Kahoot

First off, Happy Columbus Day!

In 1492 

Columbus sailed the ocean blue

I have the day off today, so instead of making the Kahoot review for the 1st 9 weeks benchmark I decided to make a blog post explaining what Kahoot is and how to use it.

I first learned about Kahoot from my least favorite professor in college, so I was very skeptical about it at first. After getting to play with it, it is by far my favorite classroom technology to use (and the kids love it too).

What is Kahoot?
Kahoot is an online quiz that you can make, or borrow from other users. Students can either download the app, or go to Kahoot.it and enter the game pin. They then pic a user name (if it's inappropriate you can remove them from the quiz).

How to play
Each question has a time limit and students answer by picking the colored tile that corresponds to their answer choice. Whoever answers first correctly wins the most points. The game keeps track of everything and you can even save the results at the end of the quiz. I like this because it's a competition so it motivates my students to get involved. Just a little side note, to increase competition and further motivate students it's also a good idea to bring small treats for your winners. Secret teacher rule #1 always have a bag of fun size candy hidden somewhere in your room for occasions such as this.

Creating an account
To access the site as a teacher, you need to go to getkahoot.com. Making an account is easy, all you need is an email address. I always use my personal email account, mostly because I made all these things when I was still in college, but also because if I ever move districts, or get married then my school email changes and then I lose all the stuff I had stored on that account. From there, you can either search for quizzes made by other users, or make your own.

Making your own
After you sign in, it redirects you to your profile page. Now I've only messed with making quizzes, I have no idea about the discussions or surveys. That might be a later blog post when I've had time to investigate, or you guys could investigate and tell me how it works in the comments. If you're ever searching through Kahoot and decide that you have to make one right then and there, at the very top left there is a purple button that says New Kahoot which will take you into making your own quiz.
Once you have your idea, it's time to create! You have to have a quiz title, a description (use lots of #), maybe include some pictures and then make some questions. I always recommend adding your own pictures, so that way there's no extra distractions, or to add a diagram that goes with the question.

Searching for other user quizzes
At the very top of the page in the gray bar there's something that says Public Kahoots. Click on it and it takes you to any Kahoot that has been made that isn't marked private. There's also a handy search bar so you don't have to scroll all through the 10.3 million some odd quizzes on your own. JUST MAKE SURE YOU FAVORITE  THE ONES YOU WANT TO USE so you can find it later (in my favorites).

Hope I made that easy enough for everyone to follow. If not, Kahoot also has great tutorial videos to watch. Thanks for reading and happy teaching!