Stop Everything and Kahoot!

So What is a Kahoot?

Kahoot is an online, quick response, gameshow type experience for your kids. Using a variety of devices in your room, students can answer live question and answer sessions right from their desk. Kahoots are easy to create and facilitate. They have been used by millions of educators all over the world.

​To be honest, the best way to explain what a Kahoot is, is to show you. Please visit the Kahoot website, right now. Turn on the sound on the bottom right and just watch it.

​No. I'm serious. Go to that website. I'll wait.

Ok, now that you've gotten a small taste of what a Kahoot might be, here are the top ten reasons why I think you should use a Kahoot in your classroom this fall.

The Top 10 Reasons Why You Should be Using Kahoots in your Classroom

1. It's Really Fun: During a typical Kahoot, it is not uncommon to see victory dances, high fives and a chorus of "yessssss!" after each question. The kids love Kahoots and beg for more.
2. Super Easy to Set Up: They could not have made it easier to set up each Kahoot experience. Even tech novices should have no problem getting a Kahoot up and running in less than 15 minutes. I've shared step by step guides below to help.
3. Cross Platform: Does your school have ipads? Chromebooks? A computer lab? PCs? Macs? Whatever the hardware, you can host a Kahoot. Students can access each Kahoot through Kahoot.it, or the android app. If you have a teacher computer, an internet browser, a projector, and student devices, you are all set.
4. Full Class Participation: Whether introverted or extroverted, all students have an equal voice and all students are invited to participate. The all class engagement I have seen with Kahoots in my classroom have been hard to match.
5. Fun For All Ages: Kahoots are not just great for the classroom. Kahoots can be a great addition to professional development or be used as gaming experiences with friends and family. 
6. Ghosts!: Now with the new Ghost mode, students can compete against themselves.  Ghost mode allows users to compete against the results from past Kahoot performances. Can your class work together to beat your classroom score from earlier in the year? 
7. Scaleable: Whether you want to do a Kahoot with 2 children, 20 children, 200 children or 2000 children, the set up is the same. Assuming you have enough devices, hosting an all school Kahoot event is no more difficult than hosting one for a small group of kids.
8. The Cost: FREE! The fact that this entire program is free is just astounding to me. The quality of the program, the ease of use and the ability to totally customize each event make for a premium experience for your students at no cost to you.
9. Competitive: Kahoot taps into the competitive nature of children without letting it get out of hand. There seems to be just the right combination of suspense, accessibility, collaboration and healthy competition to make Kahoot the right choice for the classroom.
10. Rave Reviews: It seems like Kahoot is popping up every where in PreK-College education. Many organizations have great things to say about Kahoot.  Once you try it for yourself, you'll see why.

Teacher Tips

Try it Just Once: You need to try a Kahoot in your classroom just once early in the year. Maybe use a Kahoot to introduce yourself to the class or to quiz them on the procedures of your classroom. Whatever you do, try a Kahoot in the first weeks of school and I guarantee it will not be the last time you do. 

Get Some Help: Start by poking around the Kahoot website. Look to see what others have created, and then decide if you want to use or change them to make them your own. There are a lot of really great websites to help you with set up. There are plenty of youtube tutorials that I found helpful. Do yourself a favor and visit this website to see all the ways you can use this technology to bring learning to life in your classroom.

This is Not a Test: While I've heard of teachers using Kahoots as a formal assessment, I would discourage this. There are plenty of other tools out there to measure and record students’ academic performance. Turning this into test could kill some of the energy and excitement around the experience.

Pretest/Posttest: While I do not suggest using Kahoots as formal assessments, giving a quick Kahoot of content prior to a unit of study can provide a valuable snapshot of the students’ overall understanding of the content. Then, at the end of a unit, give the same assessment to compare overall performance. Using “Ghost Mode” for this will allow the students to try and beat their "less educated selves" and will hopefully increase confidence in their overall learning ability.

The Name Game: To start a Kahoot, each student is asked to enter their name, which will be displayed on the scoreboard. This can cause issues when students are sharing a device or when students may want to type an inappropriate name. Before they have the opportunity, I tell students to either enter their and their partners initials or to simply enter their Kindle’s number (each one of my kindles has a label with Helder1, Helder2, Helder3…). This speeds things up and gets you into your Kahoot quickly. If later in the year you want the kids to have fun with silly names, go for it. But I’d hold off for now.

Reinventing the Wheel: Don't feel like you have to create every Kahoot you use from scratch. There are over 8 million different Kahoots currently available online right now. I have found that for most subject areas, there is typically something out there that is already great or close to what I want. Though I use these quite a bit in my classroom, I rarely make my own. 

Tailor for the Perfect Fit: The vast majority of Kahoots are great, but not always appropriate or accurate. Before using any Kahoot with your kids, make sure to go through each question to ensure that each is:

• Age Appropriate: You’re the expert here. You know what your kids can handle. You may need to delete questions or change wording to make sure content is just right for your classroom.
• Error Free: I’ll admit that many Kahoots have typos and mistakes in them. You can choose to correct them and save your own copy of the Kahoot or use the mistakes as impromptu learning opportunities for your class.
• Alligned to Content: While wandering a bit from content covered in class is fine, the bulk of each Kahoot should probably allign with the standards you have covered in class.

2, 4, 6, 8, What Else Can We Integrate?: While you’re editing a Kahoot, think through what else you might integrate into the experience.

• Faith: How can the way we ask questions and approach content reflect our philosophy of education? Perhaps instead of asking “What do we call it when liquid water turns into water vapor?” we might ask “What is the name of the process where God uses heat to cause liquid water to become water vapor?” Sure this might be a small change, but I believe it’s important and that faith integration can and should occur during each kahoot experience.
• Humor: I think it’s fun to slip in inside jokes, clever memes, or goofy content occasionally. The kids will love you for it and will be more attentive if they think something like it will come up in the future. This is a great way to hook and connect with students.
• Other Content: Can you slip a question about non-fiction text structures into a science Kahoot? Is there a concept from Bible that can find it’s way into a social studies Kahoot? "Double dip" and work in connections to other content areas where possible. 

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Favorites: Within the Kahoot program, users can save their favorite Kahoots for later use. This is great for accessing them later. However, I have enough favorites that I’ve needed to start organizing them somehow. Renaming each Kahoot can help with this. I like to include the subject, unit and then lesson in the title. So if the Kahoot is originally named “Plant Life Cycle,” I suggest renaming it “Science - Plants - Life Cycle” to make it easier to find later. 

Sharing is Caring: Create and share Kahoots with colleagues. If you find something or make something great, tell your grade level team. A teacher on my team created both an Old Testament and New Testament review Kahoot that were fantastic. It took almost no effort on my part to bring them up and the kids loved them. 

Pair Up: Because I have a 2:1 Kindle Fire program in my classroom, the kids pair up and take turns. While some teachers prefer to have a device for every child, I think there is something so good about having to take turns, let go and work together. 

Get Some Help: If you don't have someone in your building who is using Kahoot, there are many really great websites to help you get started.  There are plenty of youtube tutorials that I found helpful. Do yourself a favor and visit this website to see all the ways you can use this technology to bring learning to life in your classroom. Finally, check out this pdf below for step by step instructions.

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