Technology Spotlight - Kailey Shin, Richland Northeast High School

Ms. Shin attended a professional development conducted by Sharon Owens, the Technology and Learning Coach for Richland Northeast High School on using Kahoot! as a means of engaging students and formative assessment. She was excited to try this with her Algebra 1 Part 2 students. The Kahoot! lesson was on transformations in the coordinate plane. It was a pre-assessment to her student's knowledge of the topic as her class is working on HSAP review. 100% of her students participated. The students who answered correctly high-fived other students. It was exciting to see their interaction with others and listen to the comments the students made as they saw which students moved up in the scoreboard.

Kailey Shin was born in Canada and moved to Michigan when she was 5 years old. She received her degree from Michigan State University with a Major in Math, a Minor in Physics, and also completed her teaching certification through their Teacher Ed program. She moved to North Carolina after she graduated. She taught for 4 years in North Carolina and moved to South Carolina this past summer. This is her first year teaching at Richland Northeast High School.

Technology Spotlight - Mary Allen, Summit Parkway Middle School

Recently, Kahoot! has spread across the district as a great formative assessment tool. Kahoot! is a game-based student response system. Mary Allen at Summit Parkway Middle School started using Kahoot! after it was shared but the school-level Technology and Learning Coach, Sally Wilson. 

Ms. Allen's began using the web site with her students and after posting her quiz, Cartoon Science. The co-founder of Kahoot!, Jamie Brooker emailed her letting her know the quiz was added to the feature quiz list on the site.  The quiz was used to introduce Kahoot to her classes. She wanted something fun, yet science related, to get them interested and excited about this new tool. 

Since the introduction, students have used Kahoot! to create their own quizzes about animals. They have played these quizzes as a whole group during each class period. Students get very competitive and all are actively learning and participating. Ms. Allen's newest assignment with Kahoot! is for students to give a presentation about animal adaptations. At the end of presentation, they must give the class a Kahoot! quiz.  This will ensure that all students are paying attention to the information given by their classmates.

What are students saying about Kahoot!?

Jamal says, "I like Kahoot because it is fun and challenging."
Maryah was asked why she likes using Kahoot and she said, "I like Kahoot because it is competitive and you can ask the person with the high score questions about the subject."
Zion  states, "I think Kahoot makes your reflexes faster."
"It's a fun way to take a quiz and it challenges you," says Ethan.
David says, "I like using Kahoot because it is fun and it tests your skills and checks to see if you know the information."

Every time Ms. Allen introduces new technology resources into the classroom, students get excited.  "It's fun to watch students explore with these tools and apply them to gaining science knowledge.  Kahoot allows students to demonstrate their knowledge of information in a non-threatening, risk free environment.  It's both fun and informational and a great way to informally assess student understanding."