GetKahoot! Engaging & Effective Interactive Classroom Tool

We have Chromebooks, iPads, and student personal devices in EVERY classroom of our district.  We want technology to be used for educational purposes!  We want technology to make our job of educating our students more effective.

GetKahoot!  accomplishes all of this!

Students don't need a username and password.
Students can use ANY device.
Students are required to "know their stuff."
Students love gaming aspects!
Students love multiple choice!
Students love winning!

Teachers enjoy engaged students!
Teachers enjoy enthusiasm in the classroom!
Teachers enjoy implementing their content!
Teachers will love the preview screens!
Teachers could include one a week.

New Features To Kahoot: Rich Text Editor, Kick Inappropriate Names Out
View Overview Video


GetKahoot!  Preview Mode
This was a huge selling point for me!  Through GetKahoot!'s website, I am able to experience dual roles as the student and the teacher.  This allows me (and teachers) to view just how it will look when the Kahoot! is running in the classroom
View It

Watch Our Teachers Play

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Our Final Scores!

A Lunch

 B Lunch

 C Lunch

Congratulations to COBRA (Joel J.) for 

being the Lunch N' Learn Overall Champion!

Our high school math department implemented GetKahoot!  after a homework assignment discussion and before a quiz.  

View the Classroom

Google Calendar as Lesson Plans and Embedded In Blog

Today was a great day of learning!  Teachers set up calendars for each of their classes or subject area.


To communicate with parents and students these calendars will be used for their lesson plans and embedded into their classroom blogs.  The step by step process is in video and presentation form below.






The entire process of creating a lesson plan in Google calendar and embedding the calendar with a week's lesson plans into a Google blog took one hour.

Interactive Response Tools

Because I am presenting in two weeks on blended learning and ALL that it entails as I have scene it and experienced it last year, I sent this tweet out to my PLN.

I was blessed to receive a number of responses.  I am putting all of them in one area as a number of teachers may ask about this in the upcoming school year.

In no particular order:

• Socrative
• Today's Meet
• Nearpod
• Poll Daddy
• Smarttech Response
• SMART Response VE
• Answer Garden

I also learned about Larry Ferlazzo's Best of List for Response tools.

Since I do not know what type of device everyone will have or what the wireless connection will be like, I have decided to have two different methods of response.

My preferred method will be to use the Answer Garden tool.  I created a test question and the response shows up below.

I like the way it shows up in a word cloud, and I like the different options for exporting and keeping.  It is also a big plus that no creation of an account is needed.

For those that have a cell phone, I think I will stick with PollEverywhere for now.

I am truly thankful for the help that I received in learning about great tools for interacting with an audience.

Please consider following them:

• @lisettecasey
• @acihlar
• @TeachaKidd
• @jenlegatt
• @KristinStrauman
• @ShellyMowinkel
• @suser1

iPad, iMovie, Extras4iMovie, and Scroll Credits For Video Production

Yesterday, our students volunteered a day's worth of time to help elementary students learn about bike safety.  I decided to video and take pictures of the entire process, but wasn't really sure what I would do with the images and video.

On the way home, I decided this would be a perfect excuse...err reason for me to purchase the iMovie app for iPad to discover its features.  One other video editing app that I have used in the past is REEL DIRECTOR.  I like it, but it is rather cumbersome to use.

I really enjoyed and became proficient at using iMovie for iPad in a within 1 hour of first use.  The timeline and features that go with it are efficient.  The themes are a nice addition.  Adding video was extremely easy as it is located in the list of videos.  Same with pictures and songs.

I really like how sound from video clips mutes the song of the entire movie while it is playing.  Adding voice to a video clip is easy as well.

I also purchased Extras4iMovie, and Scroll Credits.  Both apps have an incredible amount of additional backgrounds and clip art.  I used the Extras4iMovie to create the scrolling edits at the end.  I nice feature.

I will be using iMovie more than Reel Director from now on based on the fact that my user experience with iMovie was better than Reel Director.

Student-Led Conferences: Parents & Students Engaged!

Day 1 of Student-Led Conferences is in the books

This was probably the best student-led conferences that I have experienced.

Why?

The parents and students were engaged because the students really knew how to maneuver the iPad to demonstrate all of the work that they completed.  I could sense that students were taking pride in showing their online professional portfolio, creations, and tweets.  I am also thrilled that the professional blogs are a year-to-date body of work.  We didn't just show them tests as was in the past, but all the learning experiences that have occurred along the journey. Students had an agenda that they were to follow and parents totally wanted to hear all about it.  Some parents and students were present for over a half hour!

My favorite video was when a parent asked, "Can I come back to school?"





 See some other reactions below.

Model Classroom Concept at WASB

It was with great pleasure that we provided a session on how our school district is implementing digital devices.

VIEW THE PRESENTATION

View the Setup:

21st Century Model Classroom PCSD School Board Presentation

Tonight: We had the awesome opportunity to share our first accomplishments with our school board and many community members.

Our Theme:  How is our learning environments different since acquiring technology tools for our classroom?

PSCD School Board: Thank you for committing to this endeavor.  I believe that we are truly doing what is right by taking one year and seeing which device fits which need.

Invitation: All community members are invited to any of our classrooms at any time to see the amazing student learning experiences.



This video is created with the REEL DIRECTOR app for the iPad2.

To see the entire presentation activities, click HERE!

Chamber of Commerce Visit

Picture Source: 

http://www.pulaskichamber.org/

I would like to extend a HUGE thank you to all of the Pulaski Area Chamber of Commerce members who visited our room.  I appreciate you giving us the opportunity to show the great things that the students are learning and creating using iPad2 and our Pulaski Google.

I encourage you to visit again as you are welcome any time.

See parts of their visit below.

***At this point in our lesson, the students are experiencing direct instruction on a new app that we will be using called Animation HD.  More on this app after our class uses the app!