Teacher Spotlight: Valeria Foarce, Godwin Middle School
Posted by: Lucia Giacomantonio
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This post is part of our Edmodo Spotlight series which highlights Edmodo teachers, schools and districts. If you are interested in being featured, please complete this form.
Valeria Foarce is a World Language teacher at Godwin Middle School in Woodbridge, Virginia.
3 Things I Love About Edmodo
- Less Paper - I don’t need to carry hundreds of papers with me all the time.
- Feedback Loop - I’m able to give personalized feedback to students and keep parents in the loop, because they have direct access to their children’s class activity and grades in Edmodo.
- Connectedness - As a department chair, Edmodo gives me flexibility to meet and share information with my colleagues, provide professional development, and access to resources. The biggest problem that Edmodo solves is the fact that we can meet virtually even if our planning times are different.
Organizing Student Communication with Groups
Edmodo Groups allow many students to work on different things at the same time, based on their interests and ability, with effective monitoring and instant feedback features.
As a World Language teacher, I am always interested in exposing my students to the elements of culture of those countries whose language we study. This is why I created a “French Trivia” Group in which I post a question every day and the first student who answers correctly receives a badge. I bring painting, music, literature, and fun facts into the online discussion.
Edmodo allows me to encourage students to search for information, rather than rely on information provided directly by the teacher. My “Best Books Club” Group allows students to share information about books they read at home and about which they think others might find interesting.
Engaging Students with Apps
My students like the Connections app (created by Bongo LLP) in French and English. There are many other apps, such as GoAnimate, which I would like to use in the future. Just the idea of having an Apps store makes Edmodo a modern eLearning platform.
Advice For New Edmodo Teachers
Beware, Edmodo is addictive! Once you learn what you can do with it, you won’t imagine yourself or your students without it. It is convenient, a great way to organize things, to maximize all your students’ learning, and to create a flipped classroom. You don’t need to be in a hurry to do everything from the beginning. Make Edmodo a part of your classroom routine and you will be an expert soon.
18 Responses to “Teacher Spotlight: Valeria Foarce, Godwin Middle School”
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I think Mrs. Foarce deserves a special teachers badge for her grand accomplishment!
I am so proud to be working with such a worldly colleague!!! No wonder your students are so motivated and excited to be learning the French language and culture!
What is a flipped classroom?
Great job, Mrs. Foarce!
I would love to hear more about how you collaborate with colleagues using Edmodo. Could you give some specifics?
Looking forward to finding a way for my Spanish high school students to communicate with others from different schools via Edmodo. I know it’s possible, but have yet to make it happen. Teachers like Valeria inspire me to explore the platform further.
Wonderful ideas! I love the student groups and can’t wait to start one of my own! Thanks for sharing!
A flipped classroom is: The students research/study the notes and sources at home and then answer asignments and questions at school. Thus the traditional ‘classwork’ is now done at home and ‘homework’ exercises are completed at school with the assistance of the teacher. Thus the flip!
I have this question. Do we need to have as many computers in our classroom as we have students in order to be able to use Edmodo effectively?
I really enjoyed reading your article. I’ve only been using Edmodo with my classes for about half a year, but I’ve already found out it’s addicitive! ;-P
Thanks for sharing your tips and experience!
First of all, a BIG thank you for all the kind comments:) I will try to answer all your questions…
@Michele K: A flipped classroom is a term essentially used to define a class/course in which learning expands beyond the physical walls of the traditional classroom. The students have constant access to resources (presentations, videos, etc.) and opportunities to interact with the teacher and their peers, which allow them to learn outside the classroom. In this way, students who are struggling or absent can still get the information and work at their own pace. Due to the fact that learning occurs at home, students can focus more on practice in class.
@Homa A: Not necessarily… You can use Edmodo to differentiate instruction and not all the students have to be on the computer at the same time. You can use, for example, small group tasks, which students can complete as part of enrichment or anchor activities.
@Lois L: Edmodo makes it very simple for us to discuss items on the meeting agenda, share resources, and provide evidence of professional development. As you know, Edmodo features a library where you can easily share presentations, documents, videos, etc. You can also create surveys and ask people to vote on different issues. If a colleague cannot be at the meeting or has to leave early, he or she can still be informed and, most importantly, be a part of the discussion. Time is no longer the most important element. If you have weekly meetings, for example, people can “attend” the meeting at ANY time during the week, rather than having to meet at a specific time and location for that weekly meeting. I hope this answers your question. If not, just let me know:)
I too am a french (high school) teacher and thought your idea is a great one especially since we can’t get enough cultural components into the course as we want. This would be a great way to get them searching. The winner could receive a free homework coupon as a prize!!!
Are you willing to share your list to get us started, Valeria? Merci bien!
@Kali: Sure! If you want to see a list of specific questions, connect with me on Edmodo and I will share with you a quiz I created and which students can take for extra credit. It includes some of the questions students had to answer in our daily contest. The daily questions are grouped by topics, such as: Famous People, Art and Sports, Life, Geography, History, Food, etc.
Thanks for the information, Madame. I teach French and Spanish and I am going to implement your trivia idea in my Spanish I class soon. I am also going to see what the “Connections” app does. Our school is implementing 1-1 technology so I appreciate your information.
Sincerely,
Madame/Senora Belanger
L’Anse Area Schools
L’Anse, Michigan (Upper Peninsula of Michigan)
Oh, thank you. 1-1 technology… Sounds great! By the way, using the Trivia game makes it so much easier for students to be exposed to basic daily expressions in a natural way. Every time you send an alert, praise someone, reply to a comment, etc. the target language is used naturally and in a less threatening way. My Trivia group is comprised of level 1 and level 2 students and I love it when some of my level 2 students post comments in French. My level 1 students are also using the target language more often and it’s their choice. We actually use the language to express reactions, congratulate others, etc. It’s very exciting:)
I just signed up, excited about possibilities! My big question is–for cross-curriclum (I teach Journalism), if most of my colleagues don’t/won’t use Edmodo, how do I incorporate what they learn elsewhere into Journalism, THROUGH Edmodo?? :
Can you be a little more specific? Do you want other teachers to share resources or are you thinking about students sharing information from other classes?
Students have a virtual backpack where they can save documents. There’s also a class library to which you can add resources: videos, presentations, and all kinds of documents. Another option is to create different groups based on students’ interests and assigned tasks. A student can belong to more than a group.
Valeria,
just greetings from central Europe
Nadia