By Olivia Short ’17

Studying is most effective if you have fun while doing it. And even better when you get to beat the pants off your classmates in head-to-head competition, right? This is exactly why the Spanish students have begun to use Kahoot: an interactive study game that is played on the iPad through the address kahoot.it. In a Kahoot game, each student can choose her own nickname– emojis included. (Favorites of A2 Spanish being the dog, the salsa dancer, and the basketball.) The next step is to answer multiple choice questions written by the teacher. Players earn their points based on the accuracy and speed of their answers. The cool part is that after every question, each student gets to see her place on the leaderboard. You get to see exactly what place you’re in, and how close your score is to other students in the game. Tay Sauer ’17 enjoys the competetive thrill of Kahoot, saying “[I LIKE IT] BECAUSE I CRUSH PEOPLE LIKE BUGS AND THEY SEE IT ON THE LEADERBOARD AS A CONSTANT REMINDER OF THEIR FAILURES”

There’s also a live feed of the Top 5 players in the class, which takes normal Spanish vocab review and transforms it into total bloodsports.

Olivia “big rat” Short ’17 is announced as the winner of fellow sophomore Maddie Scherpenberg’s Kahoot game.

Anyone can make a Kahoot account, too! All features are available for free at create.kahoot.it. You can make a variety of multiple choice questions with up to 4 answer choices. You can also add your own photos to each individual question; Ms. Mullen chose to upload stock photos and have us choose the corresponding Spanish reflexive verb. Kahoot isn’t just limited to teachers, either, Maddie Scherpenberg ’17 made one to give a unique edge to her Church History project. Not only did the class have fun, but we retained the information better. Kahoot is a great way to distinguish your projects!