I really hope that when you read the title to this post you sang it. You know the song from Sound of Music! Haha just me? Ok I'm gonna post about 3 of my favorite things as a teacher.
First favorite thing: Kahoot
"Kahoot! is a free game-based learning platform that makes it fun to learn" That's their wording when you Google Kahoot and I couldn't agree more. Kahoot is a website where you can make your own quizzes, discussions, or surveys.
I've only every created the quiz one. One of the reasons why I like this is that it provides immediate feedback so the students can see how they are doing- are they getting the questions right. Doing the same problems on a worksheet just doesn't provide that. Also at the end you can download the data from the quiz. Who got what questions right or wrong. Which questions they missed the most. Etc. To play you can either create your own Kahoot! as you see above- or you can search other teacher's public ones. When you're ready you launch it on your computer and project it onto an activeboard or just project it onto a screen (it's not important that the board be interactive because the students are interacting through their device). The students "play" by using a device that connects to the Internet- I let my students use their phones- but I always sign up for the iPad cart because not all of our students have access to smart phone. Once you launch it a PIN number pops up and the student type in the PIN to connect to your specific quiz. Then they can choose their name. I always make the rule that they must use their actual name I call them. If students try to use an inappropriate name you can kick them out of the game by clicking on their name.
I like this because students think it's really cool to be able to use their smart phones in class and I am always shocked how much it increases their willingness to do more practice problems. There are some downsides though. One is that on the quiz portion- it's timed and the longest you can give them is 120s or 2 min. This may be fine for a general ed class room, however it causes some anxiety and stress for my special education students who almost always need extra time. A way around that is to give them the questions before hand to work out. Another downside is there always seems to be that one student who realizes that by waiting and not answering, they can prevent the game from moving on and taking a long time. Any suggestions on how to deal with those students would be appreciated!
Second Favorite thing: Bullet Journal!
I was using something like this before I ever heard of it- a running to do list in a composition note book to try to keep on top of the 15 million things a special education teacher has to do in a week. I know that's only a few more things than the 14 million any other teacher has to do too. Now I am trying this method out. I keep all my notes and to do lists in this spiral notebook.
Mainly I just like the quote and spiral works for me cause I can clip it open to the current week's to-do list. I use a system very similar to the one in the video. Although I don't find much use for the monthly calendar part as my school uses google calendar and I have a desktop calendar I use for that as well. I do use it for both personal and school related activities. I just really like it because personally if I don't write it down- it goes out of my brain into nothingness and it won't get done or I won't remember. I also like this method because it's very flexible and you can personalize it to fit your needs. This could be done in a regular planner, a 99 cent composition notebook, a cute spiral notebook. You could have 2, one for school and one for personal life. However you want it- you can do it. I'm still working out the kinks on what works best for me. I'll let you know how it goes. Below is what I've done so far.
The bullets I use, as you can see to the left, are basically the same as the guy points out in the video. I love to color code so I came up with a key. However, I don't usually carry all those around with me so I've come to realize it wasn't that doable. However, I do like to high light my tasks from time to time so I can tell what I need to do for school, lacrosse, or personal at a quick glance. You can see what that actually looks like in the picture below. As you can see, I mostly use this type of "journal" for a running weekly to do list. I also use it on the weekends to try to be more productive with my time.
If you have any ideas on how to make this work better for me or ways it works for you, please let me know. I love anything organization related!
Third Favorite Thing: My Keurig!
Disclaimer- not my actual Keurig
I know, I know- this is supposed to be a post about what's your favorite thing in your classroom. Well I have an office because I float classrooms and I can't tell you how awesome, and needed, it is to be able to come into work a bit earlier and fix my self a cup of coffee exactly like I like it. I need those few minuets to my self before school begins to mentally put my self in the right mind set. It's almost like meditation. Sitting drinking coffee checking personal emails, work emails, catching up on my favorite blogs, sometimes listening to books on tape, podcasts, etc. Every teacher deserves a little me time and I find mine before anyone gets to school through caffeine. Don't judge.
I had the same issues with Kahoot. So now I always use Quizizz (quizizz.com) It's essentially the same concept (although I always have the kids use Chromebooks so I don't know how well it would work with phones), But the timer can go up to 15 minutes, the questions are all on the screens so students go at their own pace, and it has funny memes that pop up if you want. Creating a Quizizz is easier, in my opinion, too because you can take just certain questions from other public quizzes instead of duplicating an entire Kahoot quiz and changing around certain parts. It might be a good one to check out! I've also used Socrative for short answer type questions but I'm still pretty new to that.
Thanks for the suggestion- already checked out quizizz! I'm giving a formative on Friday in my resource Chemistry class- thinking I'm going to have to give it a try! I totally just tried it on my phone and it totally works!
I haven't used Kahoot well (in my opinion) for many of the reasons mentioned by laviemathematique above. I think the time limit thing is especially problematic for me because I have a number of kids who struggle, and I spend SO MUCH TIME at the beginning of the year making the point that being fast isn't a big deal but thinking deeply and checking yourself is, which kind of goes against the whole kahoot time thing. I dunno.
But, I know our History teacher uses it and the kids love it in there. Maybe I just need to find a different use (perhaps vocabulary instead of actual problems)? I don't know.
Do you find that some of your students who are a little more slow in their thinking processes get frustrated with Kahoot and just give up? What do you do to combat this?
I have used it successfully for vocab- the time limit matters less then. I've found more success using it in my chemistry classes than my math classes- probably because I agree. It shouldn't be about speed but about accuracy. Esp since my students struggle with processing.
One way I have "combated" was to give the problems out as independent or pair work before hand and have the kahoot as a way for them to "check" their work.
I had the same issues with Kahoot. So now I always use Quizizz (quizizz.com) It's essentially the same concept (although I always have the kids use Chromebooks so I don't know how well it would work with phones), But the timer can go up to 15 minutes, the questions are all on the screens so students go at their own pace, and it has funny memes that pop up if you want. Creating a Quizizz is easier, in my opinion, too because you can take just certain questions from other public quizzes instead of duplicating an entire Kahoot quiz and changing around certain parts. It might be a good one to check out! I've also used Socrative for short answer type questions but I'm still pretty new to that.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing all your favorites!
Thanks for the suggestion- already checked out quizizz! I'm giving a formative on Friday in my resource Chemistry class- thinking I'm going to have to give it a try! I totally just tried it on my phone and it totally works!
DeleteI haven't used Kahoot well (in my opinion) for many of the reasons mentioned by laviemathematique above. I think the time limit thing is especially problematic for me because I have a number of kids who struggle, and I spend SO MUCH TIME at the beginning of the year making the point that being fast isn't a big deal but thinking deeply and checking yourself is, which kind of goes against the whole kahoot time thing. I dunno.
ReplyDeleteBut, I know our History teacher uses it and the kids love it in there. Maybe I just need to find a different use (perhaps vocabulary instead of actual problems)? I don't know.
Do you find that some of your students who are a little more slow in their thinking processes get frustrated with Kahoot and just give up? What do you do to combat this?
I have used it successfully for vocab- the time limit matters less then. I've found more success using it in my chemistry classes than my math classes- probably because I agree. It shouldn't be about speed but about accuracy. Esp since my students struggle with processing.
DeleteOne way I have "combated" was to give the problems out as independent or pair work before hand and have the kahoot as a way for them to "check" their work.