As you’re wrapping up for the holidays, consider using one of these simple Edmodo mini-lessons to help students reflect on what they’ve learned and prepare for the year ahead.

Best and Worst of 2011

1. Create a group titled “Best and Worst of 2011” and invite all your students to join.

2. Create an assignment that asks students to submit two nominations:

• The best learning experience of the year to date. This can be a lesson, a discussion, a video they watched, a game they played or an assignment they completed that they really enjoyed.
• The worst moment of the year to date – same as above, with a gentle reminder about appropriate ways to provide constructive feedback.

3. Create a poll with the top 5 responses for each question and let the voting begin.

4. At your class holiday party, count down the top events of the year — break out the confetti when you get to #1!

2012 New Year’s Resolutions

1. Create a group titled “2012 Resolutions” and share the group code with your students.

2. Create a post with the following message:

• “Share with the class ONE resolution you will make for your academic success in 2012.” Encourage students to set realistic and measurable goals.
• Examples may include: I promise to read at least three books that are not assigned; I promise not to be late on my homework more than twice.

3. Award badges, extra credit or small prizes at the end of the semester to those students who lived up to their commitment.

We hope you enjoy these mini-lessons. Stay tuned for our final holiday checkslist post tomorrow!

Once you’ve organized your groups and resources, follow these steps to get your students on Edmodo:

• Introduce students to Edmodo by showing them the Edmodo at a Glance video.
• Help students understand how they can sign up with our Student Guide to Edmodo.
• If they need more direction, have them watch the How to Create a Student Account video.
• Before using Edmodo in the classroom, you may want to provide guidelines for your students to follow.  Check out these sample Edmodo Guidelines.
• You may also want to have your students sign a “Code of Conduct” as a promise to follow the guidelines you’ve set forth.

Be sure to get your students signed up before winter break begins so you can integrate tomorrow’s mini-lessons, which will help students reflect on what they’ve learned and prepare for the year ahead!

Follow these easy steps to get started:

• Once you’ve acquainted yourself with Edmodo, you’ll want to get all your groups created.  How you decide to name and organize your groups is up to you.  Many teachers choose to do it by subject area or period. Learn how to create groups in Edmodo.*
• Edmodo also allows you to create small groups, also known as sub groups. You can use sub groups for things like differentiation, project-based learning or course management.
• After your groups and small groups are created, you can upload any resources you’ll plan on using in your classroom to your Edmodo library.  This can be links, photos, handouts, syllabi, rubrics, videos etc.  Storing these items in your Edmodo Library makes them easily accessible at anytime.
• Once all of your resources are uploaded, you can create folders within your library to organize them.  These folders can also be shared with your groups, so that students can access all the resources as well.  Learn more tips for easy content sharing.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s tips on how to get your students signed up!

*Note: If you’re currently using Edmodo and your classes will change in January, be sure to archive your groups on the last day of the year.  The Archive option is located in your group settings.

Today we begin day one with a checklist for new users who are just getting started with Edmodo. If this is the first time you’re using Edmodo in your classroom, review these resources to help you get acquainted with how Edmodo can be integrated into your class:

• Sign up for a live webinar, or listen to one of our recorded versions.  Our Intro to Edmodo webinar will guide you through all the core features of the service.
• Visit the Help Center for informational resources, including our user guide and frequently asked questions.
• Review our teacher rollout resources. These were created to make your Edmodo rollout easier by providing a sample template for getting your students started with Edmodo.
• Review your district’s Acceptable Use Policy and create a permission slip for your students. The Introduction to Edmodo sample letter will provide a good start for this.
• Join the Edmodo New User Group to connect and collaborate with other new users.

Play View: Don’t have time to download all of the resources in a folder and just want a quick overview of the content?  Use Play View to quickly scan the folder’s contents to get what you need.

Folder URL: Did you know a URL is automatically generated for each folder you have in your library?  If the folder is shared with a group, you can provide the link to any group member to enable them to view the contents of that folder in Play View, without having to navigate to the group.

Public Folders: When you find something you really love, you can share it publicly so the wider Edmodo community can take advantage of it, even if they are not a member of you group. Simply check the “Public” option for the folder in your library and share the folder URL.

Preview quiz: Before you assign a quiz to your group, you now have the option to preview that quiz. When you select the preview quiz option (located below the assign quiz button), you can start a quiz and navigate through the questions, viewing the quiz, just as a student would view it.

Comments: When grading a quiz, you now have the option to provide comments back to the student.  You can provide comments for each question and when students view their results, they will see those comments below each question.

In addition to these updates, we’ve put together a few new resources to help you learn more about quizzes.

• Frequently asked questions on quizzes
• Tips for creating quizzes
• How-to videos:
• Create a quiz
• Submit a quiz
• Grade a quiz

In the upcoming months we’ll continue to enhance the quiz functionality, while adding additional features on Edmodo, so please, keep those suggestions coming via our support community!

That’s it for quizzes this week — other updates include:

Printable Members Page: To support your classroom management needs, you can now generate printable rosters for each group.  Under the Manage Group section, under Parents and Printer Friendly, select “Member List with Stats” to generate a report that lists your students, parent codes, # of badges awarded, and other statistics based on the criteria you select.

Edmodo in German: Also, you’ll now notice a German flag on the bottom of the Edmodo page. Select this flag to view Edmodo in German. Over the coming weeks and months we’ll be adding more languages to Edmodo – we’ll keep you updated as we release them.  Special thanks to Matthias Heil, the Edmodo educator who completed the translation for the community!  Thanks Matthias!

1. Bring Edmodo on your next field trip

Give your students an interactive experience on your next field trip with Edmodo.  Provide each student with a mobile device, have them bring their own, or divide students into small groups, ensuring at least one cell phone is available in each group.  As students wander through the museum or landmark (i.e. wherever your field trip takes place), post scavenger hunt questions, polls, or writing prompts through the Edmodo mobile app.  Students can respond, or ask questions of their own.

2. Host backchannel discussions

Use the Edmodo mobile app to host backchannel discussions with your students inside or outside the classroom.  For example, students can use the mobile app for in-class backchannel discussions during read alouds or movies. You could also host backchannel discussions outside the classroom during key events (i.e. broadcasted presidential speeches and debates) to help get students thinking about what they’re learning from the event and how it relates to what they’re learning in class.

3. Provide homework support

Provide your students with extra support by making yourself available to answer homework questions after school hours.  Allow students to direct message you, or post questions to the group during specific hours.  If you have alerts setup for messages, you’ll immediately be alerted to new questions and you can respond from your mobile device.

4. Check in with your class while you’re out

If you’re planning to be out of the classroom for any period of time, use the Edmodo app to keep in contact with your students.  Schedule morning check-ins with the class and have students answer questions about their learning. You can also respond to questions from students if needed.

Do you use the Edmodo mobile app? If so, how are you integrating it into your classroom?

As you prepare for the new school year, follow these best practices to ensure safe and secure usage of Edmodo in your classroom, school and district.

1. Set up a school or district subdomain

Having a subdomain allows all communication within your school or district to be viewed by administrators, providing full disclosure for teachers and students. It also enable better communication between schools in your district.  Encourage your district administrator to sign up for a school or district subdomain, or if you are a district administrator, claim your subdomain today.

2. Select unique student passwords
When helping students set up their Edmodo account, be sure to have them choose unique passwords.  Using generic passwords (such as “password”, “Name”123 or their birthdate) opens up the possibility for students to guess each other’s passwords. 

3. Manage the distribution of group codes

It’s a good idea to distribute the group code to your students in-class. Distributing the code via a blog, Twitter or any other public forum opens the possibility for others who are not meant to be in your group to join your group.  (NOTE: As the teacher, you have the ability to delete any members who join your group in error)

4. Set up notifications

Notifications alert you to new activity in your Edmodo groups and connections.  We recommend setting up text or email alerts to help you monitor students’ posts in your groups.  To do this, visit the settings panel in your Edmodo account and select how you’d like to receive your notifications (text or email) and the type of notifications (i.e. for new posts, replies, direct messages, etc.).

5. Lock the group code

Once your students join your Edmodo group, be sure to lock the group code so that no other students can join.  You can lock the group code by selecting the drop down arrow next to the group code and selecting the lock option.  (Note: your group code can easily be unlocked if needed.)

6. Reset option

Edmodo provides the option to reset a group code.  To reset the group code, select the drop down arrow next to the group code and select “reset”.  A new 6-digit code will immediately be generated.  (Note: group members who have already joined will not need to rejoin if you reset the group code).

7. Set expectations

It’s important to set clear parameters with students about the content that is appropriate for your Edmodo class group. At the beginning of the year, you may want to implement guidelines and expectations for your students when posting on Edmodo.  A really great example that we like to point out is this Edmodo Posting Rubric that was shared by Mr. Hamin in the Language Arts Community.

8. Read-only status

“Read-only” status provides a valuable bridge for students who are in the process of building appropriate digital citizenship skills. Read-only status can be managed by the teacher and allows a student to view classroom messages, submit assignments and communicate directly to their teacher, but limits their ability to post messages to the entire group.   To change a students posting status, select “manage” from the Members section >select the student > change status to “read-only”.

9. Invite parents to Edmodo

Keep parents in-the-know of all your classroom activity by inviting them to Edmodo.  By creating their own Edmodo account, parents can see what you (the teacher) post to the class, what their student is posting to the class and their student’s grades, assignments and calendar.  For more information on creating parent accounts, view our recent blog post.

1. Sign up

If you don’t already have an Edmodo account, visit Edmodo.com and sign up. Registration is free and takes less than a minute!

2. Adjust your settings and notifications

Once you’ve created your account, visit your settings panel. Here you can add your profile picture, indicate your school and adjust your privacy settings. You can also choose the types of notifications you’d like to receive (i.e. if you want to be notified of new group members, new messages, etc.) and how you would like to receive them (text or email).

3. Create your groups

Now that your account is set up, the next step is to create your groups. Decide on how you want to label and organize your groups (i.e. by period, subject area, etc.), then click the “create” link (located on the left-hand panel) and complete the details of your group. After your group has been created, a 6-digit code will be displayed on the right-hand side of the page. This is the code you will give your students to enable them to join the group.

4. Organize your libraryAs you’re preparing your lesson plans for the new school year, upload any resources you plan to share with your students to your Edmodo Library. Examples of resources you might want to upload include helpful links, videos, rubrics, worksheets, etc. Storing this content in your library will make it easy to share with your Edmodo groups when the time comes.

5. Invite your students

Once school begins, you’re ready to invite your students. If your students have used Edmodo in the past, they do not need to set up a new Edmodo account. They can simply use their existing username and password. If your students are new to Edmodo, provide them with the 6-digit group code and have them sign up for a student account.

BONUS STEP! – Invite other teachers at your school to join Edmodo and encourage your school’s IT director to claim a school or district subdomain. Subdomains enable members of your school to easily communicate with each other via your own Edmodo community. It also provides school administrators with additional management and analytic features.

For a demo of the core features and functionality of Edmodo, join our Introduction to Edmodo Webinar, held every Tuesday at 4:00 pm EST. Sign up now.