Bringing Students' Ideas to Life with 3D Printing

Our 3-D printer hard at work!

Our school Media Center Makerspace has created STEAM learning opportunities for students in many new and exciting ways. Now that we are in the second year of the Makerspace, there have been many teachers who have been eager to have me help them incorporate Makerspace learning activities into their curriculum. Whether creating MakerEd opportunities within their lessons, or having me come in and teach students skills that involve coding, creating with the Makey Makeys, and more, it has provided great opportunities to make sure that the Makerspace items and concepts are useful not just to individual or small groups of students in the Media Center, but also to classes full of students.

With this in mind, the newest addition to our Makerspace has by far been the most exciting! That is the addition of our 3D printer. Adding a 3D printer did not come without its own learning challenges. Luckily, our school has an amazing technology assistant who helped me with researching how to setup, align, load the filament, and troubleshoot the 3D printer as we got started.

Olaf

Our next step was to figure out how to make our own designs. We initially planned to have some CAD software downloaded on a couple of the Media Center computers and realized it may be difficult to have enough time to teach a great number of students how to use that software, thus limiting the reach that the printer could have. Luckily, a little more research led me to an awesome website called Tinkercad. Tinkercad uses CAD design to allow users to combine shapes, letters, numbers, and more to create 3-D designs. Even better news- it's a web-based program that we can access on any computer in the school. This meant that the program could be accessible to students throughout the school-making it even easier to get more of our students designing and printing!

After a few test runs using Tinkercad and the 3D printer with some eager students in the Makerspace, we were ready to roll. The type of 3D printer we have does have some limitations, and those test runs were very valuable to help us learn what some of those limitations were.

Spongebob and a Rocket

BB-8 being printed

Luckily I work in a school where innovation and creation through Making are valued. Many of our teachers have embraced the school Makerspace or Maker Ed concepts in great ways that allow students to be creators while meeting curricular goals of the class. If all schools valued Media Centers and the Maker Movement in this way, it would be pretty incredible to see just how creative all students can really be. I've now had three classes successfully create designs and print on the 3-D printer. For the first two classes, the sky was the limit when it came to design. Students were told to design what ever they wanted (within size and printer limitation guidelines), and they would vote on two to print. Printing does take a lot of time and filament, so we found this to be the most effective way to have that class participate, especially with the end of the semester just days away. We had everything from BB-8 from Star Wars, to Spongebob, to a very detailed rocket ship, and so much more! Students were very creative with their designs and really did a great job learning how to create designs using the program. With the next class that I worked with, a class of 6th graders, students had to tie their Tinkercad designs to an item that represented one of their classes. The designs were creative, and many quite detailed, especially considering it was their first time using the program. In this class we printed six different designs and gave students the option to make more on their own time.

BB-8 from Star Wars

 Maybe even better then hearing students' excitement while they created their designs on the computer, was hearing their enthusiasm the first time they saw the printer running.  Most of them had never seen a 3-D printer before, so the questions and exclamations they had during that first print are a great example of how exciting learning and creating can be.

The initial rollout of our 3-D printer has had its challenges, but all of the time put in to learning how to make it work best for our students has been totally worth it. Throughout the year, I am planning to work with even more teachers to help them find great ways to use 3D printing as a way to enhance their curriculum and continue to work with students in our Media Center Makerspace to help them see their designs and ideas come to life!

6th Grade Student Creations!

If you are interested in adding a 3D printer to your school or Media Center Makerspace, the time put into it can really be worth it to our students. After seeing his design printed, one student said to me "Really? I made this? And I get to keep it? This is so cool!" Since then, I've found him teaching other students to use Tinkercad in their free time, showing off his creation, and discussing design ideas with other students. More and more students have started to jump on Tinkercad in the Media Center on their own time, and many will come to me and show me what they have worked on all night. Given the time, materials, and resources, it is incredible what our students can create!

If you are looking for ideas for what your students can design with a 3D printer, check out my 3D Printer Design Task Cards! 

Seven Tips for Starting a Makerspace

Many of my posts have focused on our school Makerspace and the Makerspace Club. While I've already shared some of my favorite activities and some of my Makerspace stations, I thought it would be helpful to share some tips for how you can start your own school or classroom Makerspace.

