Using Mentimeter for Interactive Learning

Trying out a new tool!
https://www.mentimeter.com/

I wanted to engage my students in some interactive thinking using our 1:1 chromebooks, and thought I'd try out a new (to me) tool called Mentimeter! I like to think of Mentimeter as an enhanced, interactive version of Power Point. You can create slides with classroom content on them and save the presentations connected with your free account (it's as easy as 'sign up using Google'). However, don't expect it to look fancy. The slides don't have as many visual bells and whistles as Microsoft Power Point or Google Slides. They have recently added themes, but you have to upgrade for other background options and customization. I stick with the free version. I am a teacher, after all.😁

That being said, what you can expect from Mentimeter is a variety of interactive opportunities that really engage kids! It's super easy for kids to log in. And I think the simplicity of the page works well in a classroom. A couple of the interactive tools I've tried are listed below.

Open Ended: I've used this a couple times to collect discussion questions and reading notes. By sharing the results on the ProBoard, students could respond to another student's question in their quick write.

Word Cloud: I used this to brainstorm before beginning a new writing unit. We set a timer and added all the things we could remember about informational writing. The words that came up most often are shown larger in the word cloud.

What did I learn? 

• Make sure to check the box that allows students to submit more than one response (if that's what you want).
• You cannot trace a student's response back to the student since they do not have linked accounts. However, we had a nice discussion about the appropriateness of adding "butt" to our word cloud. 😒

There are plenty of other interactive features. I hope to try out the polling and voting presentations soon. Please give it a try and share your experience with us!