Students Go Crazy for Kahoot! Why You Should Play...

I've been using Kahoot! the past couple of weeks.  Students absolutely love it!  And so do I.

Here's why I think you should be playing Kahoot! with students in your classes:

• All students answer every question on their own.  This is perfect for a 1:1 environment.  Students can use anything that that has a web browser. 

• A display of how many students answered each item appears after each question.  As a teacher, it will be very clear to you when the class is getting it and when they don't. 

• You can download all responses at the end of the game.  I've used this to see which students are struggling with certain concepts.

• The games are so easy to find.  I've probably played this game 10 times in the last two weeks.  I've created a grand total of....... one game!  Some games I've found and used include four different geometry games, grammar games for each of the last three concepts, and a Bill of Rights review game.  Also, in the last two weeks, the amount of public games has gone from 80,000 to 102,000!

• Games are easy to share with colleagues.  Just e-mail them the link to the game or share within the site.

• Students can create their own games.  Two of my Tech Club students created their own ten-question game with images in about 20 minutes.  They figured it all out on their own.

Suggestions:  

• Encourage students to take their time when answering.  Since students get more points if they answer quicker, they get too excited about being the first to answer each question and lose focus.

• Limit students from talking in between questions.  They will want to talk about their score after every single question, guaranteed!

If you start using Kahoot! in your classroom, I guarantee it will be a crowd pleaser and a great way to review almost any type of concept!

Our Daily Class Podcasting Show Celebrates 200th Episode

Students were thrilled a few weeks ago, as we celebrated the 200th episode of our class podcast, Fifth Grade Fever.

Since our first episode on 12-12-2012, the show has come along way.  To hear more about the evolution of the show, listen to our 200th episode below.

listen to ‘Fifth Grade Fever 3/19/14: Our 200th Episode’ on Audioboo



You can also watch another one of our episodes below.

Be sure to subscribe to my blog, as I'll be covering the following topics involving our class podcasting studio:

• The equipment in our class podcasting studio
• Specifically how we set up the podcasting studio
• How students write the script for our shows
• The jobs for each show
• Fitting a daily class show into our busy school day
• Other uses for the podcasting studio
• Why your class should have a podcasting studio

*Subscribe to Teachers Use Tech on the right hand side of this page.  You can also like this blog on Facebook to get the latest articles and updates.

How to Make an Augmented Reality Word Wall with Aurasma

If you have at least one iPad in your classroom, you can make an augmented reality word wall.

The picture by the lockers is actually a video that pops up of students acting out the word, exaggerate.

Here's how:  

1.  Assign one word per student and have them create their own image that represents the vocabulary word for your wall.  My students used Pic Collage on their iPads.  

2.  Print and laminate the the images that the students have created.

3.  Students should work with a partner to assist in the creation of a short video that shows what the word means.

4.  Follow the steps of how to create an Aura using the Aurasma app to make your image come to life.  

When all is said and done, you'll have a wall full of words and pictures.  Any time students use Aurasma, they can scan these pictures.  If it's done right, the video that represents the word will appear.

This is my best attempt at a panoramic picture of our word wall.

Once you are finished, what kind of activities would you do with students to put this creation to use?

Calling All 5th Grade Blogging Classrooms: It's Time to Share our Students' Blogs!

My students love the blogging process, but they'd especially love a way to read blog posts of other students in their age group.  There's nothing better than telling students they have a global audience of readers!

To do this, I've created the website Blog into 5th.  This website will be a great way to connect other Fifth Grade classrooms that blog.

I will also share writing and editing rights for Blog into 5th with teachers that are interested in contributing.

Details:

1.  Students will be able to find the other student blogs on the right side of the site.  Each link will take students to the page that has a list of student links.  For example, here's where my class link goes.  As you can see, this works well with KidBlog.

2.  Student blog posts can be of any topic or format.  My students are currently writing about whichever topic they choose.  They absolutely love it!

3.  Teachers can use this page to write about and highlight certain blogs or blog posts that they are proud of.  This can be a great way to motivate some students.  This is optional.

4.  Teachers will be able to add their "blogging tips" onto our Blog into 5th page.  This is optional.

Fill out the form below to connect your class with the other classes that sign up for this endeavor.  Thank you!

Teaching Globally with My Sister's Class in Florida

Today, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to teach my sister's 1st graders in Florida, while I was in chilly Chicago!

My first step?  I decided to create a fun vocabulary video (using her current words).  My wife also joined in the fun as we quickly made the video that you can view below.



After I shot all of the videos on my iPad, I put them in the right order using iMovie for iPad, uploaded to YouTube, and sent the link to my sister.  This really did not take long at all.

She showed the video to her class and afterwards, connected her class with me using Skype.  Our 25 minute conversation included the following:

• A demonstration of what snow looks like (most of her students had never seen it)
• A brief Q and A about what I thought about the snow
• What to wear in the cold
• Information about my two dogs

My favorite part was calling on the eager students as I saw them through my computer.   What a fun experience!

How to Create Augmented Reality with the Aurasma App

There are so many ways to use the app, Aurasma in your classroom.  However, do you actually know how to make an "aura" within this great app?

Watch the following video to become a pro at creating auras.



I've used Aurasma for giving voice to my students' explorer projects, as well as attaching video to words in my class word wall.

How do you / would you use augmented reality in your classroom?

How to Use TodaysMeet for a Reading #StoryChat

Yesterday my students participated in their third #StoryChat to discuss their latest story in Reading.

We recently read the story "Satchmo's Blues," which teaches about the life of famous musician, Louis Armstrong.  In the story, Satchmo resold onions that he had found in the garbage so that he could buy his horn. The fourth question (Q4) of our #storychat asked students the things they would do to make money when saving for an item.  You can read some of the answers below.

How I do this in my classroom:

• I randomly choose a student that would like the responsibility of moderating the discussion.  They are given a list of questions and an approximate timeline for questioning.
• The classroom is silent during the chat.  All communication is done only on the site.  One time I even had students do this while I was at a meeting.
• Setting up the class for the chat literally take 10 seconds.  I set up this one by typing in www.todaysmeet.com/satchmo and then I wrote it on the board.  

Using the website TodaysMeet has been a great way to promote participation and class discussion about what we read about in my class.  I highly recommend it!


* You can also read about how I use TodaysMeet for participation during class movies.