It’s pretty clear that Edmodo is the best way to communicate with students outside of school.
But right now, my students can’t handle too many sites at once. After all, I’m trying to get them used to Google Docs, their new email addresses, and our class website, iseroma.com.
Until I introduce students to Edmodo (second quarter?), I’m using Chatroll, a group chat application, to facilitate conversations with students after school. I had my first group chat tonight, and it was a big success.
After signing up and creating a chatroll, it’s easy to embed it on your website. Then, students can join in on the discussion with their own username and password.
The application is sharp and easy to use. My only concern is about privacy. Sure, Chatroll lets me block users and monitor content. You can choose who can see the chatroll and who can write messages. That’s all very good. But at the same time, there isn’t the sense of safety that I’ve felt with Edmodo.
My vision, among other things, was to post class agendas and assignments that students could use as a reference. But like many other teachers, I found out quickly how difficult it was to keep up. Invariably, no matter how much I tried, I got behind.
There were just too many steps: Do my lesson plan, retype the agenda as a post, put the assignment into the calendar, repeat the next day.
I needed something more efficient. So this year, I decided to streamline the process by linking and embedding several items from Google Apps into my blog. Here are two examples:
My class agendas and assignments are now a linked Google Doc. When I update my lessons, the changes happen automatically on my WordPress blog. It’s so much faster now.
My calendar is now an embedded Google Calendar. Different classes are in different colors, and it lets me show only the events I want. At the beginning of the year, I even sat down to type in all the whole-school events, which parents have appreciated.
Sure, those examples don’t sound like much, but I’m just starting. Plus, teachers know that it’s the little things that count. Anything that saves just a bit of time is something worth investigating.
The next step: Get more students and parents to go to my class website. That’s a biggie that I need to tackle this year.
Yes, I’m one of those Palm Pre lovers. Since school began, I’m noticing that my phone is making me a better teacher, especially with communication. Here’s why.
1. Automatic contact syncing
If you’re a teacher, you know that parents’ and students’ contact information changes all the time. Young people especially are notorious for changing their numbers, whether it’s because they can’t pay their bill or they’re feeling stalked. Of course, when students do get a new number, they never bother to update their teachers.
It feels like I’ve had to become a detective just to keep up with current numbers. This means that whenever I learn about a changed number, I immediately input it, no matter if I’m on my phone or my computer. Palm Pre’s Synergy system makes sure that everything is updated so that I don’t have to worry about having an old number.
2. Perfect with Google Voice My school doesn’t have voicemail, and I don’t have a landline, so my cellphone is my only number. I want to be accessible to my students and parents, but giving out my personal number seems, well, a bit personal.
So this year, I gave out my Google Voice number. There are so many advantages. I choose whether incoming calls ring or go straight to voicemail. Google transcribes messages into visual voicemail. And when I call from my Palm Pre’s gDial app, it uses my Google Voice number. The Pre has made it much more fun to communicate with students and families without interrupting my personal life.
3. Affordable Unlimited Plan
All this texting and talking to students and parents made me worried that I would surpass my monthly minutes and have to buy a more expensive calling plan.
That was before Sprint announced its new Any Mobile plan, which allows unlimited calling to any cellphone for just $69. The plan includes 450 anytime landline minutes, far more than I’ll need, plus unlimited texting, MMS, and Internet.
4. Fast Unfiltered Internet
I get frustrated by our school’s content filter, which blocks YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, and Facebook. It even blocks Google Images! Yes, it’s time to mount an offensive against this censorship, but until then, I have my phone.
I like to use media in my lessons, but I hate having to wait until getting home to do my planning. Sometimes I have a good idea that gets forgotten just because I can’t access a website. Sure, there are other ways around this problem, but using my phone to get to content has worked well so far.
5. The Coolness Factor
“Ooooh! You got the Pre?” my students call out. I’m suddenly cool. For someone who has taught 13 years, I know that coolness gets you only so far, and really the quality of my teaching is what engages students. But as I age, I notice that being “old cool” is not a bad reputation to have.
