Digital Age Learning Experiences - Kahoot!

If you enjoy playing trivia games and healthy competition and are looking for a great assessment tool to use with your students, than this post is for you. Buffalo Wild Wings offers trivia games that you can play while you grab a bite to eat with your friends and family. The tool I am going to share with you allows for a similar opportunity.  The great advantage with this trivia is that you choose what the content of the trivia will be (just create your Kahoot and provide some food, too :-) just kidding about the food part). 

 Kahoot! is a fun, interactive trivia type game that teachers or students can create on any topic. Game-based learning creates a fun environment where every student can be interacting with learning. This web 2.0 assessment tool can be created by teachers or students. 

Getahoot.com is the website used to create Kahoots. The website is super easy to use and can be used through the browser on iPads or from any computer browser. The great thing about this tool is that students are able to create Kahoots to share with their peers. 

You may have used a response system in the past that required more set up and complications than were worth the time spent in class.  Here is a great graphic from getakahoot.com that shows what makes Kahoot! different than other response systems:

When I used Kahoot! with my students in class, 100% of the students were engaged and interacting with the questions. Every student had to answer each question and we had great conversations about the questions. 

When you add questions, you have the opportunity to add a picture with the question. This is a great opportunity for students to what they know and add pictures that enhance the text just like the CYSD Skills for Digital Age Learner standards state (for Grade 6):

CYDAL.2.6.2 Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats

• CYDAL.2.6.2.03 Format presentation using appropriate text and images (e.g., text consists of main idea(s), images enhance text, sounds and transitions support text)

I used Kahoot! to review Greek and Latin prefixes and suffixes with my students. Check it out here: https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/93670a54-6dfd-45d1-8537-7fb963a74f5e

Check out this youtube video tutorial on how to create your first Kahoot. 

After you have your Kahoot created, it's simple for your students to use with their iPads.  When you are ready,  plug your device into a projector and launch the Kahoot. When you launch, there will be a variety of options for you to choose. 

A code will appear for students to join the Kahoot, then let the fun begin. 

Kahoot! also has a blog with some great tutorials including ideas of how to use it to customize learning in your classroom. Check it out by clicking here. 

Promoting and Modeling Digital Citizenship and Responsibility

Digital citizenship is much more than having an online presence. Digital citizenship has to do with the way you interact with the wonderful world wide web. There are seven key elements of digital citizenship. They are: 

• Internet Safety

• Privacy & Security of Data (Passwords, Network, Financial-Identity theft, spam, phishing)

• Relationships & Communication (Email, Nettiquette, Social Media)

• Cyberbullying

• Digital Footprint & Reputation (photos, social media, search history)

• Information Literacy (Search strategies, evaluating sources)

• Copyright & Ownership of Creative Work

All seven areas are important to know and understand to maintain a safe online presence. In the classroom environment, sixth grade learners will be using the internet to explore resources, research, share what they've learned and created, and more! Additionally, when they are outside of the classroom, students will be using the internet for personal reasons. They may be searching for their favorite band to listen to music, sharing photos or thoughts on social media, or Skyping with a friend about anything and everything. Today, we are going to look at one aspect of digital citizenship for sixth grade students. 

Privacy & Security of Data 

As a sixth grader,  you know that it is not safe to share your password or give out personal information with other on the internet. That is personal information. But there is more to privacy and security of data for a maintaining a positive presence in your digital citizenship. According to Common Sense Media, this also includes:  

• "understand what identity theft is and why it is important to guard against it.

• learn to recognize strategies that scam artists use to access private information.

• learn how to guard against phishing and identity theft."

Knowing how to properly search the internet for resources and knowing common ways others try to hoaxes and spam you are going to be vital to maintaining your privacy and security of data.

Check out this video from Common Sense Media Educators:


Liquid Mountaineering HI-TEC from Common Sense Educators on Vimeo.

Wow! The Hi-Tec company created a great video that went viral, but wasn't real at all! You can not believe everything that you see on the internet. Now as harmless as this video seems, there are some other real dangers on the internet that could collect your personal information without you even knowing it if you are not careful.

There are scams on the internet that want to try to steal your personal information, like your name, address, social security number, etc. Even though sixth graders aren't old enough to have a credit card, someone may be out there trying to steal your information to commit fraud.