Tip #1

You don't need to buy it all

When you start researching Makerspaces, you will see that there are a lot of cool tools out there. 3-D printers, Arduino, Hummingbird, Sphero, circuits, and more. I would caution you to not buy every last tech  tool and gadget that you've seen in other Makerspaces right from the start. It can be really exciting to see 3-D printers, robotics, and more, but there is a benefit to starting small. Just like you wouldn't just blindly buy the newest and shiniest computers on the market for your whole school, you shouldn't just jump into buying every gadget and gizmo that's out there without doing your research. What do you want to achieve with that tool? How will it help your students learn, create, or discover? Can it be better accomplished with another material? There are plenty of Makerspace recommendations out there, take your time to explore what the purpose of the materials really are before spending money. If you're looking for starter items, check out this post or if you're looking to see how we've used some of our favorite items, look here.

Tip #2

Think creatively to fund your space

Use extra bookshelves for storage and
display- here's our Breakerspace after 
a fun day of breaking

Once you have done your research and have chosen the materials/tools that you are most interested in, the tricky part can be figuring out how to actually fund your Makerspace. Remember that many items, Legos, K'Nex, household items like duct tape, yarn, batteries, old technology for your take apart station, etc., can be donated. Reach out to your school community through a school newsletter or website to see what your community will donate. Also, look to garage sales or Salvation Army for great storage units or building items like Legos. There is no better time to recycle or re-purpose items than when you are building a Makerspace. I use extra bookshelves to store and display our Makerspace and Breakerspace items and old magazine holders to display Maker books for students. Our school/district PTSA and Student Council have been great funding sources as well. Don't forget to look beyond your school and see what district or state grants may be available. You can also look into crowdfunding through sources like DonorsChoose.org, digitalwish.com, or gofundme.com. Both Donors Choose and Digital Wish have been great sources for providing tech materials for my students. There are also many technology or STEM-related grants out there that can really make a difference. Major businesses like Best Buy offer technology grants or check out Funds for Teachers to explore grants by category.


Tip #3

Collaboration is key

A Makerspace is about collaboration in so many ways. It is certainly about student collaboration. Students work together to design, build, and create. It is so fun to see how students naturally come together to explore in the Makerspace and develop theories to test. As a Maker educator, it is also very helpful to collaborate with other Maker teachers. Using resources like blogs or Twitter (try #Makerspace or #MakerEd), you can learn so much about what others are doing, what has worked, what challenges they have encountered, and opportunities to ask questions. Don't be afraid to share or learn from others. It will make a tremendous difference in the experiences that you provide for your students and will help to challenge your thinking and move you forward.


Tip #4

If you build it, they will come...with a bit of modeling

It may seem like as long as you buy the materials, kids will flock to the Makerspace. With time and modeling, that will happen, but you need to make sure that kids know what a Makerspace is and guide them through what they can do. I created a promo video and shared it on our morning news show to first share what we had in our Makerspace and when it would be accessible. Between that and starting a Makerspace Club, word began to spread about the neat things kids could do in the Makerspace and soon kids were exploring before school and at lunch daily.

Tip #5

You don't have to be an expert

As teachers, we sometimes make the mistake of thinking that we have to know everything. When really, kids learn best by doing, exploring, and even making mistakes. That is what a Makerspace is all about. I introduce my students to our Makerspace, share examples, and offer challenges, but I don't claim to be an expert on everything. You will often see me sitting with the kids during our Makerspace Club experimenting with them. My favorite phrase during Makerspace Club seems to be, "Let's try it!"


Tip #6

Utilize Challenges 

It's hard to rate my favorite days with our Makerspace Club, but if I had to, it would be the days that we have challenges. Challenges can be as small or as big as you want them to and tend to develop and change based on the students' ideas throughout the challenge. Sometimes our challenges take a day, other times they'll take a week. We've done paper airplane catapult challenges, Sphero race challenges, and more. We don't focus on winning or losing, but rather the process, design, and planning. I emphasize that challenges are about the thinking process rather than a competition. The kids love the build up designing and creating for whatever the challenge may be. I have designed Makerspace Challenge Cards so that we always have challenges to choose from and multiple challenges can be going on at once. This is great because we have limited materials and lots of interested students. Check them out if you're looking for guided challenges for your Makerspace!

Tip #7

A Makerspace is a journey

This is the most important tip to remember when creating your Makerspace. Our Makerspace evolved throughout the past year, and it absolutely will continue to evolve this year. When I first looked at what other educators had done with their school Makerspaces, I felt inspired, but overwhelmed. I found myself starting with lots of questions that could only be answered by actually creating a Makerspace and adjusting it as needed. What I really learned after one year with our school Makerspace is that Makerspaces really do need to adapt and grow based on your students' interests. Once you see how your students choose to use the Makerspace, you can make choices and activities that build on their interests.







