The Homework Stalker

The school year is now thoroughly into the swing of things. My students' first assessments are rolling in. The first step of my first PBL trial is due tomorrow. Operation google docs collaboration is under way. Project Edmodo begins tomorrow. My kids are tweeting and emailing me homework questions. Ladies and gentlemen, if I didn't know any better, I'd say I was a technology teacher! But more than that, I am a homework stalker...

• The class trialling my first homework PBL (project based learning) has their own blog  where I have posted the assignment sheet, as well as all the notes, activities, videos and any extras we have covered in class. The first part of their assignment is due tomorrow. Just look at the google stats for today! 

• For another class I have used their blog to guide them to share google documents with me where they are completing their homework questions in. I can see when they last accessed the homework, leave comments for them, and if I catch them at the right moment, I can even see as they are typing.
• This same class will be introduced to Edmodo tomorrow. In Edmodo I can set quizzes for the students and have their results directly collated and recorded on my own Edmodo account.
• I also set 'leave a comment' on today's blog post as homework for another class. My smart phone lets me know the second they leave a comment so I can moderate them on the spot. 

Moral of this story? Tech savvy teachers no longer have to 'fly blind' until the due date. 

Tech savvy teachers remind our students that their homework is due because we can see they haven't looked at it yet!