I cannot begin to tell you how much it has meant to me this year to build my personal/professional learning network. The information I have received along with the colleagues I have connected with throughout the world have been invaluable. I highly recommend to start creating your PLN. This post by Social Networking for Schools - Edmodoby Betsy Whalen discusses how you can begin today!
3 Steps to Creating Your Personal Learning Network (PLN): "
Your PLN is the network of educators and colleagues you connect with online to share resources, ideas and experiences. Creating a strong PLN takes time and focus but is a critical step for professional growth. The first steps to creating a PLN on Edmodo are easy – and will get you on your way to developing a deep network of professional connections and peers with whom you can share ideas and experiences:
1. Connect with Other Educators. Use the “Search teachers” function on the right side of the screen to find colleagues and educators you’ve met at conferences and professional development events. Connecting with them allows you to send direct messages and share content to each others’ libraries.
2. Join Subject Area and Publisher Communities: From Australian educators sharing their lessons on “Catcher in the Rye” to others sharing their portfolios as they prepare for the National Board exams, the subject area communities are a valuable resource for gathering professional feedback from your peers.
3. Participate in Conference Communities – even if you can’t make it to the conference!: Whether you plan to attend ISTE in Philadelphia in June and want some pre-conference inspiration, or if you can’t quite swing the ticket to Florida for FETC in January but are hoping to participate from home, joining the conference communities provides access to concurrent session materials, peer feedback on sessions, and updates on events and things to look for at conferences. We often announce new conference communities on the blog, so be sure to keep a lookout for new – they are a great opportunity to meet like-minded educators to add to your PLN!
Bonus Step: Stay connected on Facebook/Twitter and the Blog: The best way to keep learning is to keep connected with events and trends in education technology. Stay up to date on Edmodo events by “liking” our page on Facebook and following Edmodo on Twitter .
Still thinking about the power of Twitter? Want to hear another perspective on using Twitter? Read this post by The Teaching Game:
Getting What I Really Want Out of Twitter: "Twitter and blogging give us access to thousands of people who are on different parts of the same path: each a potential collaborator, ally, or even friend. Continue reading → Read More......(read more)"
This is the 7th post in the “30 days to using the best of the web’s free tools for educators” series. Be sure to subscribe to the Teacher Challenge blog by RSS, like us on facebook, and follow us on twitter to keep up with future challenge posts as they are published.
Objectives:
Teachers will be able to create an account for themselves and their classes to enjoy the many creative features of the program. Lesson plans, help, and standards are easily found throughout the site. They will be able to see their students’ products with a touch of a button. This site can be used in many subject areas in the K-8 classroom (with stations or interactive whiteboard) and lab.
Overview:
1. How to Play:
Click the Question Mark to:
Make a Movie Learn how to make a movie using Kerpoof Animation Studio.
Make a Picture Learn how to use the Kerpoof Picture Maker to create fantastic art.
Teachers can download free lesson plans for a variety of subject areas.
Teacher Accounts:
Teachers can register their students so they can save their work, share it, chat with each other, post comments, and collaborate on the same project at the same time on different computers.
Classroom Ideas:
Teachers can find ideas to use Kerpoof in the classroom, like story starters and types of writing. Teachers can receive emails with ideas as well.
Standards covered:
The National and State Standards are outlined here.
More!
Subscribe to their newsletter, find FAQ, and contact them with any questions.
Students can choose a background and add items to their page by spelling words correctly. Then they can print their picture with the list of words! Great interactive whiteboard activity!
Students can choose a storyline and scene to create their movie. They can choose characters to animate, move from one place to another, and “talk” with bubbles. Use the timeline to drag actions, titles, songs, and quotes in specific places.
My students are familiar with Kid Pix and enjoy the program. After I connected them to Kerpoof’s Make a Drawing, they choose to play Kerpoof instead!
Students begin with a pen that they can change the thickness and color. They can also change the mixture of color from the palette with the “raindrop” icon next to the pen color. If they click on the raindrop, the color will turn solid. This will make the color choices solid instead of mixed.
They can also buy more drawing tools at the store.
They can add a background/fill with the paint bucket tool.
The tool at the bottom helps the students draw better circles and squares!
The hand will move their object if it’s not in the right place.
Students can save and share their artwork with the class or Kerpoof community. I tell my students to share with the class only.
Students chose a scene and add objects to enhance their page. These objects can be resized and flipped to where the students want them. They can make the objects “talk” with bubbles and they can draw their own objects as well!
Students can save, share, and print their products.
4. Once approved, teachers can create their class under Teacher Tools with the hammer icon.
5. Sign up classes in the Account Tools section. I set up my students’ knicknames/passwords like this:
theresa-a (first name-last initial)
0746 (school ID)
Class id – given
6. Click “create class” and print login cards. They are a nice, easy to read size.
7. Go to Group Tools to allow you students to chat and comment. I’ve allowed my students to do these and I monitor as they go.