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If you're looking to start or enhance your Makerspace, I created a Makerspace Kit Bundle. It includes signs, challenge cards, a Makerspace journal, and more items that we use in our Makerspace. I also have these Makerspace items individually here.

Tech Tools: Symbaloo

One of my favorite ways to bookmark, organize, and share websites is with Symbaloo. This website allows you to create visually appealing tiles to link to other websites. I have found Symbaloo to be extremely useful on our school website and on my own website. I have also found it useful for organizing sites that I frequent personally and for creating lesson resources.


How It Works:

After opening a free Symbaloo account, you can create your first webmix. You are given the option to create your own, or to type in the type of webmix that you are looking for. Using the second option, you could just add a pre-made public webmix to your Symbaloo account. For example, if you type in "research" and find a research webmix created by someone else that you like, you can just choose to view it and add it to your account. Symbaloo also has a Symbaloo Education version, which is loaded with pre-made educational webmixes.

If you're creating your own Symbaloo, give your webmix a title and get started choosing the sites that you want organized on the particular webmix. I have a number of different Symbaloo webmixes set up that I use to share different information with students or teachers.

When adding sites, you type in the website address, choose or upload an image, and color background and then save it to your webmix. Often, the logo of the website you are linking will pop up when you type in the website, allowing you to easily add the image to your tile. Many popular educational websites are pre-loaded and will populate as you begin typing them. You can also search for tiles by category or title.

A Symbaloo for students

A great thing about Symbaloo is that it is very easy to go back and edit the tiles. To re-arrange the order, just drag the tile to the new space. To add more or less spaces, just use the arrows provided. Symbaloo has a share button that makes it easy to share the link to your Symbaloo or embed it on your website. If you later update the Symbaloo, you can just click on 'Update my Webmix' and your embedded Symbaloo will automatically update on your website.




Suggestions for Ways to Use Symbaloo at School:

Our 'Research Sites' Symbaloo

The way that I use Symbaloo the most is to share websites with our school community. I have created a Symbaloo directed towards students, one towards teachers, one for our Makerspace, and one for research lessons, to name a few. Each of these different Symbaloos has useful links for that group or subject. Within a Symbaloo, I also have color coded the tiles to help organize similar sites.

I also created a Symbaloo for our school website with each of the teacher's class websites linked to it. I used the icons/stickers provided by Symbaloo to showcase which subject that class is and color coded tiles of teachers who teach the same subject.

The other way I use Symbaloo is to bookmark sites that I like or that I use frequently. You can set Symbaloo as your homepage and customize the background to your choosing. This makes it really easy to quickly find the sites that I use daily.

A Symbaloo linking to class websites

I have also seen teachers create a different Symbaloo webmix for each grade or subject that they teach and embed them on their website for students to easily access links at home.

Though I have not had students do this, students could easily create their own Symbaloo webmixes of sites that they use frequently at school to access quickly at home as well. Note: If you purchase a premium account through SymbalooEdu, then you have more control over what sites your students link to and see.



If you have other ideas or suggestions for how you've used Symbaloo to organize information for your school or classroom, please share!

This week I'm linking up with The Teaching Trio for the Technology Thursday Link Up!

Tech Tools: Pocket

It's been a while since I shared a tech tool, so I thought I'd share an app that I've been using all the time lately. I thought it would be fun to try my first link up too! So I'm linking up with the Teaching Trio blog this week to share technology tips with other educators!

I first heard about this app in a Twitter chat a few months ago, and I've been hooked ever since.

Image Credit: itunes.apple.com

The app is called Pocket. It's a free app that lets you easily and quickly save images, video, websites, and other text all in one place. You can also view it online at https://getpocket.com/.


When I get involved in Twitter chats with other educators, I notice that great websites and articles are mentioned frequently. However, I want to stay engaged with the chat, so I always feel like there's no time to check the sites out. Pocket lets me conveniently save these links, videos, and more all in one place. Then, when I have a little extra time, I can go back and read these resources. If I like them, I can star them to make them easy to find, or share them out through social media links within Pocket. If I've decided I've read the article and I'm done with it, I can click the check mark and it moves out of 'My List' and into the 'Archives'. I can also decide to delete it completely.