Here are some key vocabulary words that you need to know (defined by Common Sense Media):

scam: an attempt to trick someone, usually with the intention of stealing money or private information

identity theft: a type of crime in which your private information is stolen and used for criminal activity

vulnerable: in a position that makes it easier for you to be harmed or attacked

phishing: when people send you phony emails, pop-up messages, social media messages, texts, calls, or links to fake websites in order to hook you into giving out your personal and financial information

Check out a couple for fake (phishing) emails  this website from Consumer Fraud Reporting that show some real life examples of fake emails that try to steal valuable information from you.

What do you notice that these emails have in common?

Use caution with anything on the internet that asks for personal information. Do not give any personal information out. Even if it is posted or emailed from a friends social media account, do not share.  Don't click on any part or reply. Ask an adult to help you report the message to your email provider so that they can stop the scam from continuing.

Check out Onguardonline.gov for some more great resources.

Common Sense Media also has a great family resource handout.

Personal Learning Network (PLN) - Top 5 ways to grow

ISTE Standards for teachers: #5. "Engage in professional growth and leadership."

5.  Email subscriptions
 I am a subscriber to several different professional email publications. The publications provide professional development and a myriad of resources.  One that I have been using recently is NewsELA. It provides current event articles that you can change the reading level to match the needs of your students.

I also get emails from Nearpod that keep me up to date with the tool and resources. They recently joined with OZY to provide articles that you can use with students and also share with colleagues.
Another newsletter that am subscribed to is Scholastic. The newsletters provide a variety of teaching ideas, ELA resources, and a variety of other articles and ideas.

These are all websites that I frequent regularly. I enjoy the email subscriptions since they come to my inbox and I don't have to go searching for them! 

4. Twitter
I have two twitter accounts that I try to use on a regular basis. I would love to grow in this area and use them more frequently, but there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in a day!
My PLN twitter is @lfryer12. I use this to connect to professional resources and personal interests. There are so many great companies and professionals out there to connect to who are sharing awesome ideas and resources. Last year, as a science teacher, I was able to connect with a marine biologist. We were studying environments so we had the chance to Skype with the biologists and learn about sharks!  The students absolutely loved it and were engaged the whole time.

I follow some great teaching professional resources like Edutopia, ASCD, EducationNation and more!   I have not viewed or used this as much as I would like to so I am going to challenge myself to find 5 new people or companies each day for the next month to follow.

I also have a classroom twitter account @Fryer127 to update information about the classroom. I go through spurts where I am really good about updating and then through times were I hardly ever update. I need to get more consistent at this.

3. Blogs 
Blogs are something that I would like to start following more in the future. I wish I had more time to blog for fun and to share my ideas. I just love that teachers are willing to put their ideas and resources out on the web to share with others. It is great to read about their successes teaching and their "failing forward" moments as well. I don't have any specific blogs that I follow regular, but I would like to add this task to my "to do" list to continue to develop my PLN. 

2. Facebook Page of Note and Notice 
I am a part of the "Notice and Note Book Club" group on Facebook.com. This group is made up of teachers and the authors of the Notice and Note book Kyleen Beers and Robert E Probst. We started using their book for ELA last year. The book has lessons and resources to teach signposts which is a close reading strategy. The Facebook group offers a safe place for teachers to share ideas and ask questions. Kyleen Beers will often respond to many of the questions or teaching ideas that are posted.  I really enjoy reading the questions and ideas that other teachers posts in this group.  

1. Pinterest
I could spend hours each day on Pinterest finding new ideas to help me grow as a professional. I currently have 29 boards. Click here to see my boards. 9 of them are devoted to school, the rest are personal interests. My boards are organized by grade level, subject area, and some even specific parts of content areas. I love that it is so easy to share and collect ideas on pinterest for anything and everything you can think of. Many of ideas that I adapt and use in my classroom come because of pins I have seen and try out. There are so many ways to grow professionally on Pinterest!

The Ideal Classroom, Modeling and Inspiring Creativity

For my first blog post, the assignment asked me to describe the ideal classroom where creativity would be modeled and inspired.  I was asked to share my thoughts in a creative manner. I debated and changed my mind several times about how to share this. At first, I was going to create an iMovie trailer, but I wanted to use a technology tool that I didn't feel totally comfortable with so that I could learn more about it to possibly be able to use with my students in the future. 

I decided to create a book using the "Book Creator" app.  I believe the app has updated since I first used it, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to explore the app more and think about the possible opportunities to implement it into my 6th grade ELA classes. 

This project really took a great deal of time and energy to push my thinking to what my ideal classroom would be if there was no limits on anything at all, living in a dream world! 

Below you will find the PDF version which is a static view of the book. Click here to download and open the epub version you will find the links to the images I used to create the book. I used Google's search to find images that were 'labeled for noncommercial reuse'.