Throwback Thursday: Edmodo & Book Clubs

Time for a little Throwback Thursday....

This originally "aired" back in October of 2012 but I was reminded of Edmodo at Urban Boot Camp For Educators, a wonderful professional development that I have been attending this week. (Seriously, such a great and affordable conference. If you are in the Bay Area check it out!)

 Anyway, I  thought it would be fun to share again.  Edmodo is such an engaging website for students and really creates communities for students to share, discuss and interact. (So Common Core!) Have you used Edmodo????

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I wanted to share s fun little resource that kids L-O-V-E. It's called Edmodo. Have you heard of it????

I actually first heard about Edmodo at a technology conference over the summer. It is basically like Facebook but can be used for communicating with your students online. If you check out the image below you can REALLY see the similarities to fb!

It is a secure site, password protected and nobody else sees the info posted so there is a lot less to worry about than some other sites. To be honest, I don't remember all of the security details because the conference was in July but I do know that it was approved for our school and we are kinda strict about all that stuff!

Anyway, our 7th grade teachers have been using Edmodo with great success. They even post assignments online and the students turn them in via Edmodo. Since it's just like Facebook, you can use it to facilitate peer to peer discussions as well....

Which brings me to the book club. Our teeny tiny school is filled with some reluctant readers. We are using this fun Edmodo site to get them excited about reading. The 6th grade teacher and myself are hosting an all girls book club for 6th, 7th and 8th graders.

The sixth grade teacher picked our first book Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker. It tells the story of a 12-year-old girl during Hurricane Katrina. Our shipment hasn't come in yet, but I really can't wait to start reading it next week!

And the best part: the girls are super excited, too! We weren't sure how much interest this book club would generate since it requires the girls to do a lot of extra reading outside of school. They also have to post and discuss each chapter in addition to their normal nightly homework for school but so far the response has been great! 

We've already had more than half of the middle school girls at our school join our  group on Edmodo. They've  all commented on the authors introduction which was posted on our Edmodo page and watched a video clip from youtube.

The girls are already using strategies (predicting, building their schema), searching out their own info (several have commented on googling the events of Hurricane Katrina) and chit chatting about the books with their peers. 

I can't wait to see where it goes from here! I am all for any tool that has our students excited about  reading and discussing books --even on this three day weekend! Love, love, love! 

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If you would like to here more about our school's use of Edmodo for book clubs, CLICK HERE! :) This post discusses our experience using Edmodo when reading City of Orphans by Avi.

I am looking forward incorporating more technology, including Edmodo into my classroom this year! Especially after attending this conference for a second time.

How 'bout you??? How will you be using technology in your classroom this year? I'm hunting for more ideas. :) 

Monday - Must have Apps

 I am linking up with Nikki over at Sent from my iPad for a fun little technology linky.

So my apps are kinda random and by no means am I an expert at anything techie related but these are a few apps that I enjoy....

Educreations


Love, love, love this app! Especially because I don't have a smart board. I use mostly to create lessons that I post to my classroom blog that way my kids can access and review material from home.

iMotion

This is a super fun app that allows you to create stop motion animations (Think Coraline or Wallace and Gromet).

Our art teacher showed this to all of the teachers this summer at a workshop.  It is so much fun to play with! My students recently used it to create a stop motion video about ancient Egypt. How cool is that?!?!?

Edmodo


Love using this on my iPhone. Keeps me connected even on the go.

Sushi Monster


I use this app as a station during math roations. So cute! And a good way to practice multiplication.

Well, I think that's it for me. If you get a chance link up!   If you don't already follow Nikki, hop on over. She always has lots of fun technology tips!

I am one tired teacher. This first day back kicked my booty. I'm going to do a littlle blog stalking and then heading straight to bed. :) Have a great week!

Edmodo Book Club: City of Orphans

 Hello all! I hope that you are all enjoying your breaks and spending time with the ones you love most. I am so happy to be spending some quality time with  my family in my hometown.

After spending the evening trimming the tree my mommy, Grandma and sister (while the boys watched football), I am about to curl up with my new book club selection: City of Orphans.

At our school, we have been using Edmodo as a forum for book clubs.I wrote more about that HERE

 We started off the year by reading Ninth Ward. The kids loved the book and we celebrated with a pizza party before we left for Christmas Break. 

We are now reading City of Orphans by Avi.

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I've just started the novel but so far it's great. The setting is especially interesting: New York City in the 1890's. 

One of the other teachers at school posted these videos to help our students visualize the setting:

 

Several of the kids have already started reading and discussing online. It makes me happy to see them so excited about reading...even on their break!

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas Break!