Another Reason to Love Edmodo!

After attending the PLC Summit 2011 in Arizona, I gained a greater insight into  how important collaboration is.  Not just within my school, but in the U.S., and other countries.  With that being said, I give Kudos to Edmodo for allowing collaboration to take place on their site.  Edmodo is not just a site for my students, but it is also a site for me.  You might not know this, but Edmodo allows you, not only to join communities, but to create them.  I have only created one community, a school district PLC community, but, unfortunately, they’re not ready for Edmodo. They think it’s too high tech, and so I sit, the only member in that community. Hopefully, some day, but I digress.

I joined the Edmodo communities, just as I did EduPln, Twitter, LinkedIn, hoping to find other teachers who were into what I’m  into.  Who share my passion, and see nothing wrong with going home, getting on the laptop, desktop, Ipad, whatever floats your boat, and looking for other teachers to help them make teaching what it should be, engaging,  interesting, and passionate. (Hmmmm… is passionate too strong a word?) Understand, I am by  no means downing the other sites, it’s just that Edmodo is my favorite.:)

 Edmodo is , different.   I not only have two, yes two, pen pal buddy classes  for my class, which by the way they love, (Which one Mrs.M, our Cali Pen pals or our NJ friends?) , but I have learned so much from  my unknown, unseen, colleagues. If you join  an Edmodo community, you notice a number of things.

1. They are very, very,  generous with their knowledge. 
2.  These teachers share links, files, sites,student work, etc…
3. They provide unsolicited information, valuable, usable, information!
4.  They answer your questions, not just one teacher, but many teachers!
5. They say things like “Thank you”, and “Great idea!”
6. They are so helpful, really, I am not exaggerating!
7. They have a community for each  subject, so you can pick and choose which ones you want to join.

Here’s an example. Every year, I have my students perform poetry for their parents. I call it “Poetry Day.” It is great, everyone loves it, BUT, I struggle to get the students to write various types of poetry, Well, the other day, one of my Edmodo colleagues posted this link, ETTC Instant Poetry Forms. Voila! My problem is solved. Of course, I immediately thanked her, as all good  Edmodo community members do.:)

Love it! I will continue to learn from my colleagues, and share my knowledge with them.  I just thank Edmodo for giving me the opportunity to collaborate with teachers who are serious about what they do, teach!

3 Steps to Creating Your Personal Learning Network(PLN) – An Edmodo Blog

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“Tweets about Teachers!”

Ever wonder what’s being Tweeted about teachers?  I never did.  However, last night,   I did  a  Twitter  search for a site called “We Are Teachers.”   That’s where the fun began. Instead of getting their Twitter page, tons of tweets came up with the words,” we are teachers”  anywhere in the tweet.  I found some of them very amusing, and wanted to share them with you, I left out the ones with profanity.:) I wrote them the way they were written.  These are from students:

1.    “I can’t learn history from a teacher who was born in the 70’s.”

2.     “My PE teachers are retarded.  They need to realize that if they let us run the mile  WITH our Ipods we will be faster.”

3.     “options,options,options, BLAH BLAH BLAH we all know what the teachers want us to choose, even if they are saying that it’s “our choice”

4.     “Teachers are those who help us in resolving problems, which without them, we wouldn’t have.”

5.    “I mean it not like we are ever using what learned in school ever?’

6.    ” Ughhh, homework. We are not in college teachers.”

7.   ” OMG, I missed a weak of school and the teachers are freaking out…”

8.    “School is like jail, the cells are classes, the teachers are the security guards,and we are the prisoners.”

On a positive note: “Mistakes are like teachers, we learn from them.”

From adults:     ” Teachers on TV make all teachers look like schmuks.”

                               “Parents: News Flash!  Teachers are people with lives & families too.  We have emergencies just like you do. A little understanding would be nice.” (I think this one  is a teacher)