Month: February 2017

Kahoot! – A FANTASTIC Teaching Tool!

 

Now and then I come across a fantastic teaching tool that not only works wonders for delivering my teaching material, but also resonates well with my students. Enter Kahoot! A truly phenomenal teaching tool that is both user-friendly and fun. Kahoot! offers a way to create interactive games for your class where you can conduct a survey (collect data), do an exam or test review or just test your students (for Summative review).

Here’s how Kahoot! works (I will write about the options I chose, and there are many!):

*Fellow teachers who are visual and auditory learners, don’t fret! Here’s a link to a youtube tutorial (NOT mine) that shows you how to use Kahoot! Kahoot Tutorial

  1. Create a teacher account at https://getkahoot.com/
  2. Create a game (choose from 4 options according to the needs of your subject – QUIZ, JUMBLE, DISCUSSION or SURVEY). I chose QUIZ.
  3. Type in the title for your quiz. As you can see from the screenshot above, I chose “Is This a Family?” for my Grade 12 University Family Studies Class where we explored and discussed students’ perceptions around the structure of a family.
  4. Type in a description of the quiz right below the title.
  5. Choose for your quiz to be available to EVERYONE so that your students can seamlessly log in later (I shall get to that shortly).
  6. Credit any sources and add a cover image or video as you see fit.
  7. From the drop-down menu choose SCHOOL as your audience.
  8. Click the OK, GO green button on the top right-hand side of your screen.
  9. When on the next page you can click the “+” sign and populate your quiz with as many questions as you would like.
  10. For each question, choose the time limit (how long that question will remain on screen while your students submit their answers).
  11. You may choose to award points or not.
  12. Put in the necessary answers. At least 2 are required. If it is a TRUE or FALSE question, you can leave the 3rd and 4th answer options blank. If it is a MULTIPLE CHOICE question, populate all fields. I used “YES” and “NO” as my options because my students only had to decide whether the scenario was representative of a family or not.
  13. Credit any sources for each question and click NEXT (green button on top right-hand corner).
  14. Add as many questions as you like.
  15. When you are satisfied with your questions, click SAVE.
  16. You will see a message that says “Saved and Published!”
  17. You can then choose to PREVIEW, SHARE, PLAY or EDIT your quiz.

When you are ready to PLAY with your class:

  1. Simply log in with your information.
  2. Click MY KAHOOTS from the black tab on the top of the screen, towards the left.
  3. Choose the Kahoot you want to play and click PLAY.
  4. Once your Kahoot is loaded, click the CLASSIC option which will allow all your students to participate on their mobile devices. Students simply have to download the app and you can get them to do this while you set up.
  5. Your next screen will have a PIN# which your students will put into their phones when prompted (*Note, the PIN# will change each time you play the Kahoot). After inputting the PIN#, each student will have to create a nickname and once they do, they will show up on your screen as having entered the game. Once all your students have entered (it shows the total number of players on the screen as they enter, and you can keep track based on how many students are in your class), you can click START and begin your quiz!

If you aren’t already convinced about the GREAT APPLICATIONS of this teaching tool, let me elaborate:

  1. This is a FANTASTIC way to begin conversations about bigger concepts that you want to share with your students.
  2. It allows for interaction in real-time and helps you as the teacher provide immediate feedback.
  3. Students can think on their feet and comment on peers’ responses beginning a rich and deep dialogue that can add to their bank of ideas.
  4. Kahoot! can be used for virtually ANY subject area at the Intermediate and Senior levels, and I specify Intermediate and Senior because it is this age group that usually has their own mobile devices. Want to review for a Math test? Go to Kahoot! Want to conduct a survey on student’s perceptions of the legal system for a Law course? Go to Kahoot! Maybe you want to just do a 2 Truths and a Lie Icebreaker for the first class. Go to Kahoot! This teaching tool affords you so much flexibility, where you go with it is really dependent on how creative you want to be.
  5. There are a lot of Public Kahoots too that are free to use if you are looking for inspiration or just something quick and easy to use for class.
  6. And the BEST THING about this? It allows students to use their mobile phones in the classroom, thus incorporating technology in a responsible and effective way. Plus, they’ll just love you for it!

If you do use Kahoot!, drop a comment below and share  your experience! Happy Kahooting!

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Mustang: A Must-See That Will Touch Your Soul

To all my faithful readers, I apologize for the writing hiatus. I blame it on a new job that I have only just gotten around to balancing with blogging. All the same, I am excited to drop my two cents on a film I recently watched! =)

This was another suggestion from my close friend and up-and-coming filmmaker, and what a beauty indeed! Mustang is a Turkish film that opens in a remote village in Turkey. It focuses its lens on the youngest of 5 sisters as the opening credits come to a halt. Young Lale is saddened by the departure of her favourite teacher. Her sisters try to comfort her and together, the five of them embark on an innocent and free-spirited romp on the beach. When they return home later that day, their grandmother is furious and begins hitting them one by one. Their crime? Hanging out with boys “indecently”, credit of a no-good and snitch-of-a-neighbour. The five girls are then cloistered like nuns and in Lale’s words, put through a “wife factory”. So begins this story that will both make your heart soar and devastate you all in the same breath.

Spanning themes of family, loyalty, sisterhood, bravery, abuse, love, freedom and captivity among several others, this film is a piece of artwork on its own. A layperson on film-making, I was still able to appreciate the beautiful angles that were shot, the exquisite song choices and the phenomenal acting by each of the 5 sisters: Sonay, Selma, Ece, Nur and Lale.

Director, Denis Gamze Erguven takes the viewer on a journey that is haunting in its likeness to our lives. As a woman, but also a free spirit, several aspects of this movie resonated with me on so many levels. These sisters are brave and unapologetic of who they are as people. They walk out into the world fiercely and love tenderly and openly. They trust but trust too with reason. They are clever in their attempts to attain their freedom and unwavering in their loyalty towards one another. As someone who shares a close bond with her siblings, this movie brought me to tears and is easily a fantastic movie for sisters who might be looking for a movie to bond over.

I can’t help but think of the applications this film can have to a classroom setting as well. With its strong focus on womanhood and the fight to be oneself in a world that stifles our spirits because of doctrines that are outdated and ignorant, this film poses big real-world discussion questions for courses at the high school level such as English, Family Studies, Social Sciences (particularly Psychology and Sociology), Women’s Studies, Cultural Studies and so on. It is also a fantastic eye-opener into the lives of women in remote places all across the world. An opportunity to see them as one with us, women of the West, an opportunity to feel the thirst of their spirits and the hunger in their bravery for a better life that they alone control.

I will not say more about this film (trust me I could!), mostly because I view this to be that piece of artwork in a gallery that is best viewed and not described. Therefore, whoever you are, wherever you are, this film will change you. Watch it.

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