Hooked on Kahoot!

It was really neat to see AHS teachers using Kahoot! during the NCED Cloud/Canvas PD yesterday. Hopefully everyone saw just how easy (and engaging) formative assessments can be. Kahoot!'s quick pace, suspenseful music, and instant scoreboards keep competition lively and learners engaged. Students will definitely ask to play again and again.

Kahoot! is one those tools that you can learn about today and use tomorrow...but if you need more help, click here a step-by-step guide. (I talked to a math teacher after school who already created one to use in class.) Teachers can use it for pre-assessments, during instruction, or at the end of a lesson to gauge understanding. 

Here's an idea: Your students can also benefit from creating their own Kahoot!s as a means of review. Students who truly understand topics should be able to craft meaningful wrong answers, too. Further, Kahoot! creation can work well as a component to a research project. Students or groups could present information and then Kahoot! the class. 

https://getkahoot.com/

Hey English Teachers! Check out Commonlit.org!

I recently stumbled upon what looks to be a jewel of site called Commonlit. It boasts that it is made by teachers for teachers. "COMMONLIT is a collection of poems, short stories, news articles, historical documents, and literature for classrooms."

In three simple steps, you can find thematic texts connected to an essential discussion question. Texts are sorted by grade level bands for 5th-12th grade, and also include the Lexile measure.

STEP 1: Choose a theme
There are several to select from, such as resilience, power & greed, and love.

STEP 2: Choose what they call a discussion question from within that theme. Most of themes I clicked on had two discussion questions.

STEP 3: Download the PDF versions of texts you are interested in using. The text selections I clicked on included text-based questions, discussion questions, and most had a text pairing guide for teachers. We all know that we have a range of readers in class, so I suggest looking through all the grade level options to see what will work best for your students.

It's online and free. Awesome. You don't even have to register for an account. Even more awesome. However, you can subscribe to get email updates. I hope you find some good stuff on there. Let me know how you use it! (Below is a screenshot of the homepage. The link is below the pic.)

http://www.commonlit.org/

Happy Reading,

Chandra

Pi Day!

Pi Day is March 14 (because 3.14....get it?!!!). This year's Pi Day is for the record books:

If you look at the date and time to have an ultimate Pi Day celebration, it lines up perfectly with the first 10 digits of Pi!

I've found some activities you can use in class (and you don't have to be a math teacher):

• TED-Ed video lesson: Mile of Pi
• NEA Math Resources
• Edutopia Classroom Resources
• Educannon Bulb

Mensa Foundation Educational Programs has some interesting cross-disciplinary resources:

• Pi Template
• Easy Pi Day Cupcakes Recipe
• Making Pi a Law (Pseudo Bill)
• Make Music Out of Pi
• Poetry and other Writing Activities using the TP-CASTT method to analyze

Excerpt of the Poem "Pi" by Wislawa Szymborska

The admirable number pi:

three point one four one.

All the following digits are also just a start,

five nine two because it never ends.

It can't be grasped, six five three five, at a glance,

eight nine, by calculation,

seven nine, through imagination,

or even tree two three eight in jest, or by comparison

four six to anything

two six four three in the world.

Every Teacher a Literacy Teacher with Technology Tools

Tina Webster has shared a great tech tools video! It describes 7 free online sites that support literacy instruction: Subtext, ActivelyLearn, EtherPad, HemingwayApp, StoryBird, GotBrainy, and Newsela. We have previously highlighted two of those sites on this blog. (I linked you to those again.) The blog and video provide more ideas and support for both students and teachers.

Click Here>>Please take some time to read and hear more about these resources.

#DLDay

Friday, March 13, 2015 is Digital Learning Day (search for #DLDay on Twitter to jump in ongoing conversation with educators about digital learning in their classrooms and schools). While we are all at different places on the digital continuum, please use this day for both you and your students to reflect and discuss the impact of technology on our educational lives. Digital Learning Day is about empowering students and teachers and increasing college and career readiness. It's certainly too be to confined to one day or one activity. Your #DLDay activity can take place next week or even next month!

Resources to explore from www.digitallearningday.org:

• Interactive Lesson Plans
• Online Resources
• Digital Tools

~Chandra