Tech Tip Tuesday: Kahoot

On a learning walk last week, Caroline, Ahmed and I visited Jean Nightingale's Geometry class and got to see Kahoot! in action. As described on the website, "Kahoot is a learning game created on the Kahoot! platform, which consists of multiple choice questions - as a quiz, discussion or survey - in any topic, language or ability. It’s projected at the front of the classroom, & played by the whole class together in real-time (answering on their own personal device)." As we saw in Jean's class, the students were engaged and enjoying the game, and Jean was able to instantly assess where students are in their learning and then address misconceptions on the spot.

I was going to use this post to plug the upcoming TTT session on Kahoot!, but sadly, it has been postponed. So instead, here are some resources to help you get started with this awesome tool on your own. As always, if you need additional support, your instructional coach is here for  you!

You might want to start with the Getting Started with Kahoot tutorial from their website. Or, if you prefer to watch a video tutorial, you could check this one out.

Once you've got the basics down, you might be interested in learning about how to use "ghost mode" in this post from Free Technology for Teachers. This feature essentially gives students the opportunity to play a Kahoot review game against themselves in order to measure their own progress and growth.

For a peek behind the scenes, this episode from the TeachThought podcast features the co-founder of Kahoot! discussing their mission driven approach to learning and how Kahoot! is more than just an assessment tool.

PD Follow-Up

After our professional learning day last Friday, some teachers said it would be helpful to see high-quality examples of completed unwrapped units. There is now an Unwrapping Examples collection in the PLC Resources folder with seven different examples from a range of content areas.

A number of people also expressed an interest in getting more clarification around Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions. After doing more reading and thinking about EUs, EQs, standards and targets, I created the graphic below to help myself (and hopefully others) clarify the relationship between them, as well as to envision how these elements actually come into play in day to day instruction and assessment. The instructional cycle starts at the bottom with the Essential Questions.

Feedback? Questions? Please let me know!

Here are some texts that you might find helpful:

"Put Understanding First": High-school specific article by Wiggins and McTighe; a good introduction/review of the philosophy behind EUs and EQs.

"What Makes a Question Essential?": First chapter from Essential Questions by McTighe and Wiggins. I have a copy of this book if you are interested in reading additional chapters.

"How to Use Essential Questions in the Classroom": Blog post from the Global Digital Citizen Foundation.

"On Genuine vs. Bogus Inquiry" - Using Essential Questions Properly": Blog post by Wiggins. Math teachers check out the EQs that are at the heart of genuine problem solving in math.

"What is a Big Idea?": Another post from Wiggins on the Authentic Education blog.

"Essential Understandings": This is a chapter excerpt from Mapping Comprehensive Units to the ELA Common Core Standards, 6-12; however, the information at the beginning and end of the chapter is more general and is applicable to all subject areas.

If you'd like some time to peruse these resources or discuss these ideas further, come to the TTT session on Wednesday in Margaret's room. Teams who want to work on unwrapping are encouraged to attend.

Tech Tip Tuesday - LastPass

Do you have trouble keeping track of all of your usernames and passwords? Or maybe you have a "secret" spot where you keep them all, but it is really not secure and if you lost your device, someone could get access to your data.

A password manager can simplify your life, and a good one makes it easy to improve your overall online security. I've been using LastPass for years, so this is the one I personally recommend, and I am not alone. In 2015, Lifehacker ranked it as one of the top 5 password managers. 

LastPass remembers your usernames and passwords so you don't have to, and it will auto-populate the fields for your saved sites, making signing in a breeze. It also makes it easy to audit your passwords, use stronger passwords in general, and it gives you the option to store all of your passwords either online and synced with other computers and devices, or locally on one device.

According to the LastPass website, "Getting started is free, fast and just a few simple steps." What are you waiting for? 

Support available for the technologically-challenged!

Tech Tip Tuesday - Random Name Picker

"Perhaps the simplest way to improve classroom questioning is simply not to ask for volunteers, but instead to choose a student at random," says Dylan Wiliam, an expert on formative assessment and effective questioning strategies. Read more about how random questioning increases student engagement in Wiliam's article "The Right Questions, The Right Way." 

Try these two tools to easily digitize the popsicle stick strategy:

Random Name Picker is a free tool from Classtools.net. It lets you input names and spin a virtual wheel to have a name randomly selected from the list. After a name is selected you can remove it from the wheel so that it is not selected again. You can save your lists by assigning passwords to them. You can also re-use your saved lists. 



Stick Pick is an app for iPhone or iPad where you can set up multiple virtual cans of sticks. It also suggests question starters for learners at different levels and allows you to keep track of student responses.