Some plasma membrane structure goodness with the whiteboards. I'm still really into students showing me what they know, as you can see. However, I'm much more limited in how I use technology to do that. I don't have class websites this year (I tried to use Google Sites but they are strangely blocked at school, when I need students to access them the most and simply haven't had time to build new ones using another website-making tool) and I can't use a lot of the online tools that I used to use during class because of issues with the wireless network dropping students during class time. So I'm starting over, and starting small. I'm starting with Edmodo.
I've written of my love of Edmodo before, and I still love it. I use it for class announcements, turning in assignments, and I write quizzes that students take in Edmodo. But I'm using a feature that I never really did before - The Edmodo Library. Specifically, I have been making liberal use of the Folders feature, where you can make folders and place documents in them. Then, you can share those folders with your classes.
As you can see, I have folders for my units. I keep things like labs, packets, spreadsheets, and other activities we do in those folders, and students can access them whenever they'd like. I make packets for each unit in some of my classes, and by scanning them in and putting them in my folders, students can print them out if they forget their packet at school or if they lose their packet. I'm also planning on flipping this class this week, so I want to put links to my videos in special folders for each unit. My only wish is that I could make subfolders within each folder; it would be handy to put all of my videos pertaining to water in my Water Unit Resources folder rather than in a separate folder, for example.
I put answer keys, activities, and packets in my folders for students to access. Is this a small step? Sure. Would I like to be using my websites and all my other neat-o tools that I used to use? Absolutely, but our network just won't allow it at this point. Also, teaching two classes that are brand new to me (my environmental science classes) keeps me busy learning and planning and creating at this point; unfortunately, I don't have the luxury of knowing my curriculum backwards and forwards anymore (except in my Biology classes) and having a repository of stuff that I've created over the years that allowed me the extra time to create all sorts of cool technological whiz-bang stuff for my classroom when I was in a 1:1 classroom.But you better believe that, once I get through one year of curriculum with my new-to-me classes, I will be taking my summer to create that whiz-bang stuff. I will be thinking about how I can work around our network issues to use the technology to enhance learning and prepare students for that technological world into which they will be graduating.
Until then, I'll have to make small, manageable steps, with my Edmodo use (and Nearpod use) being the first one. Knowing what I used to be able to do, this is pretty hard for me. But I'll adjust.
