Kahoot! ... well gesundheit (bless you)

To those of you who are reading these wonderful reflections of goals that I have set for myself in my new role as model tech classroom, I thank you. I appreciate having an audience that I know is going through the same journey as I am during these last crazy weeks of school. With only 12 days closing in on the last day, I am looking for ways to engage my students even more now since they are becoming restless.

 My next goal that I am reflecting on came about when I went to a Waukesha One session one year that dealt with a neat little site called Kahoot! This session looked intriguing to me because it was so interactive for the students. It allowed them to instantly receive feedback on their answer, and me to see who still needed to work on a certain skill. However, like many of us at the beginning of the year, that plan quickly took a back burner to all the academic things I needed to accomplish. Little did I know that those academics could be easily incorporated into Kahoot!, but in an awesome game-based way.

 Speed forward to this past week when I actually used Kahoot! in my Literacy classes. I wanted to do word study with them, but not with them cutting stuff out that results in scraps everywhere (no good for a type A person).  ;-) Yes, I understand the importance of paper and pencil at times when students need to engage in that. However, this word study allowed me to combine so many skills that I had already taught but wanted to review with them. I was so excited to have found Kahoots related to the early literacy skills I wanted to review. With my Kahoot! set and ready to go off we went to review our word study skills. Even with preparation and warning, the students were still obsessed that it was a game and there was a winner. I guess my words meant nothing to them when I said I didn't turn off the points because I didn't know how at the time. Well, lesson learned for sure those points students can get really hinder their learning. I now know (after the third time) that the points need to be turned off before we start playing.

 If you are looking for an interactive and game-0based learning opportunity for your students, I highly recommend Kahoot! It's so easy to search for Kahoots that are already created you just have to tweak to your needs to create your own. The website is very user friendly and hopefully this blog inspires you to try it out. I used it with my K/1 students, however there are so many options for older students. I see so much potential in using this that I even considered having my high flyers who need extension to create a quiz of their own to use on other students. Kahoot! is a limitless resource that be used in so many creative ways. Just try it!