Social Networking at School!

Social networking is a great tool to use when communicating with both parents and students.  Unfortunately, it can be risky to use sites like Facebook and Twitter at school.  Luckily there are great websites that you can use that are safe for use in education.  One of these great websites is called Edmodo.

Edmodo is a secure social networking site that teachers can use with their students in many ways.  It is easy to sign up and is FREE!!  To see what Edmodo is all about, watch the introductory video below.


Edmodo also has a blog where you can read about best practices for integrating it into your classroom.  To access the blog, click here.

Another great feature of Edmodo, is that they have an app!!  On the blog, they show how you can use Edmodo on the go!

What do you think of Edmodo?  Do you think you would use it in your classroom?  If you do, how might you use it?

Amanda

A New Way to Present

Looking for a new way to present information to your students?  www.prezi.com might just be your answer.

To get an idea of the theory behind Prezi, check out this Prezi below!  (Pretty cool that you can embed it into a blog, right?!)  If you want to learn how to embed a Prezi on your blog, check out Peter Pappas' explanation on his blog.

Copy of About perspective... on Prezi

Now that you have an idea of how it works, you can sign up at www.prezi.com.  If you have a school e-mail address, you can access an upgrade in Prezi that allows you to create student accounts as well!

After checking out Prezi, do you think there is a chance PowerPoint might become extinct?!

- Amanda

Google Forms

Recent Obsession-Google Forms!

You are probably thinking…what are Google forms and how can they be used in the classroom?

Most recently at my school and in my district, teachers and administrators have been using Survey Monkey to create surveys that can be taken by students, faculty members, etc. Survey Monkey is a great website, but it’s organization of your final data is basic, and difficult to manipulate (unless of course you upgrade).

With Google Forms, you can create an online quiz, survey or activity for free! Once a student fills out your online form, all of their responses and answers are automatically entered into an online Excel Google Doc that can be accessed through your e-mail account!

Check out and fill out a form that I created by clicking HERE. Then, check out the data that I am able to gather in my Excel sheet by clicking HERE!

To try and use Google Forms in a different way, I also created a grading rubric in Google Forms. This way, as my students are presenting their projects, I can easily fill in their grades on my computer.

For this project, the students were required to complete research on a country and then use their knowledge of that country and what makes a good school, to design their own school that is specific to their country. Check it out HERE.

Check out the video below, it will show you how to set up a Google Form.

Enjoy!