Teacher of the week - Cathy Yenca: How to make high-quality kahoots

Summary

In this video, Kathy Yanka, a math teacher from Austin, Texas, shares her creative process behind designing Kahoot quizzes. She emphasizes the importance of aligning questions with learning standards and utilizing released assessment questions for inspiration. Yanka values creating visuals using tools like Apple's Keynote and Desmos, while carefully crafting questions and engaging distractors. Her approach focuses on fostering a fun, emotional learning journey for students, and she hopes other educators enjoy the experience just as much in their classrooms. Her work reflects a passion for both teaching and content creation.

Takeaways

• 😀 The Kahoot creation process starts with identifying a learning standard that allows for questioning and scaffolding to help students understand the concept.
• 😀 Released assessment questions are explored to understand how others assess student understanding and to inspire new ways of teaching.
• 😀 The creator considers whether they can ask leading questions to gradually build students' understanding of the concept.
• 😀 Visuals for the Kahoot are mainly created using Apple Keynote and Desmos for graphs.
• 😀 Questions are written thoughtfully, often including strategic and humorous distractors to engage students.
• 😀 The Kahoot creator imagines how students will react, aiming to create an emotional and fun learning journey rather than tricking them.
• 😀 Content creation is viewed as a creative outlet, with the creator enjoying spending hours designing a single Kahoot.
• 😀 The creator hopes that other teachers will use their Kahoots and experience the same joy in watching students' emotional learning journeys.
• 😀 The Kahoots are designed to provide fun, engaging, and meaningful educational experiences for students globally.
• 😀 Kathy Yanka, the teacher in question, teaches math in Austin, Texas and uses this creative process to enhance the learning experience in her classroom.

Q & A

What is the first step in Kathy Yanka's Kahoot creation process?

The first step is starting with a learning standard, preferably one where questioning and scaffolding can help lead students to understanding.

Why does Kathy Yanka explore released assessment questions?

She explores released assessment questions to consider how others may have assessed student understanding of the concept, and to help her think about taking a few steps back from the standard.

What kind of questions does Kathy Yanka aim to ask in her Kahoots?

She aims to ask leading questions that might help build up to understanding the concept at hand.

Which tools does Kathy Yanka use to create visuals for her Kahoots?

She uses Apple's Keynote and Desmos for creating graphs and visuals.

How does Kathy Yanka approach the design of questions in her Kahoots?

She writes her own questions and often considers strategic and humorous distractors. She imagines how students will react during the quiz.

What is Kathy Yanka's goal in designing her Kahoots?

Her goal is not to trick the students but to create a fun and emotional learning journey.

How does Kathy Yanka describe content creation for Kahoots?

She describes content creation as a creative outlet, often spending hours on a single Kahoot.

What does Kathy Yanka hope for other teachers who use her Kahoots?

She hopes that other teachers enjoy using her Kahoots and have just as much fun watching students on their emotional learning journey as she does in her own classroom.

Where does Kathy Yanka teach, and what subject does she teach?

Kathy Yanka teaches math in Austin, Texas.

Why does Kathy Yanka enjoy creating Kahoots?

She enjoys it because it allows her to be creative and craft a learning experience that is both engaging and fun for students.