Avatar and Koin Store
The students love to create their avatars! Every time they create something, make a comment, or give a student stars, they earn KOINS for new tools in their collection. In the Koin Store, there are lots of different brushes to choose from. I saw NAIL POLISH brushes and ANIMAL TRACKS! Fun and it gets the students so excited and eager to continue!
Group Message Board
The students share their creations and post comments here. They click on the “envelope” icon to see other students’ work and make comments.
Kerpoof Chat and Buddy Draw
When students are in Make a Picture or Make a Card, their avatars are displayed.
How Kerpoof is Used in My Lab:
In my lab, I’ve used Kerpoof with Kindergarten-3rd graders. Through my account, they each have their own class where they can share their works of art, comment, rate the projects, and purchase new tools.
*My Goal: to create a class with another school and share works of art with each other! Please contact me if interested!
I am a technology teacher for Preschool-8th graders at a Catholic School in Joliet, IL. I have been blogging since last August, 2010, and have enjoyed the Teacher and Class Blogging Challenge. I love to involve my students in collaborative and creative projects, which of course, includes Kerpoof!
Today I introduced Edmodo to my classroom. Edmodo is a private social learning network for teachers and students k-12. Edmodo is another free, popular tool that many have incorporated into their classroom. There are so many ways to incorporate Edmodo into your classroom. We are just beginning to explore the possibilities. Have you checked out Edmodo? Want to know how it can be useful to you? Check out these additional links for more ideas. 7 Brilliant Ways to Use Edmodo
Have you ever come across something so amazing that you just had to share it? One of the most valuable tools that I have discovered recently as an educator is Twitter. Twitter was introduced in my web 2.0 class as a professional tool. I previously thought of Twitter as a way to follow celebrities or friends regarding meaningless information. I never realized the power of Twitter! It has brought to my attention great ideas, content, articles, books, websites, blogs, as well as professional opportunities. At the present time I am following 380 educators, authors, and professionals from all around the world. Each day I go on Twitter, I go away with several ideas that I can use in my classroom. Can you imagine getting several suggestions in just ten minutes as to how you can be more creative in your classroom content? How do other teachers integrate and accomplish so much in the little amount of time that we have them? What is the one thing that has helped them grow as an educator in their classroom? Twitter provides the opportunity to ask them! Educators are having discussions about practices, content, and connections all the time! These discussions allow me to interact and share with other professionals that I have met through Twitter. It provides the opportunity to see what is going on in other schools throughout the United States, as well as the world, without having to leave home. It is accessible twenty four hours a day. Twitter has brought about questioning in me as an educator and my path, without ever realizing prior that it was something I needed to examine. It has also provided collaborations with my classroom that provides the students the opportunities to connect with other classes throughout the world. As my PLN continues to grow, I look forward to meeting more professionals and learning together on how to become the best educators we can be for our children! It is always scary to try something new. However, the gain far outweighs the risk! I look forward to following you in the future!
This has been such an amazing year! My class has grown as learners by using many tools of technology. Through the use of blogging, skyping with authors, interactive math tutorials and games my students have grown tremendously! We are still learning and exploring! Come on down and check out all of the things we are doing. We have a few big projects coming up in which we will be collaborating with others throughout the world. Please encourage people to vote for the technology millage! Want to give them the facts? Take a look at these facts about the millage!
This post by Miss W. has many additional ideas about blogging with your students! I am very excited that our class has been mentioned in the new bloggers section! Blog with students – Visit these Weeks 3/4: "
More blog posts to read relating to blogging with student activities. As many of the activities relate to actually doing something with a class blog, there have not been as many reflective type posts.
My class just started using Kidblog this week. I was introduced to Kidblog from my Web 2.0 class with Jennifer Earl. I have always been curious as to how my students would respond to having a blog of their own. After much success with my classroom blog, I decided to give it a try! Mr. Stephen Wolfe, a teacher in Alabama gave me the little nudge I needed to get going! We just started this past Thursday. My students were immediately excited to a have an opportunity to share their writing with the world! I sent out a tweet to fellow teachers to please comment on the student blogs. As of this moment, the students have received 138 comments from around the world! We have also found other classes that we can reciprocate comments. I am very hopeful that this wonderful inspiration and connection to others in our writing will continue for a long time. I would definitely encourage you to give it a try! The best part of all is that it is FREE!! Take a moment to check out our kid blog. Our students would love your comments!
Due to the growing cost of field trips, it is difficult to visit many museums to enhance your curriculum. Why not try the next best thing? Give your students and interactive museum experience! Mrs. Smoke's site lists the best online museum exhibits to meet the need of your curriculum. Take a look! Best Online Interactive Museum Exhibits for Students
