Learning Management Systems

     Well, this was another eye-opening week for me in regards to the technology available to educators. This work this week for The Connected Educator centered on Learning Management Systems, which I had never heard of before. A learning management system allow for educators to create an online connection with students and parents. The two sites I examined were Edmodo and Schoology. I explored Edmodo first. Right away I noticed how similar it was to Facebook in appearance and even some features. With Edmodo, teachers can create classes or groups. Classes are designed to provide various online activities where teachers can assign quizzes, tests, and homework. Groups can be created to communicate with parents. Students can earn badges as they complete work and allows for teachers to check for attendance. Schoology is almost identical to Emodo. The site also looks like Facebook in the way users can comment and like posts. Like Edmodo, educators can create Courses and Groups on Schoology depending on the type of interaction they're wanting.
     Both sites are free , to a point, to educators and offer a variety of features designed to help users grow professionally. You can look for lessons resources, as well as blogs- Schoology does categorize their blogs based on topic, which I found very helpful. Users can join groups and communicate with other educators to share ideas and experience. I found it difficult to decide which site I preferred over the other, as I expect many people would. Here is an article comparing the two sites, which might help people make a decision.
     We have finally made it summer vacation here in St. Joseph, Missouri. I am sure many parents and wondering how they can keep their kids on some kind of schedule, I know I am. As I thought about this, I remembered to check my Feedly account and sure enough, I found exactly what I was looking for. Feedly is so great in that it alerts you to new content- see the picture below:

If you are interested in The First Grade Parade's post of summer chores and boredom, here the link to the post. I found some great ideas for chore charts as well as activity incentives. Have a great week and be sure to check out Edmodo and Schoology. I plan to use one of them to increase communication with parents next year.

Hello PLN

Wowza... My mind was completely blown this week. I always thought that I was technically "with it" but this week I learned how far from the truth that belief is. We were assigned to research an online bookmarking website called Diigo. I was so excited as I explored all Diigo has to offer. When I signed up, I was able to get a free account, although there are many account options available for a price. One of the best features of Diigo is that you can bookmark sites of interest and connect those sites with a descriptive tag. Diigo organizes all of your bookmarks with the various tags you assign. Another exciting feature is that you can highlight portions of text on the site you bookmark- for me this was huge. I tend to forget what I found important on a certain site, so being able to highlight what I want to remember helps immensely. Here is a video I found that will help you navigate your first experience with Diigo, the music is relaxing too!

I was also exposed to a new term for something I was casually doing on my own- creating a Personal Learning Network. Many times throughout the school year I will look for an online resource to enhance a certain lesson. These sites include Discovery Education, Facebook groups, and Goodreads. There are many other sites that connect you to people or professional development you are interested in, sites like Twitter, EdWeb, and EduTopia.

Bottom line- this week I learned that there are so many websites on the internet that will really help educators grow. The tricky part is weeding out the good 😀from the meh😕, and I believe that all the sites linked above are definitely the good.

Here we go...

     Hey, everyone! I am ready to share my very first blog post. This week I started my 2nd to last grad class, The Connected Educator. My mind is already boggled by how much I didn't know about the blogging world. I have followed blogs in the past, mostly fashion, cooking and home decor, but had never looked at blogs about the teaching profession- boy was I missing out. For one of our assignments, I found 4 blogs to follow and I am so excited to explore those blogs and look for others. I think these sites will add so much to my teaching. Many of the sites have free downloads, which I love, as well as ideas for implementing more technology into a classroom. As I continued working through this week's assignments, I found the usefulness of Feedly. This site organizes all the blogs you follow and alerts you when new content is added. For someone like me who can be easily distracted by my everyday tasks, it is comforting to know that I won't miss out on anything by forgetting to check my favorite blogs, Feedly does it for me. I know I will find it very useful. Finally, my favorite assignment this week was creating a post using AdobeSpark. I love to play around with templates, fonts and pictures. This site does all the hard work for you. I was able to choose my favorite quote, make it look fancy and add a picture of my favorite little people. I think my first graders would be able to use this site, with a little guidance, to create a graphic for an assignment. I love when I can implement technology into my classroom. Here's what I created: