Common Core Resources

Resources abound that support the implementation of Common Core State Standard. Our department hopes to provide vetted resources that are easily accessible, as well as updates through our blog.

A tab titled “Common Core Resources” was added to the LVUSD home page menu. This page will be a place where resources will be provided in the future, and has some listed already. Select the following link to view the page: http://www.lvusd.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=644&Itemid=1527

Edmodo has a group titled “Common Core Conversation,” where teachers engage in dialogue about the implementation of CCSS, and resources that support the effort. To join this group select the following link, and then select “Click to Join Group”: http://www.edmodo.com/home - /join/5b3a7a213253492fbc7245a7b4d1b703

The NY Times put’s out a Common Core based weekly lesson plan that includes engaging questions such as “Do violent video games promote aggressive or hostile behaviors among gamers?” or “What should soccer officials do about widespread match-fixing?” found here: http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/category/lesson-plans/common-core/ 

Here are two sites that will help you learn about the CCSS. Shmoop provides an engaging way to learn about the CCSS, the ASCD is a membership organization that supports educators and provides comprehensive coverage and resources to the CCSS.



 

Digital Citizenship Lesson Plan & Poster

Many of our students can be connected to the world 24/7. Digital citizenship is one of the necessary elements they need to learn to navigate the online world safely and effectively. As students access the Internet in our classrooms we have an opportunity to teach them digital citizenship skills.

As I reflected on my time working with students creating websites I realized there were many issues I did not address initially, leading me to do a lot of clean up once the students got started. One of these was having a student post her picture, and her personal information on the website she was creating for my class. Yikes!  Thankfully, I caught it quickly and used it as a teachable moment.

Instead of having to find out the hard way you can access a lesson plan that both introduces students to Edmodo and the expectations of being on an online community. The lesson revolves around five principles: communicating responsibly, reporting cyberbullying, respecting each other, giving proper credit, protecting information. The lesson plan is primarily for K-8 students, but can also work for high school students. You can access this lesson plan through Edmodo’s Digital Citizenship Starter Kit.

Edmodo recently promoted this kit by sending out free posters. The promotion has ended, but you can still access a mini-version of their poster through the starter kit. Our office happens to have an extra poster, so if you’d like to be a recipient of this please let us know.

Edmodo’s Search Feature Finds Resources for Your Lesson Plans

The “Discover” feature on Edmodo allows you to search other teachers that are teaching the same topic, and posted lesson plans throughout Edmodo. All of the directions to use this feature can be found by clicking here. At this link you’ll find out how to add the resource to your Library, and share with others.

If you find that you are not able to use this feature, you may still have the old version. See the note at the bottom of this page to upgrade.*

There are 2 ways to search for resources for the content you are teaching in your classroom. Here are the notes from the Edmodo Help Center:

How to Browse Topics

1) Two ways to browse topics to get to the Topic page:

• Suggestions Tab: Check in and then click on the topic you are currently teaching directly under the check in box, or click on “view the topic page”.


• Browse Topics Tab: Type your topic in the “Search Topic” box and select the topic from the dropdown list, or click on the topic selection below the search field. Click “More” next to the topic to further break down the topic.

2) View the Topic page:

• Who Else is Teaching: Top left of page, view other teachers checked in to this topic


• Current Trending Resources: Left section of page gives you top publicly shared links in Edmodo communities. View how many times each resource has been downloaded by the blue +number at the bottom of the resource box.


• Related Topics: Upper right section of page, click related topics to view topic pages.


• Top Content: Most popular resources on that topic, based on view counts and added-to-library counts.

*If you have not switched to the new version you will need to do so to have access to this feature. You’ll know if you don’t have the latest version, because your home page won’t look like the picture below. Click here to find out how to switch to the latest version.

 

Sharing Quizzes & Grading Features in Edmodo

Many of you have asked about sharing quizzes in Edmodo, as well as how to grade attached items. You can share quizzes, and you don’t have to download files to grade and comment on them. Below are answers to your questions, and directions to make it happen:

A. Sharing Quizzes: You can share quizzes with other teachers; but, there is no direct feature to do this, the Edmodo team provided a work around.