Even better- once the items are saved to Pocket, you can view them even if you are offline!

Image credit: itunes.apple.com

I almost exclusively use Pocket through the app on my phone, however, I am easily able to access it on my computer and view all of the same items that I had saved to my Pocket app. I love that I can save items from my phone and access them from my computer or iPad later.

One of my favorite features of Pocket has been how neat and readable the screen looks. In 'My List' it shows the item title and a picture from the item, as well as a short description or introduction. With all of the different articles I have saved, these little thumbnail images are great visual reminders for me. When I first heard about Pocket, I wondered what the advantage was over just bookmarking the items. I have to say, besides the huge advantage of being able to read the articles when offline, the format makes it so much easier to find articles and star your favorites. When viewing it in your browser, the articles are set up like tiles, similar to Pinterest, which still makes it very readable.

As an educator, I am constantly coming across ideas that I want to use later, articles that I am interested in but just don't have the time for, or videos that I want to share with students later. This really is a great tool for busy educators who are constantly finding information online that they will want to access later. It's easy to access, easy to find content, and easy to share the information with others. What educator doesn't need a tool to make their life a little easier?

Makerspace Activities: Stop Motion Animation

One of our latest adventures in our Makerspace has been experimenting with video production.

The first type of video production that we experimented with was stop motion animation. We had Legos and we had iPads, so it was a match made in heaven.

For this activity, I downloaded two free apps: the Lego Movie Maker app and the Stop Motion Studio app. Both are great for beginners. 

The Lego Movie App is great for the true beginner and it comes with fun titles, intro slides, music, effects and more.It also guides you through how to take the pictures and add the various features. It is an excellent app for beginners and really helps kids begin to understand how stop motion animation works.

                                     

                                                Lego Movie Maker App

Here is an example of a Lego Movie Maker video that was made by a couple of kids in the Makerspace Club. They did this on their very first try!

The second app that I downloaded for this activity is called the Stop Motion Studio app. This app is also great for beginners. You can set a timer to record many images and record your voice. If you're willing to pay for it, there are also some other neat features to add to this app. You can purchase an extra, like green screen, individually or buy 'The Feature Pack' to get all of the extra features, like movie effects, themes, sound effects, and more. That certainly would be worth it if you were really enjoying creating these types of movies. At the moment, we are just beginning to explore what stop motion has to offer, so the free version worked just fine for us.

Stop Motion Studio App

Here are a couple videos that kids made at a club meeting using the Stop Motion Studio app.

I was really impressed with how quickly everyone picked up how to make a stop motion video and the creativity involved. All of the students who experimented with stop motion animation were able to create a finished product, and most did it in 30 minutes or less. This is a great, engaging, creative activity for our Makerspace! 

Tech Tools: PowToon

Last week I was presented with an opportunity to share information about our March is Reading Month events at our school with teachers at a number of meetings that would take place throughout the day. Given the nature of my position, I knew I might be in and out of the meetings some, which would make it difficult to share the same information with everyone. I wanted to offer them a presentation that wasn't actually dependent on me being there to present it. I also wanted to use a form of technology that could be useful to all of  my fellow teachers for their own classrooms. With that I decided it was time to try my hand at making my first PowToon.

What is a PowToon? It's a great animated site that lets you combine animated characters, images, text, graphics, music, voice recordings, transitions, and more to create videos. Here is a quick overview from the PowToon website explaining just what you can do with PowToon.

I used the PowToon for Education site specifically. PowToon is easy and fun to use once you've identified what each element does and play around with it a bit. I definitely recommend that teachers try making a PowToon of their own before assigning it to students. It's not that students couldn't figure how to use it, because let's be honest, they could probably figure it out faster than many adults, but as a teacher, it will help to understand all of the great features of this site. It may even help to expand the assignment to include more of the features. They have great tutorial videos that explain how to use the site (like the one above), but if you're like me, you like to jump right in and get started! (Just like the kids, right?)

The one thing that made a big difference for me in ease of use was when I realized that you can control the timing that the different elements enter the screen by choosing the element and then using the sliding scale at the bottom to choose when that element will be added to the screen. Before I found that I could control that timing, I had words and characters overlapping at incorrect times. You can also adjust the length of each slide using the + and - on this same blue bar.

There are a huge variety of characters and backgrounds to choose from, many of which come with the free account. These can help you create presentations that range from serious to funny depending on what you are looking for. There is also a great variety of background music to choose from. When you first log in, you are given the option to create animated presentations or professional slideshows, both with access to a variety of elements and templates to choose from.