My Palm Pre is different enough and cool enough to impress even my iPhoned students. They like the keyboard for texting (why do they text so fast and type so slow?), and of course they enjoy multitasking. I have a hunch that the Pre’s the reason they’re texting me more often with questions about tonight’s homework.
It’s the evening before Back to School Night, and I still haven’t reached five parents I want to invite.
Yes, you’re right: These are parents who don’t have an email account.
As teachers, we know the importance of establishing and maintaining contact with parents. But doing so is challenging and time-consuming, particularly across language and technological barriers.
The digital divide is huge for parents who don’t have computers at home or at work. For parents whose primary language is not English, computers are intimidating. Besides, email is impersonal and devoid of human contact.
For a long time, I’ve been looking for an easy way to share information — like a reminder to Back to School Night — with parents in an efficient way. I’m pleased to say that Phonevite is a good solution.
Up to 25 people twice a month
Phonevite lets you record a voice message and send it to up to 25 people, twice a month, for free. You type in the phone numbers you’d like to reach, schedule the time for your call, and then type in your own number. Phonevite then calls you to record your message, and you’re done.
No, it’s not the same as a real call, but I like Phonevite because I can get across a lot of information without devoting hours to get through my phone list. In addition, I can record my message in English and Spanish without worrying about my Spanish speaking fluency. (I really should take more Spanish classes.)
Unlike other free voicemail services, the advertisement comes after your message, not before. There are other features — like RSVP capability — that are pretty neat, too.
If you want to send messages more often, there is a paid version, where each call costs 5 cents.
A possible solution?
It got me thinking: This year, perhaps I should require parents either to check an email account regularly or donate $1 to receive phone messages throughout the year. Of course, parents with email will still get much more information, but at least I’ll know that everyone is covered.
Life is weird. You can work really hard on something, and no matter what you do, progress seems slow. And then all of a sudden, without doing anything extra, your project takes off.
That’s how it’s feeling this year with Google Apps.
It’s the new school year, and everywhere I look, teachers are using Google Apps. The ninth grade Humanities teachers are using it to create their lessons. Advisory teams are sharing activities and keeping logs of everything they do. There is a universal list of teachers’ office hours. And perhaps most impressive, the school’s student roster is now a read-only Doc.
The excitement is rampant. In fact, in our weekly professional development meetings, there is a new hand gesture whenever someone mentions Google Apps. It resembles American Sign Language’s applause.
Yeah, it’s getting to be more than a bit cultish.
So I should be happy, right? This is what I wanted when I first envisioned bringing Google Apps to my campus, right?
Not exactly. I mean, it’s nice to see the enthusiasm. And some of the documents, particularly the student roster, are very helpful. If I want to know all the Latino boys in the ninth grade, for example, all I have to do is go to list view and sort. It’s nice when everyone has access.
The key to Google Apps is with students, not teachers
But then again, my hope was that the students would love Google Apps first. Besides the juniors, whom I indoctrinated last year in English class, the rest of the students seem ho-hum. That’s because teachers haven’t incorporated Apps into their curriculum. They haven’t made it a requirement.
Perhaps some of the blame lies in our school’s woeful technology situation. Already the third week of school, we’re still trying to get all the teachers’ computers up and running, and because of budget cuts, some staff members will likely not get a computer this year.
Tech is seen as an optional add-on
But that’s not it. The truth of the matter is, despite having a young staff, and despite being in the San Francisco Bay area, our teachers have not prioritized technology skills. We’re still too busy creating classroom culture and encouraging students to do their homework. Technology always seems like an optional add-on, something to do after some flow gets established.
But maybe the current fascination among teachers with Google Apps will soon translate to interest in the classroom. I can hope.
It’s pretty clear that Edmodo is the best way to communicate with students outside of school.
