Managing a Paperless Classroom with Edmodo

Hi everyone – I’m so very excited to be writing my first post for Technology Tailgate!  If you’re not too familiar with me, I’ll give you a quick back-story.  I’m Lauren from Life in MiddleSchool.  

I’ve taught all the middle school grades/subjects and this year I was so very lucky to end up teaching what I adore – Technology!  I was given 5 full periods of the technology elective, anywhere from 120 to 160 students a day.

One of my initial challenges with teaching the technology elective class was managing the paper crunch.  Since I’m in a 1:1 computer environment, it seemed silly to have my students print out all their assignments.  Especially when my district is very strict regarding printing, paper and ink.  Then, I not-so-happily discovered that Dropbox my assignment turn-in go to was blocked with our district firewall.  I have teacher access to look through their individual drives, but that was only at work… so that didn’t work either.

Then… I discovered my solution, the shining star to save the day.

Edmodo.

Edmodo is a FREE social networking for schools and kids to use.  It allows teachers to create their own classes, assign reading and create discussions, take polls and give quizzes.  You can even use Edmodo to further your own professional development by connecting to other teachers.  For me, Edmodo was a godsend because I use it as my Dropbox and it has become so much better than Dropbox.

My middle schoolers are able to easily log on and remember their log in information.  (Well... most of them!)  This is an example of an assignment I have given my class.  On my screen, it updates how my students have turned it in.  For my students, it tells them to turn it in!

What I love about Edmodo is that instead of having to have my students email me their work, I can check to see if it’s turned in at a glance.  What a time-saver!!  How much time would I waste using check in systems, checking in papers, etc.  Edmodo does it for me.

I can even sort by turned in and not turned in – which makes it easy for me to target students that are either goofing off or honestly confused.

Grading is a snap!  You can open the work in another screen (which means the end of filling up flash drives of work to trudge through at home!!) grade it, give an emoticon response and a space for further comments if needed!

Then, it quickly creates a gradebook for me and for my students to see.  This is a nice feature because it lets the students know that they turned it in, I have their work, I just haven't graded it yet!

Edmodo has turned into a real-time saver for me this year and my students are loving how easy it is to turn in their work and to communicate with me.

Does anyone else use Edmodo in a Middle School setting?  How do you manage it in your classroom?  If you’d like to connect up – let me know!

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