I love this site for teachers and students. I think there are a huge number of ways that this could be used in the classroom. This would be great for flipped learning, a student presentation, a student tutorial, a book review, introducing a new topic, or many other purposes. It's fun to watch, easy to share, and allows for a great amount of creative freedom. This is all just my own opinion from using it myself-I highly recommend checking it out.

Here's my first PowToon. Now that I've made one, I'm already thinking of great uses I have for others and ways to make it better. This is a great educational tool that really has endless uses for the classroom!

Tech Tools: Augmented Reality

The first time I saw augmented reality being demonstrated in a workshop, I can remember audibly saying "Wow!" The first time I showed an augmented reality app to students, that same word was repeated, along with many other exclamations about how amazing it was.

In the past year it seems that the number of AR apps has really increased creating some great potential for learning and fun! Best of all, all of the apps featured here are completely free!

colAR Mix

The first AR app I was ever introduced to is called colAR Mix. After downloading, you go to their website and print out any of a number of black and white pictures. After coloring the picture in, open the app and watch that very same picture come to life! They seem to be regularly updating the pictures that they offer, which is great. They have everything from a cute little sheep that kicks a soccer ball, to a cell where students can color in and label each of the different parts. Check out their video below to see just how amazing this app is!

ColAR Mix certainly isn't the only AR app out there. DAQRI has created a number of great AR apps that are educational and free as well.

Apps by DAQRI

Elements 4D is an app created by DAQRI that allows you to see chemical reactions take place in 4D. After printing out and assembling the cubes from their website, you can use the app to view what various chemicals actually look like in 4D. By placing two cubes together, you can actually see what the chemical reaction looks like! What an amazing way to help students actually visualize what happens when two chemicals mix.

Photo Credit: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/daqri/elements-4d-interactive-blocks

Another amazing app created by DAQRI is Anatomy 4D. Students can view all different systems at work in the human body to learn about anatomy and how the different systems fuction. Check out this video by DAQRI to see this incredible app.

DAQRI also has apps to view the human heart in 4D and the solar system. You can access these printables with the DAQRI app. I showed both to students at my school and they were truly amazed. They also had great ideas for different ways to explore the 4D images further. With the heart you can again view different One fun thing about the solar system 4D printable is that the closer you get to earth, the more you hear people talking and kids laughing. As you go further and further away, you start seeing planets, comets, and how things change at different views. It is truly incredible.

Photo credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITEsxjnmvow

Another AR app that I've had fun with recently is called Enchantium by DAQRI. This app has options for three games, a 4D fairy tale story, musical strings- where you can watch as the sound travels (sound waves lesson!), or a game that looks live a 4D version of Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots,which can be played by two people. 

Photo credit: http://www.edutech.nodak.edu/ar/enchantium/

Photo credit: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/enchantium/id811753948?mt=8

If you're interested in creating your own augmented reality, DAQRI even has an Educator's Studio that educators can sign up with for free. I have just recently done this, so I'm sure there will be a future post about how this works.

Aurasma

Yet another AR app that has great reviews is Aurasma. With this app you can create markers that trigger "auras" to play. An aura is a video, image, or sound file that will play on loop when the marker is detected by this app. This video provides a great tutorial on how to create an Aurasma for a students project.

These are by no means the only AR apps out there. It is amazing what has been created with augmented reality. Just typing augmented reality into the app store pulls up a large number of great AR apps.

Here are a few sites to check out if you are interested in learning more about augmented reality apps to use in the classroom.

Two Guys and Some iPads

teachthought

Educator's Technology

appoLearning

If you haven't explored augmented reality yet, you will be wowed! It is truly an amazing classroom tool and I highly recommend all educators take a look at the ways AR might be useful in their classrooms.

Fun with the Hour of Code

This week our whole school is participating in the Hour of Code. Yes, all 800 students, through their math classes will be spending one hour learning how to code! As of today over half of our students have participated and it has gone incredibly well. We have students with a huge range of experience, but I've been so pleased to see that no matter what the level of experience, all students have been fully engaged.

I've had students come in who have no idea what code is and students who are capable of programming robots. It's really amazing to see that students with such different experience levels are able to really enjoy such a challenging activity.

