4th & 5th Grade Crew // My Virtual Teaching Buddy: ClassKick

With all the changes that came with this school year, having aspects that worked well was really refreshing. One of those things for me was ClassKick. ClassKick is a website where “teachers can upload their own content or create something new–with drawings, text, images, audio, links, and videos to provide instruction or create assessments.” There wasn’t a day during this virtual school year that I did not use this website. In this blogpost, I’d like to highlight my favorite features and share why it worked so well for my crew and me. 

My top favorite feature of ClassKick is the ability to watch students work in real time. With students working from home this year, teachers had very little control over managing their attention and productivity. However, when using this website, in conjunction with our zoom meetings, I was able to monitor students more closely, offer feedback, and troubleshoot when necessary. 

My next favorite feature was the fact that the assignments on ClassKick were able to be seamlessly integrated into Google Classroom. Virtual teaching quickly taught me that too many links are overwhelming. With Google Classroom being our “home” for all student assignments, this feature added an extra layer of functionality to the school day. Students could log directly into their Google Classroom as they did every morning, and the assignments would already be linked. Because of this, students did not have to worry about remembering login information for an additional site. 

Lastly, I really enjoyed the ability to differentiate learning and teaching in ClassKick. Using features such as drawing, highlighting, typing, voice record, and external links, teaching did not feel monolithic. Students were able to showcase their learning and understanding in a variety of ways. This is not something that is typically easy to create in a traditional classroom, but with the features in ClassKick, differentiating was a much smoother process for both students and me. 

Moving forward, whether we are teaching and learning virtually, or not, ClassKick is one of those tools that will always be in my teacher toolkit!