our tablets until, earliest, day 5 of school. Bummer! So all of the get-to-know-you things that I was planning on doing the first few days of school are out the window. I'm now looking for other materials to use because what I did last year was not nearly fun enough.

• Fraction getting to know you: "Students use their knowledge of fractions to complete this getting-to-know-you activity"- on teacherspayteachers.com
• Beginning of the year student letter: Students fill in names of current best friends, things that they are nervous about (great for 6th graders just entering middle school), things they are looking forward to, and something that they hope to learn by the end of the year. The teacherspayteachers.com author likes to file them away and have students pull them out at the end of the year!
• Name Glyph: Directions for coloring name that are specific to each student based on their siblings, where they live, etc. I think that this could put many students at ease on the first day of school, especially sixth graders, because it is easy and should be relaxing. It also provides student work that can be displayed early on! 
• Beginning of the year scavenger hunt: This would be specific to each classroom, based on the materials that are available to the students. Mine might consist of the location the trash cans, tissues, stapler, hole punch, class library, coloring materials, off-limits locations (my desk), where they turn in their homework, etc. It can be a review on Day 2 of what is discussed on Day 1. 
• Make a teacher binder: I love keeping things organized (you wouldn't know that, walking into my room) and fun dividers and headers can make that so enjoyable! Check out this teacher binder on TpT, made by Project Second Grade.

My classroom... last year

These are a couple of pictures that I took when I set up my classroom for the first time last year. It stayed this way for a while, but I got tired of it. Once I started switching things up, I kept changing it, never finding what I really liked. The main problem is the desks: because the chairs are connected to the desks, it is difficult to put them side-by-side and still provide enough room for students to squeeze in between them. Fortunately, I teach 6th grade and most students can climb in or move the desks back and forth.

Our school has sky lighting (the arch on the left) that provides natural lighting in the room! The walls are pretty bare because I don't have a lot of resources that are big enough to be useful.

The desks were arranged in groups of 5.

The way that the desks ended the year in my room was in two arcs. One of my classes had a hard time focusing and communicating well with each other, so I asked them for ideas on how to arrange that classroom that might promote a more positive environment. The arc idea was a suggestion from a student, and when we tried it, most seemed to like it.

While reading Following my Heart to First Grade, I saw a picture of how she has her classroom set up. I may try this desk structure, but would still face the issue of students being able to get in.

I do want to have students sitting in groups, or at least pairs, because being able to work with other people is so important!

Our Tablet

Our school district received a large grant for tablets to implement a PLE for our students, and it decided to purchase the Asus Amplify tablet. If your school is in the market for tablets or new technology, I would check it out! It is geared specifically towards education through a specific component; I don't know what else to call it other than Amplify (that may very well be its name) but it is a class feed that gives teachers a lot of control over their students' tablets.

The picture here shows some of the controls that teachers have:

• eyes on teacher: the students' tablets freeze and display the text "eyes on teacher". What is expected of them is obvious :) 
• app control: teachers can lock/unlock specific apps to help students stay on track and use their resources appropriately
• timer: displays a timer on all student tablets
• quick poll: 2-4 answer choices to get a quick response from students
• short answer
• spot check (displayed on right): takes place of "thumbs up/down"
• call on: chooses a random student to call on and takes out the "you never pick me!" problem
• count off: randomly assigns students a number instead of having to walk around room counting off
• reasearch

The way that the tablet knows which students to target is that your class schedule is programmed into your tablet, as is theirs. When they get to your class, they "check in," which provides your connection. Students who are at home sick can also check in and stay on top of things. 

Teachers create playlists (much like your lists of songs in iTunes) for their resources that they send to students. Once they are shared with the students, the students can download them and access them at home, whether or not they have internet. 

Check out the website for the tablets here. 

Summer, 2013

As it is July between my first and second years of teaching, I can say that I have spent the summer trying not to think about next year while also trying to plan and improve on what I have for next year, and it has been confusing!

My school is one of 11 middle schools in our district that is getting tablets next year. It is an Asus tablet, called Amplify. I have had an Asus tablet for over a year now, so I have had an easier time learning the tablet's functions than people who have worked with iPads or no tablets at all. However, we are all learning how to integrate the tablets into the classroom, and that is hopefully going to be the main focus of my blog: how to use tablets and personal technology in the classroom to implement a Personalized Learning Environment (PLE). I have been doing research all summer (when I'm not avoiding doing research...) and am not quite sure how it will look!

I hope this helps some people and that it can be yet another forum for sharing ideas. Please contact me if you would like to contribute/share something, and let me know if you have any questions!

Thank you for reading!

Ann