The frost has thawed, the snow has melted, and the stinky pear trees are blooming. The sun’s out longer, and the students’ attention is shorter–way shorter. “‘Tis the season we must outlast them,” a former principal of mine would begin to chant.
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| They look sweet, but don’t get too close! |
The first sign of trouble here in Georgia? Those nasty little pear trees. When they begin to bloom, it’s all over in the classroom. Let’s face it, though–we can’t join them, and it’s really, really hard to beat them. Exhausting. Giving up is very tempting. Very. Tempting.
But we can’t. It wouldn’t be right. There are nine more weeks until summer. Nine often painfully long weeks, but there’s still so much more to learn.
That’s why from now through the end of the school year, I’ll be blogging about SPRING SURVIVAL TIPS.
You know, those little tricks you find to keep the students engaged (and yourself sane) through the homestretch to summer. Let’s face it, this is when we’d all rather be at the beach, but there are still EOCTs, CRCTs, SLOs, and any number of acronyms looming on the horizon. And let’s not forget the actual intellectual development of our future (it’s a shame I put that one last).
So, let’s begin the countdown with #9–KAHOOT!
Kahoot is a website that you can use to create surveys and quizzes to engage the entire class in a little friendly competition–and inadvertently–review. Students use their smart phones or tablets, go to kahoot.it, and enter the PIN number of your quiz.
Students then create a nickname. “School-appropriate,” I strongly caution. While they’re logging in, I like to embed a short YouTube video for them to watch (see the tutorial).
The questions are projected onto the screen, students get a set amount of time to respond, and then the correct answer pops up. Students are scored on accuracy and speed.
And here’s the best part: the top five contenders’ names are projected on the screen at the end of each question. It’s only a quiz, but the kids are insanely engaged–they fight like crazy to get their names in the top five.
And so they learn.
How do you keep your students engaged during the “home-stretch?” Leave a comment below to let me know. And be sure to check out all of my Spring Survival Tips: 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
photo credit: 08.PearTrees.MadisonPark.HyattsvilleMD.6April2013 via photopin (license)