Here are the steps:

1) Join the teacher’s group/class from your own account (you will need the group code to do this)

2) Have the teacher that created the group change your member access in the group to co-teacher. Click here to find out how to do this.

3) Send the quiz to the group. Click here to find and scroll down to “Load Previously Used Quiz” or see picture below.

 B. Grading/Assignment features:There are several features to posting assignments and grading, I’m going to highlight a few:

 1. Student turn-in: I recommend creating a student account so that you can show students how to turn in assignments. They should not submit on the front page, they need to click the turn-in button on the front page. They can submit either by typing their response and/or attaching a file, then click submit assignment. For more information about assignments click here.

 2. Grading: There are a few ways to grade your assignments.You don’t have to download an assignment, instead click on “Annotate” when you are viewing the assignment. Click here for more directions and look at the image below to see annotations. 

Edmodo Notifications and Privacy Settings

It’s awesome to see so many people in the district signing up for Edmodo, and into the SDD group! More people can lead to greater effectiveness, but also a lot more messages in your email inbox, and concerns about privacy. See the notes below from Edmdo’s Help section (with my comments in parenthesis) to address these issues.:

Login and click <Account <Settings:

 

1. Stop receiving notifications from one group: If you want to stop receiving messages from one group, select that group, select "Advanced Settings," then DEselect "Send Notifications." This will allow you to keep receiving emails from other groups.


2. Set notifications – [Or click on “Email & Text Updates”]. Click on the notifications [or “Notification Type”] drop-down menu to choose from email or text notifications. Email notifications will be sent to the email address associated with your Edmodo account. If you select text notifications, enter your 10-digit phone number and select your current mobile provider. You will need to verify your phone number in order to enable text alerts.


3. Notification Type – Select the type of notifications you’d like to receive by checking the box next to one or more of these choices: Alerts, Notes, Direct Messages, Replies or New Group Members. [I would suggest leaving at least “Direct Messages” and “Replies.”]


4. Privacy – Teachers may choose to block connection requests or only make their profile visible to their personal network by checking the appropriate box under privacy settings (located in the lower right-hand section of the Settings page. (Students have very high privacy settings defaulted).

If you have other questions, Edmodo's Help section is pretty comprehensive, check it out here. You can also attend one of my Edmodo sessions during Staff Development Day, to learn more about how to use this in your classroom and as a collaboration tool. In the G-1 classroom at 10:40, and the other starts at 12:40. 

New Engaging Election App on Edmodo for grades 6-12

The Study Sync Votes 2012 Blasts App on Edmodo allows you to explore the presidential campaign with your students, and allow them to be a part of a national conversation with thousands of their peers. There are several differentiated lessons, that inform students on important issues in the upcoming election. New topics are released weekly. A few of the topics are the economy, money and politics, Iran, and powering America.

Components of the lesson: neutral overview of topic and how it relates to campaign, research links across broad spectrum of sources, writing assessment 140 characters long, read and rate other students, poll of students across the country.

Haven't used app's before, or want a little help with this one? We got you covered, click here for a Quick Start Guide, or watch the tutorial below:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEgDMJKG9ko

Introduction to Edmodo

By now you should have received an invitation to join Edmodo today. If you have not please email me so that I can send you your school code. Edmodo has so many great features that can be used both as a collaboration resource and classroom tool.

Here are a few reasons that Edmodo is a great classroom tool:

• It’s secure, no weird advertisements


• Teacher-controlled online environment


• Facebook-like format, making it easy to navigate


• Share documents with ease


• Create assignments/quizzes/polls that are stored for multiple use


• There is an Edmodo iPad app

A comprehensive webinar can be viewed to learn how to use all the features in the classroom here.

For those that work a little faster and can like working off written directions find them here.

Enjoy!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="250"] Image via CrunchBase[/caption]