I once heard a minister talk about religion.  “You can’t really get someone to convert,” he said.  “The best you can do is live an amazing life.  They will want what you have.  And then you can help them into the church.”  I’ve thought about that a lot – not really in terms of religion, but in terms of education.  As an educator, a teacher, my job is to share that enthusiasm for learning.  The way I see it, if I can make my content (whatever it is, though currently it’s physics) so fun, so engaging, so applicable to life, my students won’t be able to help themselves.  They will want to learn too.

In his TED talk, Sir Ken Robinson talks about “lighting the spark of curiosity.”  That can be a daunting task.  But to use technology as a kindling to get that fire blazing helps make it not only possible, but likely.  My students, middle school kids, are unbelievable social.  The best I can do is to tap into that social hunger and to allow my students to fill their hunger (it will return) with learning.

That’s where edmodo comes in.  It is a safe, secure environment that allows my students to be the social creatures that they are.  It wills their needs and at the same time if fulfills mine.  I am able to quickly assess student understanding, I am able to close monitor student progress.  I don’t need to make copies at the copy machine (yay!).  The learning curve for edmodo is not steep.  It’s pretty easy to learn, and the more you learn how to use edmodo, the more you find out what else it is capable of.

Welcome to your new addiction.