Quality Professional Development, 10-1-14

I loved the fact that we have staff members so willing to share.  First, I want to thank eighth grade math teacher Marie Betten for showing the staff how to upload PowerPoints to Google drive and convert them to Google Slides while maintaining all of their style and functionality.  Eighth grade ELA teacher Dawn Medendorp's excitement was very evident in an email to me earlier this year.  This little "upload & convert" trick was first shared to her by our Director of Technology Lane White.  In a world of complicated and complex problems, it's amazing how one check box can make the world of difference between possible frustration and overwhelming excitement.  My second thanks goes out to sixth grade math teacher Stephanie Shaffer for her willingness to share how she has used Kahoot! in her class.  Kahoot! is a web based formative assessment tool that she used with Chromebooks in her classroom, but can also be used with student devices.  Once your account is created, not only can you create your own Kahoots, but there is a library of over 3,000 that have already been created by other teachers that you can favorite and use, or add them to your library to modify or edit.

• Teacher site to create account: https://getkahoot.com/
• Teacher site to login after creating an account: https://create.kahoot.it/
• Student site to play and enter game pin: kahoot.it

I'm looking forward to seeing how teachers in our building and others around the world are using Kahoot! in their classrooms.  Comment below or message me on Twitter or Google+ if you have used this tool in your classroom or have other great TechKnowledge that you would like to share.