The majority of the students are using the Hour of Code created by code.org
However, a number of students were in coding club previously, so they chose to complete the hour of code from the sites Tynker, Codecademy, Khan Academy, CodeHS, or the Frozen version from Code.org.

They were able to work at their own self-guided pace. They were great about asking questions, helping each other, and working through the tough challenges.

I'd definitely recommend that every school find time to participate in the Hour of Code if possible!

Since this was our first year participating, I'm curious what other schools who have participated at least two years in a row do. Do they have students repeat the levels from code.org or suggest that they try new sites? This is something that I'd certainly love to continue yearly.

Happy coding!

Tech Tools: Blendspace

Last year I learned about what has quickly become one of my favorite organizational tools for PD. It also can serve as a great tool in the classroom too. It is called Blendspace. Blendspace allows you to combine, text, pictures, websites, videos, links to sites like Educreations, photos, and more in one place. I have used it for lessons and PD presentations and have loved it for both.

Whether I am teaching a lesson to students or sharing with co-workers, I find that I always have at least a few different links that I want to share with them both during and after the presentation. By using Blendspace, I am able to combine all of my information in one place so that I don't have to bookmark a bunch of different sites or have them open ahead of time. I also like that I can add text to highlight what it is that I want to share. It's also great that I can add videos from YouTube because there are often great tutorials there that I want to share. Then afterwards, I can share the Blendspace on my website so that they can access it themselves later to reference the sites that I spoke about.

For classroom teachers, there is a really great feature that allows you to create 'classrooms' with which to share your Blendspace lessons. So you could have your students join your 'classroom' using the given code, and always be able to access the Blendspace lessons that you've shared with them. This is great for flipped learning, review, or so that absent students have a way to catch up easily. 

Another thing that I love about Blendspace is that you can view other Blendspace lessons that were shared by other educators. I was able to search by subject areas and access incredible lessons complete with video tutorials and links to really useful sites. 

Yet another possible use is to have students create Blendspaces as a presentation format for their own projects. Privacy settings are completely adjustable.

Blendspace is great for organization, presentation, and giving students and parents access to what you shared at any time. I highly recommend checking it out!

Here is a sample Blendspace that I used for a recent staff PD:

Tech Tools: Edmodo

I thought I'd spend today's post sharing a website that I just love for classroom teachers.
It's edmodo.com

Have you used Edmodo in your classroom yet?

I am a huge fan of Edmodo for the classroom. In the past I've used it to have students turn in work so that I could grade it and give them feedback right on Edmodo. As a language arts teacher, it was such a relief not to have to carry papers back and forth. I could write right on the papers they submitted if I chose and share a grade with them right there. I also used it to have students submit work right on the class wall so that others could view and comment on it. We did this when the students created projects, like websites or podcasts. Then they were able to learn from each other and share constructive feedback. It also made it much quicker for presentations so that students did not have to find their project (online or on their H-Drive), they could just open it from the Edmodo page. Any time saving strategy in the classroom is a win in my book!

Other great ways that I've used Edmodo in the classroom were to connect my students with students in other states. Another teacher and I made small groups in Edmodo based on the books that our kids were reading. They had a blast discussing with students their own age in a completely different state. On a smaller scale, I also made groups that connected kids who I taught in different sections. They loved knowing that they were communicating with peers who were not in their specific class. Besides the fact that this was engaging, it also offered the opportunity for more viewpoints, which led to very thoughtful discussions.

One of my other favorite features of Edmodo is the Communities. The Communities allow for teachers to connect, share, and inspire. I've received many great lesson ideas thanks to the Language Arts and Technology Communities. You are able to link or upload files that can then be saved to your own personal Library for later use. It truly is a place for inspiration among teachers. I highly recommend checking it out, even if you don't have any other use for the site.

There is a new tool on Edmodo that looks pretty amazing as well called Snapshot. This allows language arts and math teachers to assess their students' understanding of Common Core concepts. It then provides the teacher with data that they can reference throughout the year to really measure student growth. You can vary the amount and type of questions as well. It seems that Snapshot provides a quick and effective way for teachers to assess students and help students become more familiarized with an online assessment system. It seems testing is heading online across the nation, so this could become a very useful skill for students to understand how to do.

I recently shared Edmodo, and my obvious love for it, during a staff PD and I'm happy to say, I already had a few teachers who are eager to get started with it. While there are many other platforms that have some or many of the features of Edmodo, the user-friendly platform and teacher collaboration features make it stand out the most to me.

Any other Edmodo fans out there?