Edmodo Training for High School Teachers

Rachael Moyer offered training on using Edmodo in the classroom for teachers at Hickory High.  Edmodo is a social media tool designed for education, enabling teachers to create a safe environment for communication, collaboration, and learning.

Want to learn more about Edmodo?  Read more here.

Catching Fire Commercial Video

Subject:  Language Arts

Grade: 6

Technology tools:  Computer

Tools used:  Social media tool, Video

Activity type:  Lesson, Project

After reading the second book in The Hunger Games series, Catching Fire, students created a video commercial depicting some of the events and challenges faced by the characters in the book.

Jenkins Elementary Highlighted on SmartBrief

 
Jenkins Elementary was highlighted in the April 24th edition of EdTech SmartBrief , a free newsletter designed to bring relevant news to subscribers.  The Hickory Daily Record article about technology integration at Jenkins was part of the SmartBrief on EdTech.  Read the HDR article here or visit the SmartBrief article here.

Edmodo as a Classroom Website

Subject:  Language Arts

Grades:  10, 11, 12

Technology tools:  Computer(s)

Tools used:  Social media tool

Activity type:  Lesson, Teacher presentation, Assessment, Research

Since my mode of technology includes an online classroom atmosphere, most of my goals are met through the use of Edmodo.

I post PowerPoint notes for my students, weekly think questions, and even major assignments where students turn in their work. Additionally, I make use of polls for formative assessment so that I can gauge the students on their levels of understanding. Additionally, I have used Edmodo in conjunction with ExamBuilder so that students can take their summative assessments (that I once printed) online, and the computer will even grade the work for me.  :)

This particular web site is what makes my classroom easy to manage! The best feature is that I can organize all of my assignments for each class, and students have a calendar of events and due dates to help with their own organization. In my English classes, I don't use Edmodo as regularly, for all of my students do not have use of a computer at home. For this group, I post weekly vocabulary assignments where students have a week to complete the work; moreover, I will post reminders.



What I've enjoyed most about Edmodo for this group is that the research process has become much easier. I post attachments, links, and even embed pages that they might need complete their work, and I do not have to make copies or resend emails. material is available to them from any computer anywhere.

I would not change anything about using this website.  I've tried other sites before, but it is by far the most user friendly for both me and my students.

Rachael Moyer,  Hickory High

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Read more about using Edmodo in the classroom here.

Civil War Presentations using PowerPoint and Prezi

Subjects:  Math, Language Arts, Social Studies

Grades:  3, 4, 5

Technology tools:  Laptop(s), LCD Projector

Tools used:  Video, Word processing, Social media tool, Communication tool

Activity type:  Lesson, Unit, Project, Research

Students researched famous people of the Civil War and created PowerPoint presentations and Prezis to present along with their costumes and tri-folds for the Civil War Wax Museum.  Students viewed videos, researched their people, printed pictures, made PowerPoint presentations, and created Prezis.  Student learned how to save their information to their individual student share folders, and send their info to themselves through email, as well as save their info on flash drive.  On the day of the Wax Museum, students used the netbooks in the mall area of our school as part of their presentations.

Students were given a full rubric for the project that included use of technology.

The activity was very successful and I would like to link the Prezis together in a movie for next year's students to view.

Janet Hambrick,

The Hunger Games Project

Subject:  Language Arts

Grade:  9

Technology tools:  Computer(s), LCD Projector

Tools used:  Social media tool

Activity type:  Lesson

Objectives:  Students develop informed opinions and critique communication. They react to print and non-print texts and incorporate literary criticism and the opinions of others to formulate responses to the literature (Suzanne Collins - The Hunger Games).

In the middle of reading The Hunger Games with my ninth grade students, the film came out, and almost immediately after there was a flurry of Internet activity (mostly on Twitter) decrying the movie for casting black actors in the roles of Rue, Thresh, and Cinna. 



I projected some of the Tweets and coverage of the incident to show students and spark a discussion about race, how characters are imagined in different people's minds, and how that impacts the story.  We looked at specific passages in the book that describe characters, discussed cultural stereotypes, and completed a journal entry to share reactions.

I accessed the coverage on Jezebel (complete coverage: http://jezebel.com/hungergames; specifically the articles "Racist HungerGames Fans Are Very Disappointed" and "I See White People: Hunger Games and a Brief History of CulturalWhitewashing").  There is some bad language in the article and at least one racial epithet in the Twitter posts, but it was pretty easy to not show those parts of the post.

This activity was great for getting students involved in a discussion about the idea of a "post-racial" America and how and why racism has managed to hang around for so long.

Students were graded on the completion of their journal entry, where they wrote down their responses to people's reactions.

This activity got students involved and engaged, and they were able to articulate their responses very well.  I would probably have used more structured questions to guide the discussion.

Amy Williamson,  HCAM