Learning about Learning Management Systems

Have you ever heard of a Learning Management System (LMS)? If the names Edmodo, Schoology, or Google Classroom come to mind, then you probably have. Essentially an LMS is an application that allows teachers to administer and track courses.

Using all of these systems, you can give assignments, link to media, lead discussion questions, and give feedback on student work.

While all of the systems are similar, they do have some differences that might help you decide which one you would like to use in your classroom.

First of all, I will start with Google Classroom, which is something I have now. This is a really nice feature that Google has added, but you have to be a member of a school that has signed up for the Google Apps for education. For example, I have to sign in using my educator account, and all of my students have their own Google accounts tied to my school district.

I love how streamlined Google is, which you can see below. Here I have a document posted that I had my students download into Notability (an iPad app) so that we could use it in class.

You can get started with a Google Classroom by going here.

Click here for a great link describing some Google Classroom basics.

Another system that is really helpful is Edmodo. This site interface reminds me a little bit of Facebook, so it looks familiar. Students must each have their own accounts, but it is not necessary that your school be a member. Like Google, you can post assignments and set up discussions. However, what I like the most about Edmodo is that you can set up groups within your classroom. This instantly makes it easier to differentiate for your students. Additionally, Edmodo has a gradebook feature, and you can use it to do some pretty cool things in the classroom even in second grade.

Here is a screenshot of my Edmodo classroom for professional development. You can see that I have set up a discussion post for other students (educators in this case) to respond to.

Additionally, I have embedded a TED talk video so my students can view the video without leaving Edmodo.

If you are like me, I first felt overwhelmed by the idea of using some of these sites with my second graders. It is a learning curve, but they can do it! Here is a really good video explaining some different ways to use Edmodo in primary grades.

Finally, Schoology is another useful LMS. I find it to be most similar with Edmodo in its interface. Schoology does have a really great resource library and, like Edmodo, it has a gradebook feature. However, unlike Edmodo, it does not have the ability to make groups within your class. Go here to sign-up for a free Schoology account.

Overall, you will have to explore the various learning management systems to see which one is the best fit for your needs.

Positively Loving Professional Learning!

If you are a teacher, you have heard about professional development. I don't know about you, but my mind instantly thinks of sitting in the library of some school in my district for long meetings that may or may not be something that inspires me as an educator.

Guess what? You don't have to just wait for your district to HOPEFULLY give you a session you are excited about. 

Enter Professional Learning Networks.

A Professional Learning Network (PLN) is a way for you to connect to other educators from all over the world. Here is a fun image that lists the benefits of PLNs that my graduate school teacher included in our class this week.

There are many types of PLNs including message boards, facebook, linkedin, but my all-time favorite is Twitter.

Before this week, I would call myself a Twitter dabbler. But now I am IN LOVE! I took this opportunity to update my educator account, follow some inspiring teachers, and I really started learning more about some cool resources like #edchat.

Edchats are scheduled chats on various Twitter groups. They have a moderator whose job it is to ask specific questions on a topic. I really liked the chat I found on #learnlap (Based on the new book Learn Like a Pirate). It was a really great topic about student motivation.

Now I know what my summer reading will be! Interested in learning more? Check out their weekly discussions on Monday nights at 8 p.m. CST.

I also think I will focus on using Twitter next school year to really include my parents. I can use my account as an extension of our classroom uploading photos and videos so they can see what we are up to all day!

Another reason I like Twitter is that I can easily follow other teachers and find current ideas for my classroom. I follow teachers in my district as well as teachers from across the country, like the famous Ron Clark. Interested in following me? Find me! @Mrs_Bailey_HI . (The HI is my school's logo in case you were wondering.)

Finally, I will leave you with an amazing tool to help you organize all of the fun things you will surely find! 

Diigo is a tool that helps you bookmark websites via the web browser, so you can access your bookmarks anywhere you use the internet. Therefore, it does not matter which computer I am on to access my bookmarks. Additionally, I can join groups and share bookmarks easily!

Another feature of diigo is the highlighter and sticky notes tool. This is fantastic for conducting research because it allows the user to take notes on the page and saves that page. No more opening a separate word document or printing off pages!

Finally, I learned from the diigo blog that you can now import all of your highlighted material from your kindle so that you can sort and organize it on diigo. Where was this tool during my undergraduate courses?

Here is a great video explaining diigo basics. Maybe you will love it as much as I do!

My first post

Hello, and welcome to my first blog post!

I became a teacher in 2010, so I don't remember a time in my career without teaching blogs. I love reading blogs for inspiration in the field, lesson ideas, and innovative ways to integrate technology in the classroom. While this blog was created as part of a graduate course, I hope to continue on with it and add to the educational community.

This week we talked about RSS, Feedly, and a really great tool called Adobe Spark. Here is a little run-down of all of the tools.

RSS is a way to connect to blogs and other sites that you follow and run them through a feeder so that you can access all of your information in one easy place. One feeder that is simple to use and has a nice interface to it is Feedly. Using feedly, I can organize my blogs based on specific categories. I just got started, but here is a screenshot of my feedly account so far.

If Feedly is new to you, here is a great tutorial for learning how to get started.

My favorite thing we have learned about this week is an app called Adobe Spark. Users can easily create posts, stories, and videos using this free app. Here is an example post I made on the app. It only took me a couple of minutes, and it looks professional.

I teach second grade, and I could see myself using this to teach vocabulary by using words to match with the picture libary, publish short stories using their pages tool, and even produce videos about animals that students research in science. One downfall I see would be that Spark does require the user to have an account, such as Google, to sign up. So this might be something that you would have to do in a small group with younger students. However, my district does give google accounts to all of our students, so if I taught upper grades this wouldn't be as much of an issue. It just gets tricky having 7-year-olds logging in with email accounts!

Want some help getting started with Spark? Check out this tutorial.

I hope you enjoyed my first blog post! I am going to leave you with a couple of links to some pretty great blogs I like to follow.

Step into 2nd Grade

Sweet Sweet Primary

Teach. Create. Motivate.